METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN
by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein
CHAPTER SIX
The verses of the Qur’ān are
like the stars in the sky
“And we have surely adorned the lowest sky with lamps …”
(Qur’ān, al-Mulk, 67:5)
The Qur’ān, directs our attention to the stars above and informs us that they were placed in the sky as an adornment and in order to beautify the sky:
”
“Behold, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with the beauty of stars.”
(Qur’ān, al-Saffāt, 37:6)
But it is part of the divine wisdom with which He teaches methodology for the study of the Qur’ān, that he has described those very stars in the sky above as lamps:
“And, indeed, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lamps, and have made them the object of futile guesses for the evil ones [i.e., astrologers]: and for them have We readied suffering through a blazing flame.”
(Qur’ān, al-Mulk, 67:5)
The reason why He has described the stars as lamps is because they have an important additional function to perform, since Allah Most High has put them there so that they can be used to locate direction:
“And He it is who has set up for you the stars so that you might be guided by them (for direction, for example, when travelling) in the midst of the deep darkness of land and sea: clearly, indeed, have We spelled out these messages unto people of [innate] knowledge!”
(Qur’ān, al-An’ām, 6:97)
Rivers and mountains, like stars in the sky, also assist in the same matter of providing a sense of direction:
“And he has placed firm mountains on earth, lest it sway with you, and rivers and paths, so that you might find your way,
“as well as [various other] means of orientation: for [it is] by the stars that men find their way.”
(Qur’ān, al-Nahl, 16:15-16)
In order for the stars to function as lamps with which we can locate direction for travel, or direction of the Qiblah (i.e., direction of prayer), it is necessary for us to first study how they are inter-connected and how they combine to form a whole. We must carefully study the stars to grasp the ‘big picture’, and only then can we read our present location and find the desired direction. Indeed there is an entire branch of knowledge known as astronomy, and one part of astronomy is devoted to the study of the stars. For thousands of years before the modern telescope was invented, numerous civilizations achieved great sophistication in this branch of knowledge through which stars became lamps.
Simple common sense is enough for us to recognize that if we look at only one star, or just a few stars, without a knowledge of the big picture that emerges from a study of the totality of stars, we can make mistakes when selecting direction.
It is this very lesson in methodology that Allah Most High has taught at the very beginning of the Qur’ān when He declared that all the angels obeyed His order to them to prostrate before Ādam (a) except Iblīs (i.e.Satan). It was because of methodology that the sentence was divinely-constructed like this, since wrong methodology of studying a verse in isolation (or standalone) would inevitably lead to the conclusion that Iblīs was an angel. When, on the other hand, we use the right methodology of studying the totality of the data in the Qur’ān, we find that Iblīs was not an Angel, and could not have been an Angel, but, rather, was a Jinn.
It is indeed very strange that so many scholars of Islam in a modern age which has already witnessed the return of the Israelite Jews to Holy Jerusalem to reclaim that town as their own, have failed to recognize the presence of Gog and Magog in the Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance which has brought about that momentous return. They have made the elementary mistake of remaining fixated on one solitary Hadīth which they misunderstand to declare that Gog and Magog will be released into the world only after the return of the true Messiah, Nabī ‘Isa (Jesus (a), the son of the virgin Mary. In doing so, they have ignored the Qur’ān which declares that it explains all things, and hence must explain that momentous return.
to be continued .....
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