Quran - An Overall View

Part: 1 2 3 4

Muhammad started his mission when he was forty years old and continued preaching until his death at the age of sixty-three. The inspirations (revelations) which formed Muhammad’s preaching discourse over the twenty-three-year period constitute the Qur’an, which means ‘the recital’ or the proclamation. Muhammad’s additional expositions of some aspects of the Qur’anic discourse for various groups, which were collected separately much later under the title of ‘Hadeeth’, are not treated here. The Qur’an is essentially made up of units arranged in chapters (surahs). A unit may be composed of several sentences. A sentence may be a simple or a very complex one. Some chapters are very short, composed of a single unit; others are very long, made up of many units strung or interwoven together. There are many chapters of intermediate length.

A unit may be a statement, a proclamation, an injunction, a prayer or a preaching unit. A preaching unit may start first by picturing the coming of the Day of Judgement and then the urging that this Day should be taken into consideration during one’s lifetime. Man is urged to be grateful to his Lord by doing good works and to avoid the consequences resulting from ignoring this Day. Good works are characterised by being socially relevant, that is, of benefit to society. A preaching unit may also start with an introduction pointing to a phenomenon or phenomena to be considered and reflected upon, ending with the affirmation that for intelligent, thoughtful people, such phenomena are signs pointing towards God. The signs, phenomena or pointers cover all sorts of topics, physical, biological and psychological, which are not necessarily familiar to every person but are dependent on the audience being addressed. Examples include time (several aspects of it, whether to a particular part of the day or to a very long period of time), the sun, the stars, the moon, animals and their uses, trade, wealth, ships, winds, rain, thunder, lightning, plants and the seasons, creation from dust or from water, the formation of life in the womb, the creation of male and female spouses for love and affection, the creation of the heavens and the earth, old age, death, fear, love, aggression, the pen, even the letters of the alphabet and the rise and fall of civilisations.

Part: 1 2 3 4

Quran - The Perfect Quran: The Past Perfect Torah and Gospel
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 •  This page was first posted: Jun. 25, 2006
 •  This page was last updated: Jun. 27, 2006
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