When in Rome be like a Roman-When in Islam read like an Arab
Why are human beings so hard to please? The sense of curiosity in the human mind seems to be bundled up in a layer of insecurity and the fear of wading into new waters. You show a monkey a banana and it will scoop it up within seconds. It wouldn’t care if it’s Short Red type or a Long Green Type as long as it is edible. In contrast a human would critically question the engine capacity and performance of two identical vehicles before going ahead with his or her choice of mobility.
Human beings are intellectually driven which make them look for telling signs to ascertain their sense of direction. This simple principle bore truth from the hunter who associated a broken twig with the trail of his prey to the man who looked for a divine sign before determining his ideology of belief.
It is for this reason that Allah (SWT) presented each of his messengers with a miracle in order to enhance the sense of belief in his servants.
The miracle of Moses was to save his people from imminent death at the hands of the Pharaoh’s army by parting the Nile by means of his staff. Nuh (Noah PBUH) was blessed with the knowledge to build the ark despite living in a barren land where people hardly set sail. Sulaiman (Solomon PBUH) could speak to the animals and control the supernatural beings while Yusuf (Joseph PBUH) could interpret dreams of complex nature. Easa (Jesus PBUH) spoke during infancy and gave life to the dead and the un-exhaustive list goes on.
When each messenger of God was blessed with a phenomenon which the human sight bore witness to, what miracle did the last and final messenger Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) perform? He the Prophet could not give life to dead, couldn’t cure the blind nor could he speak to the animals in their own tongue. In fact Muhammad PBUH was illiterate as testified in the very message that was revealed unto him.
For if Muhammad could read and write, mischief makers would have cast doubt on the credibility of the message which he testified to as God’s own word with no mortal influence in any of its syllables. Instead, Allah (SWT) made the prophet his own mouthpiece whilst maintaining Archangel Gibrael (Gabriel) as Muhammad PBUH’s teleprompter. This is evident from the very first words revealed to the Prophet as:
Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists),
He has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood)
Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous,
Who has taught (the writing) by the pen.
Certainly, the miracle of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH was the Glorious Qur’an, a book of guidance with no literary match, revealed to him by God himself in stages. If people began to believe is Jesus PBUH upon seeing him curing the blind then many thousands of pagans, intellectuals and bitter enemies of Islam began to ratify their belief in Allah and his Final Prophet by proclaiming the Shahadah on hearing the profound recitation of the Arabic Qur’an.
The noteworthy point here is that the miracle of the Qur’an does not lie in its many translations; rather it is intertwined in the language which God chose for its revelation – Arabic.
The translations of the Qur’an may capture a single dimension of the spirit of Qur’an, but it in no way can compensate the divinity locked up in its pristine Arabic form. We the Muslims of today have the miracle of all miracles safely tucked in our vaults and perched in high shelves aloof from our daily doings. If the sense of sight was the link between the divine sign and its comprehension for the prophets in the Pre Muhammad Era, we the Muslims of today have blinded ourselves to the miraculous Qur’an by closing our eyes to the study of the Arabic language.
It was the Qur’an recited in the Arabic language that transformed a raging Umar into a sage. People who knew nothing of the Arabic language continue enter Islam in scores by merely letting their ear drums to resonate with the words of the Qur’an and the Muslims call for prayer – The Adhan. This is indeed the promise of Allah apparent in front of our very own eyes.
It is time for us Muslims to earn our sight back and it does not come free. Many labourious hours need to be invested to learn the Arabic language in the dialect of the Qur’an in order to enhance our understanding of Islam and spiritual connection with Allah (SWT). The following lecture by Bro Nouman Ali Khan encouraged me with a new found zeal to seek the miracle of the Qur’an in my personal life and I beg you to spend 60 minutes of your busy time to give ear to this lecture in order to achieve sight to your intellect!
