The Word ‘Qur’an’ means a ‘Recitation’

  

The Qur'an and The Moon

Divine Methodology for Monthly Recitation of the Qur'an 

 

CHAPTER ONE

The Word ‘Qur’an’ means a ‘Recitation’

 

The Torah is the ‘name’ of the revealed scripture that was sent down to Moses, i.e., Nabi Musa pbuh; similarly the Zabur is the name given to the revealed scripture that was sent down to David, i.e., Nabi Daud pbuh, and the name Injil, or Gospel, was given to the revealed scripture sent down to Jesus, i.e., Nabi ‘Isa pbuh. These revealed scriptures all have ‘names’, but the very last revealed scripture which was sent down to Nabi Muhammad pbuh, was simply named as Qur’an—which means a ‘recitation’. 

 

In addition, the first word to be revealed in the Qur’an was the Divine command:  iqra “Recite”.

 

Since the Qur’an was sent to people who ‘think’, all of mankind have a duty to ‘think’ in order to understand this unusual choice of a name. Why was this scripture simply called ‘a recitation’? Why was the command: ‘recite’, the first word revealed in it? 

 

Our answer to the above question is that there is a Divine wisdom at work in the choice of the name which establishes an imperative that this unique last Divine scripture to mankind is meant, first of all, to be recited. 

 

Our further view is that since we have a primary duty to recite the Qur’an, the implication is that we cannot truly study the Qur’an unless we are continuously reciting it. Recitation comes first! Study comes after!

 

There are certain preliminaries for reciting the Qur’an which are well-known and need not be mentioned except briefly. For example, we must seek protection with Allah Most High from Satan the accursed before reciting the Qur’an (al-Nahl, 16:98); the Qur’an must be recited with Tartil, i.e., melodiously (al-Muzammil, 73:4); we must listen attentively when others are reciting the Qur’an (al-‘Araf, 7:204). But, more importantly, we must always remain conscious of the fact that Allah Most High has sent down in the Qur’an that which can heal, and which can thus both protect our health, as well as restore our health when we fall prey to the great dangers to physical, moral and spiritual health that will pervade the world in the End-time. Allah Most High has declared that “none, save the clean and pure, can even touch the Qur’an” (indicating that knowledge in the Qur’an cannot be penetrated except by a heart that is faithful to Truth); thus the Shifa or healing, which the continuous recitation of the Qur’an delivers to the heart, restores to the heart that state of purity which makes it possible for the Qur’an to be studied.

 

The Orientalist scholars of western universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Temple, Yale, Harvard, Colombia, the Sorbonne, etc., who are adorned with PhDs in Islamic Studies, and who are guides and directors of doctoral dissertations on Islam, but who would scornfully reject a command to recite the Qur’an with faith and with purity in the heart, are now exposed as scholars whose scholarship in the Qur’an is so shallow that they cannot even touch the knowledge located in the Qur’an. This is the implication of Allah’s declaration that only those whose hearts are clean and pure (with faith) can truly study the Qur'an: 

 

Qur’an, al-Waqi’ah, 56:79

None can even touch (the knowledge in) this Qur’an save those whose hearts are pure and clean.

 

In order for someone to qualify to study the Qur'an, his heart must not only have faith in the Qur’an as the Word of the One God, but it must also be faithful to ‘Truth’. This writer hastens to declare, as emphatically as he can, that Truth has zero tolerance for ‘oppression’. Those who cannot recognize, or who find it inconvenient to recognize, that USA has been oppressing the Venezuelan government and people ever since Hugo Chavez broke the chains of US enslavement of the poor Venezuelan masses, are a deaf dumb and blind people with a status akin to ‘sheep’ and ‘cattle’!  Those, on the other hand, who support the ‘oppressor’ are themselves oppressors!  Such people have hearts that are devoid of faith, and hence devoid of Truth!

 

This book is written to remind our readers that the very first thing required for someone to be faithful to the Qur’an, is to constantly recite it. There is an unbreakable bond between continuous ‘recitation’ and ‘study’ of the Qur’an. This is the clear implication of the following verses in which ‘explanation’ of the Qur’an follows ‘recitation’:

 

Qur’an, al-Qiyamah, 75:17-19

Behold, it is for Us to gather it and to cause it to be recited [as it ought to be recited]. Thus, when We recite it, you must follow that way of recitation; and then, behold, it will be for Us to explain it.

