Distinguishing Features of the Qur'an

By: Abdullah Adiyar
Every religious book has its own singularity. The Vedas is the most respected book for the Hindus.
The Old and the New Testaments are, in fact, man-written biographies of two Prophets---Moses and Christ. The religious books are mostly either hymns in praise of God sung by religious persons or a tale of the circumstances in which the Prophet spent their days.
Quite contrary, the Quran was neither written by the Prophet nor is it just a collection of hymns in praise of God. It is not a book of history. It is the revered book inscribed by Allah in a 'tablet--preserve.' The Archangel Gabriel revealed it on Muhammad (PBUH). That is why Muslims believe that it is not a book written rather a book revealed.
The book has a number of distinguishing qualities. Its diction and rhythm has been a source of delight to me. Have words got any sacrosancity? Yes, they have. Sound is the basis of the word.
The Vedas says that the world was created with the word 'Om'. The Bible says that first of all there was the word of God, the world was created there after. The Quran combines the tenor of the finest prose with that of the poetic qualities. The Quran represents the sound of the musical word of the best prose and the best poetry is Arabic--in any language in fact.
Is its literary beauty unparallel? This question may be raised today as it was raised at the time of revelation. The Quran answered by throwing a challenge on its critics to bring a book or even a verse like that of Quran. The challenge remains un-met to this day. None has succeeded in this effort. The Quran tells the Prophet :
To thee have We granted the
Fountain (of blessings in abundance).
Therefore to thy Lord turn in prayer
And offer sacrifice in His name. For he who hates
thee.
Shall himself be cut off (from future hope). (108:1-3)
Each and every verse of this book is full of beauty and wisdom. At the time or revelation, some noted Arabic poets tried their best to match its grandeur but failed miserably and later accepted their failure. "This cannot be human word," they had to admit.
"Say if the whole of mankind and
Jinns were to gather together to produce
The like of the Quran they could not produce
The like thereof, efven if they backed up each
Others with help and support. (17:88).
We find in Quran different names for this revelation, which reveal great meanings and deep realities. The Quran calls itself The Only Book, the Rope of Allah, The Light, The Guidance, The Cure, The Judge, The Wisdom, The Message, The Spirit, The Boon, The Truth, The Glorious, The Wonderful, The Bearer of Glad Tidings etc. These and other names in Arabic are Al-Kitab, Al-bayan, Al-Noor, Al-Huda, Al-Shifa, Al-Zikra, Al-Haqq, Al-Furqan, Al-Azeez, Al-Rooh, Al-Hakim, Al-Majeed, Al-Kareen, Al-Ajeeb etc.,
Moreover, the Quran means the most recited book. Yes, infact it is the most recited book on earth.

THE UNLETTERED PROPHET
The man who first recited from this God---revealed book was unlettered (Ummi as in the Qur'an). He had no formal education.
Unlettered persons are not unwise nor do they necessarily lack the power of understanding. The unlettered Arabs possessed amazingly strong memory.
Persons who memorise a verse after hearing it once or twice or thrice are variously praised in Tami8l literature. But the unlettered Arabs were capable of memorising hundreds of verses and reproducing them without a pause.
Not restricted to poetry, we come across people having wonderful mathematical brain. There are some who can multiply, for example, 214x314 in a fraction of a minute. Many Arabs used to memorise long genealogical tables, though they were unlettered.
Muhammad (PBUH), though unlettered had a very strong memory and an exceptionally intelligent mind. That is how he correctly preserved in his memory the revealed verses. He was helped by God in this task. His Companions memorised. (and wrote) the revelation for posterity. Today we wonder when we hear the Quran memorised by persons who are totally illiterate and blind even.
To commit the whole of the Quran to memory is just a miracle---possible only with the help of God.
The Arabs of those days are generally called ignorant, illiterate, unwise, uncultured and those who reveled in murder and destruction. But, in fact, this is not the whole truth. The Arabs had exactly the same vices and virtues as had the people of other countries more than a thousand years ago. Though unlettered the Arabs had an edge over the people of other countries because of their exceptional memory. Only formal education does not make a man enlightened.
Demonstration of ignorance has been frequent in the literate world.
---Men were beheaded inside the forts and their heads were hanged.
---Men were trampled under the heavy feet of elephants.
---Men were crucified, buried alive, drowned in lime, thrown before hungry lions.
The pages of history are full of such scenes from Rome to Tamil Nadu. Were the Arabs really more ignorant? In fact, they are falsely alleged to be so. It is said that the Prophet was tortured by the Arabs. But were the people of Madina not Arabs. They staked their lives for him and fought on war-fronts under his command.
The revolutionary task of removing the idols from K'aba and eliminating idol-worship was accomplished by the Arabs under Muhammad's (PBUH) leadership.
Had such a great revolution taken place in India, China or any other part of the world fourteen centuries ago? Can we think of the same loyalty and support from the public as the Arabs demonstrated? When we judge Arabs from this angle we are convinced of their greatness.
The greater part of Arab peninsula comprises desert. When I think of the Arabs and their revolution an ocean of respect flows in my heart and I salute them.

