QURAN - THE SACRED BOOK OF ISLAM The Only Preserved Scripture

QURAN: THE SACRED BOOK OF ISLAM T HE QURAN, according to Muslim belief, is a revealed book — it is not authored by a human being, but is the true word of God in human language. A medium sized book so far as its length is concerned, it comprises 114 chapters or surahs (77,439 words). Its revelation to the Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, through the Angel Gabriel, began in A.D. 610, while the Prophet was sitting in seclusion in the cave of Hira at the top of the Mountain of Light, two miles from Makkah. These scriptures were not revealed at one point of time. Their various parts were revealed as and when the occasion demanded. The entire process was completed over a period of 23 years, the last passage being revealed to the Prophet while he was addressing a gathering at Mount Arafat on the occasion of his last Haj in A.D. 622. The entire volume was later compiled in Medina during the last days of the Prophet. Since the Quran came into existence long before the days of the printing press, there were only two ways of preserving it — either by committing the entire text to memory, or writing it down. That is why there have always been a great number of hafiz (those who committed the entire Quran to memory) in every age, right from the moment of the Quran’s first revelation. The earliest written copies are still available in different museums, one of these being in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Quran, addressed directly to mankind, tells us of God’s scheme for human existence — that man is placed on this earth for the purpose of being tested. The freedom he has here has not been given to him as a matter of right, but as a means to allow him to prove his moral fibre. It is the outcome of this test which will ultimately decide man’s eternal fate. It is asserted in the holy book that human beings are eternal creatures, yet only an infinitesimal part of their lifespan has been assigned to the present world, while the remainder has been ordained for the Hereafter. The target of the Quran is to awaken the thinking of the individual. Changing the system is not the Quran’s direct objective.