Alright, so you’d normally be sat there in Subway eating your 6 inch, during lunch, chatting to your mates (hopefully not during Ramadan though). The conversation will swing from how potentially awful your next lecture will be to what you shenanigans you got up to last night. But hang on a minute. Give this a thought. Where would you be had the Quran not been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad SWS 1400 years ago?
Would your subway be packed with a different filling? Would you even be sat there in that place talking to your mates? Would you even have mates? Would Subway even exist? Many of us don’t even realise how much the Quran governs our everyday lives. It features in everything we do from what we eat to how we go to the bathroom!
Each and every Muslim believes the Quran to be the word of Allah revealed to the prophet Muhammad SWS by the Angel Jibriel (Gabriel). It acts as the final testament to the long line of Prophets that Allah has sent down to mankind consolidating what we must do to attain our Lords pleasure. A mercy, a blessing, a constant reminder of our true destiny, our duties, our rewards and our punishments.
” And if We willed We could withdraw that which We have revealed (I.e. this Quran) to you, then would you find no guardian for you against us in respect of it. (It is nothing) save mercy from your Lord. His kindness to you was ever so great.” (Surah 17- Bani Israel Ayah 86-87)
For some of us the contemplation of not having such a thing is heart stopping. For other Muslims we may have an idea since the Quran has only recently touched our lives. Some people may think: “Right, so if the Quran was never revealed I wouldn’t be Muslim. So what? I wouldn’t be praying 5 times a day. I wouldn’t be fasting. Paying Zakat and making Hajj.” But the importance of the Quran goes deeper than that.
The Quran gives us a guiding light. This world is simply too vast to navigate without a map.
You wake up, get dressed and go out to work. You earn some money and later use the rest of the day to spend it. The cycle then repeats itself. You live for the moment because you know no better. Without the Quran we would all be blissfully ignorant.
This final revelation provides us with set morals and values. Simply put as what is haram and what is Halal. What is good and what is bad. Without that there would be anarchy. Many people who come to Islam realise this as they look for solid guidelines that don’t change. A cure (Shifa) for the heart and mind. The disease, being today’s increasingly harsh society.
As human beings we have duties to one another. To our parents, our spouses, our children and even to the annoying neighbours down the street, who keep you awake at 2am with their 80’s karaoke (such cringe worthy tunes like Baby hit me one more time and We are the Champions pictured here). Again the Quran come in giving us not only rules for character (Adhab) but we can find so many examples during the times of the Prophets where people went wrong. So we may be able to reflect from them and not learn the hard way.
So whilst you decide what else you may have in your Subway (extra olives?) if you weren’t Muslim - look a bit deeper. Where would you truly be? A bit lost for thought? Lost for words perhaps?
Well this is where we would be without the Quran. Truly Lost!
March 13th, 2008 at 11:53 am
who wrote this?