A LIVING BOOK IN A LIVING LANGUAGE
There lies a great difference between the Vedas, the Bible, other religious books and the Quran.
The four Vedas are in Sanskrit. Literally, Sanskrit means a new language.. But if we accept the theory that the Vedas were given to man since the dawn of the world then these must have been in some other languages and the Sanskrit version can be nothing more than a translation. On the other hand the Quran was revealed in the Arabic language which is a living language to this day and is available to us without the minutest change.
Look at the Torah. It was compiled by the Israelis many hundred years after its revelation. In fact, it was revealed upon Prophet Moses in Hebrew.It was compiled much later and then lost. Only the Latin and the Greek translations were available. It was then translated into the Hebrew language from the Latin and Greek copies of it. The result of such repeated translations can be easily imagined.
Recent researches bear out that the scrolls found in some cave near Dead Sea are only a few disjointed parts of the Bible.
The only Book that remained fully free from any mutilation by translation is the Quran.
The original book revealed to Christ was in a dialect of the semitic language. But it was first compiled much later in Greek, then translated into Latin and rendered into other languages afterward. So the Bible too is not available to us in its original language but in translation. The Quran is preserved in the language of its revelation.
There is one more point of distinction.
• The Vedas were written in Sanskrit and not in its original language. Sanskrit is not a lingua franca anywhere.
• The language of the Torah--Hebrew--was not the lingua franca for centuries. (It is only now that the state of Israel is compelling its people to learn Hebrew).
• Likewise, the language of Christ or the language of Buddha is no more language of the people today.
Almost all the languages in which the religious books were originally revealed are today nearly dead languages. The Quran alone is in a living language. Furthermore, the four Vedas, the Torah, the Bible, and the book of Buddha were compiled years after the death of the persons to whom those were revealed. The Quran on the other hand was handwritten and arranged simultaneously according to the instruction of the Prophet on whom it was revealed. He was very meticulous about it. He personally supervised the work. After his passing away the first Caliph, Hazrat Abu Bakr, collected the different scrolls and gave it the form of a book. The Companions of the Prophet were specially sensitive in the matter of its perseverance and were extremely scrupulous in this task. They wrote down the revealed portion on some pieces of animal skin or on some other objects and recited them before the Prophet. The Quran thus is the book compiled carefully and meticulously in the living presence of the Prophet himself on whom it was revealed.

THE NEVER-HIDDEN BOOK
The Quran is the only book which has all along remained intact and accessible, never concealed or contaminated. It contains the revealed verses only.
Hymns from the mortal men are now part of the Vedas. The history of the sons of Israel and the stories of the greatness of the Prophets have been interpolated in the Torah.
The Bible now includes the history as well as the sermon of the Prophet and those of the other reformers. The Quran alone bears the revelation from God. We find in it historical episodes to awaken man from slumber, to warn and admonish him, to reform him; and also the sermon and parables full of wisdom and thought, but all from God. Nothing was added to it even by the Prophet.
The sayings, deeds and sermons of the Prophet were compiled separately. It never mingled with the Quran. Therefore, the Quran remains exclusively the word of God.
In India the religious books have generally been the exclusive presence of an exclusive class of Brahmins, Acharyas and Bhikshus etc. One of the meanings of the word Vedas is 'to conceal'-- one that should be concealed from the people. In fact, the word of God should be for everyone, for everyone to read and memorise -- without any discrimination. The Quran is the only book easily accessible to everyone, the only bookordained to be read and disseminated in every society without any discrimination, the only book memorised by hundreds and thousands of Hafiz in the four corners of the world.
History tells us that some people were punished for reading or even hearing the Vedas, while the Quran directs the people to read it and declares that even hearing it being recited is rewarding. History tells us that Ramanuja was tortured near the Temple of Thromkottiyu (Tamil Nadu) for the crime of reading the Vedas.
The Quran, on the other hand, teaches to carry its message to each and everyone so that people may seek guidance from it.
Adishankar, the commentator of the Vedas, was subjected to social boycott at the time of his mother's death. On the other hand Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph, was bestowed with the honorific of 'Babul-ilm,' (the gateway of knowledge), for reciting the Quran by heart. The Quran stresses that the Book of Allah is for the whole mankind and everyone should go through it to obtain guidance. Thus the Quran has been saved from being lost. Arabic, the language of Quran, is spoken by over 200 million people from Morocco to Iraq. The Quran has immortalised the language.
Some religious books contain unnecessary details which ultimately create more complexities, while other religious books do not discuss man and its real problems, but present just a philosophical quagmire. While the former bind men into shackles the latter make them licentious.
The Quran has got a unique place among the religious books. Along with the basic faith and views enshrined in it, it carries the laws and limitations prescribed by God, and prohibits to cross them. After defining the limitations and explaining the faith it leaves human thought and action free to work in harmony with Quran.
Thus, the Quran is the only book that grants us freedom of thought and action. Paying tribute to the Prophet, his Companions proclaimed that they never found a better person that him to seek advice from when they most needed it.
We see that the religious books are helping the hands of rulers, landlords and those who are strong suppressing the poor and the weak. But the Quran is the only book that helps the poor. It asks to restrict and hold the tyrants. So without a bit of exaggeration it can well be said that the Quran is the charter of freedom, a Magna Carta of human liberty.