 

We now ask the question: if this book is to be recited, —is there a special way for it to be recited, or are we free to recite it howsoever we choose?

 

Source

 to be continued . . . . 

 

The Quran and the Moon

 

The Qur'an and The Moon

Divine Methodology for Monthly Recitation of the Qur'an 

 

ANSARI MEMORIAL SERIES

THE QUR'AN

AND THE MOON

Divine Methodology for

Monthly Recitation of the Qur'an

 

by

IMRAN N. HOSEIN

 

 

 

IMRAN N. HOSEIN PUBLICATIONS

 

 

 

 

Published by

Imran N. Hosein Publications

3, Calcite Crescent,

Union Hall Gardens,

San Fernando.

Trinidad and Tobago

 

Website: www.imranhosein.org

Bookstore: www.imranhosein.com

Email: inhosein@hotmail.com

 

Copyright: © Imran N. Hosein 1441 (H); 2020 (G)

 

Cover design is by my very dear Moroccan student,

Nadir Abu Ismail.

 

A NOTE FOR THE GENTLE READER!

 

‘Knowing’ Truth and ‘tasting’ Truth are not the same! Unless and until you fly on the wings of time, swim in the ocean of time, lose consciousness of time in a timeless world, you have not as yet ‘tasted’ Truth! The Qur’an must be recited with the ‘moon’, and then studied like the ‘stars’, precisely for that excitement—to ‘taste’ Truth! Those whose moon is located in Saudi Arabia or Morocco, even though they are in London, do not know that, and perhaps will never know it. But you, our gentle readers, now know it; so, travel on with the Qur’an, and one day, perhaps, you may be blessed with an exciting experience of timelessness, —and, eventually, the ‘taste’ of Truth!

 

Qur’an, al-Inshiqaq, 84:16-9

BUT NAY! I take an oath (by time) as it witnesses the setting sun, then passes on to the unfolding night, and then to the moon as it grows to its fullness, - you will most certainly (be able) to travel from stage to stage (in time).”

 

Qur’an, al-Qiyamah, 75:17-19

Behold, it is for Us to gather all the revelations together to make them a whole, and it is for us to cause it to be recited as it ought to be recited. Thus, when We recite it, you must follow that way of recitation; and then, behold, it will be for Us to explain it.

 

[Allah Most High recited the Qur’an through the Angel Gabriel who came down with that Divine recitation to the blessed Prophet (pbuh) every night of Ramadan, and who completed the recitation of the whole Qur’an in that one lunar month.]

 

Qur’an, al-Isra’, 17:106

This is a Qur’an which We have divided into parts, i.e., as Suwar. (plural of Surah). We have done so in order that you might recite it to the people at intervals, and in conformity with those divisions as Suwar. We also sent it down part-by-part.

 

[A Surah is a wall. Since Allah Most High has already built the walls within the Qur’an, it follows that no one is authorized to build more walls in the Qur’an!]

 

[This writer is of the view that the miraculous Qur’an cannot be translated to any other language; hence, he restricts himself in this book to offering an explanation and commentary of verses of the Qur’an quoted in the book. Whenever a verse of the blessed Qur’an is quoted, we provide the name of the Surah and the number of the verse directly beneath the Arabic text; and below that, we provide an explanation, rather than a translation, of the verse.]  

 

 

Dedicated to my dear students in blessed Mombasa

Amani Chifwete &

Abu Muhammad Jeilani

They stood beside me in the rain, as well as in the sunshine!

 

Contents

 Preface

1. The Word ‘Qur’an’ means a ‘Recitation’

2. Why are the longest Surahs at the very beginning of the Qur’an and the shortest at the very end? 

3. Chopping the Qur’an

4. Divinely-Ordained Method of Reciting the Qur’an during the Month of Ramadan

5. Reciting the Qur’an and living with the Moon

6. Dajjal the Moon and the System of Time in Islam

7.Benefit of reciting the Qur’an as it ought to be recited

Conclusion 

Index 

 

 

 

 

Preface

 This book on the topic of ‘The Qur’an and the Moon — Methodology for Monthly Recitation of the Qur’an’, is a companion volume to my previous book entitled ‘Methodology for Study of the Qur’an’; but which will now be renamed: ‘The Qur’an and the Stars—Methodology for Study of the Qur’an’.

