Where Does an Erroneous Interpretation of the Deen Take Us?

understood at the time the Quran was revealed. Departing from their original, expansive meaning, they began to be understood in a very narrow way, and their true significance was rendered unclear. One reason for this was the lack of appropriate taste for Arabic. A second reason was that for those who were born in an Islamic society, the terms Ilah, Rab, deen and ibadat no longer had the same meaning that they had in the non-Muslim society at the time of the Quranic revelation. Because of these two reasons, in the books of linguistics and Quranic exegesis written in the later period, most Quranic words began being explained, not in terms of their real meaning, but, instead, as later Muslims understood them. As a result of this, it became difficult for people to really understand even the essential subject-matter of the Quran. The Maulana further said: And so, the fact is that just because a veil was drawn over the meaning of these four basic terms, more than three-fourth of the teachings of the Quran, in fact its essential spirit, was hidden from view. This is one major reason for the fact that people’s beliefs and actions are faulty despite having accepted Islam. Hence, in order to clarify the central Quranic teaching and its basic subject-matter, it is very essential that these terms be fully explained. In this book, the veiled meanings of these four