THE MAGNA CARTA OF MANKIND
Generally the religious books claim that they take men closer to God, but what we see in practices is that they take them closer to kings, landlords and priests, and compel them to bow before them. Those are such books that handcuff them and make them helpless. Rulers were honoured with titles of Avtar, representatives and shade of God. Some books carry the message of liberty, but in words only. Then failed to emancipate man from slavery of man. On the other hand, the Quran repeatedly asks man to refrain from obeying and worshipping 'man'. It prohibits to invoke other men. The Quran reiterated it so forcefully taht the idea spread like blood in the veins of its followers. The Quran has, thus, centred aoll obedience, supplication and worship to One Allah. This teaching and its practice in real life brought a sea change. It ended man's rule over man as well as the excesses and oppressions. It removed all barries from human thought and development. Man got real and full freedom. Human ego awakened. Darkness disappeared and a new light dazzled the surrounding.
A freshening spring descended on the valley of human thought andman began to breathe freely. The book that earned the exemplary success in removing man's subjugation to man was none other than the Quran.
Mankind never came across a better manifesto for itself. A manifesto, greater than the Magna Carta, is the Quran. This manifesto helped in breaking the shackles of the slaves. It helped in demolishing the cult of discrimination and bringing mankind into an array of equality. This manifesto addresses man as human beings and tells them;
O mankind! We created
You from a single (pair) of a male
And a female, and made you into
Nations and tribes, that
Ye may know each other
(Not that you may despise
Each other). Verily
The most honoured of you
In the sight of Allah
Is (he who is ) the most
Righteous of you. (Quran49:13)
The Book declared that the mankind is a family. All racial and tribal discriminations were uprooted.
Man is born free. All men deserve equal treatment and equal rights. The Quran granted them all that man deserves, but it never allowed them to turn irresponsible after getting their rights. It asked them to fear Allah and only Allah. Creating in them the fear of Allah alone it asked them to bow only before the divine law.
The Quran turned men into a brave, respectable and honourable being by teaching and training them to stand steadfastly and fearlessly against oppressive rulers, exploiters; and in the face of death, poverty, disease and loss of life and property.
The Arabs of the desert were engaged in infighting and tribal wars. The air of culture had not touched them. This Book taught them manners, civilised them, gave them the wisdom and insight and courage to rule the world. This Book turned them into heroes. I can proclaim unhesitatingly that this tremendous transformation was the outcome of the revolutionary teachings of the Quran.
At every step this Book had enthused its followers to hold strongly the scale of justice and to never waver from righteousness. To those who leave the path of justice it warns of the punishment in the Hereafter. It asks its followers to stand firmly on the side of justice even if it goes against their own relatives. The result of these teachings is spread over the pages of human history in the form of shining examples of dispensation of justice during Islamic rule. The Quranic society is firmly based on the foundation of freedom, equality and justice.
There are many more unique features of this Book. Many religious books call man's life a sin and therefore encourages to escape from it and live an ascetic life. The Quran, on the other hand, calls that 'man' is the finest creation of God. It highlights man's obligations and gives respect to man's deeds. It exhorts man to fully discharge all human obligations which will respect and never advocates escape from it. It tells that struggle is the essence of life.
---A book with such distinguishing characters is definitely Al-Kitab (the Only Book).
---A book loaded with such blessings is definitely the Holy Book.
---A book leading man to such heights is beyond doubt the Great Book.