 

I was in London on the evening of 29th day of Shaban 1440(H) when it became known that the moon of Ramadan was not seen anywhere in UK, and yet schoolboys in the Muslim community declared that Ramadan had commenced in UK. The ‘sheep’ and the ‘cattle’ then followed them blindly! The same mistake was repeated in 1441(H) when they again commenced fasting one day early on the basis of a plea that they had arrived at the 30th day of Shaban. The ‘sheep’ and the ‘cattle’ again followed them blindly!

 

They acted on the basis of an announcement that the moon was sighted in Dajjal’s kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or that the month had commenced in Saudi Arabia, and in doing so they made both a silly as well as a dangerous mistake in departing from the system of time ordained by Allah Most High. This book explains that mistake. Those who took that wrong decision, as well as those who accepted and followed that decision, will be questioned on Judgement Day for what they did. Since they started Ramadan (or Shaban before Ramadan) on the wrong day, the implication is that they lost the greatest night of the whole year—namely Lailatul Qadr; and even more damage was done when they consequently lost the capacity to connect from lunar time to cosmic time and thence to Absolute time. Only lunar time can take us to a timeless world; we can climb even up a mountain to sit in a cave, in an effort to travel to other worlds of space and time, — but if we do not live in lunar time we will travel to nowhere! 

 

They are probably unaware that only lunar time can take us to a timeless world, and that whoever has never tasted timelessness can eventually become a prisoner of the Dunyah.

 

The Imam of Purley Masjid in Croydon, London, made a tearful request that I address the subject of moon-sighting for the commencement of the lunar month in Islam so that Muslims might be better-guided on that subject. This book emerged in consequence of my attempt to respond to that request, and I am confident that our explanation of the subject of Dajjal and the System of Time in Islam would now deter such Muslims who have the capacity to ‘think’, from ever again following those who, even though they are in London, recklessly rush to embrace a Saudi or a Moroccan moon.

  

I am grateful for the numerous offers of help I received from so many to meet the cost of printing this book in several languages, so that, in addition to being sold on my online bookstore, www.imranhosein.com, large numbers of copies could be distributed free of charge in UK and elsewhere. May Allah Most Kind, bless them all. Amin! Those who read this book and would like to participate in the effort to print large numbers of copies for free distribution around the world, should kindly contact me by email.

 

If you would also like me to come in person to teach this subject to your community, do please send me an email and, if Allah so Wills, I will come to you.

 

INH

Email: inhosein@hotmail.com

Shawwal, 1441. In the Caribbean island of Trinidad

 

List of books – The INH Bookstore

www.imranhosein.com

 

1. Signs of the Last Day in the Modern Age; 

2. Surah al-Kahf and the Modern Age;

3. An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern World;

4. Jerusalem in the Qur’an;

5. Dajjal the Qur’an and Awwal al-Zaman; 

6. The Islamic Travelogue—2008; 

7. The Strategic Importance of Dreams and Visions in Islam;

8. The Qur’an and the Stars - Methodology for Study of the Qur’an;

9. Islam and Buddhism in the Modern World;

10. The Caliphate the Hejaz and the Saudi-Wahhabi Nation-State;

11. The Qur’an Dajjal and the Jasad;

12. Surah al-Kahf Explanation and Commentary; 

13. Constantinople in the Qur’an;

14. Fasting and Power;

15. The Qur’an the Great war and the West; 

16. One Jamaat—One Ameer: The Organization of a Muslim Community in the Age of Fitan; 

17. The Quranic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction;

18. Iqbal and Pakistan’s Moment of Truth;

19. Explaining Israel’s Mysterious Imperial Agenda;

20. The Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham—Islam and the Future of Money;

21. The Strategic Importance of the Isra and M’iraj;

22. The Importance of the Prohibition of Riba in Islam;

23. Madina returns to Center-Stage in Akhir al-Zaman;

24. George Bernard Shaw and the Islamic Scholar;

25. In Search of Khidr’s Footprints in Akhir al-Zaman;

26. A Muslim Response to the Attack on America;

27. The Islamic Travelogue—2003;

28. The Qur’an and the Moon—Methodology for Monthly Recitation of the Qur’an;

29. The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society (in 2 vols). A master-piece written by Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fazlur Rahman Ansari (ﷲ ﻪﻣﺣﺭ), the teacher of Imran N. Hosein.  

 

[There are few older books missing from this list. They are waiting to be edited in order to be republished Insha’ Allah.]

 

Source

 to be continued . . . .