Q: how many versions of Quran muslims have ?

Answer:

only one version ..Arabic version (God words).

Note :

that any translation of the Qur'an immediately ceases to be the literal word of Allah,

and hence cannot be equated with the Qur'an in its original Arabic form.

"Alif Laam Raa. A book which we have revealed to you (Muhammad) so that you may lead the people from out of the darkness's into the light by their Lord's leave to the path of the All-Mighty, the Praiseworthy." [Qur'an 14:1]

The Qur'an ("Qor-Ann") is a Message from Allah (SWT) to humanity. It was transmitted to us in a chain starting from the Almighty Himself (SWT) to the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). This message was given to the Prophet (SAW) in pieces over a period spanning approximately 23 years (610 CE to 622 CE). The Prophet (SAW) was 40 years old when the Qur'an began to be revealed to him, and he was 63 when the revelation was completed. The language of the original message was Arabic, but it has been translated into many other languages.


Trial & Triumph

For three and twenty years, in patience, conflict, hope and final triumph, did this Prophet of God receive and teach the message of the Most High. It came, like the fruit of the soul's own yearning, to teach profound spiritual truths, answer questions, appeal to men in their doubts and fears, help and put heart in them in moments of trial, and ordain for them laws by which they could live in society lives of purity, goodness and peace.

Imprints on the Heart

These messages came as inspiration to Muhammad as the need arose, on different occasions and in different places: he received them, and they were recorded by the Pen: they were imprinted on his heart and mind, and on the memory of his loving disciples: as the body of sacred Scripture grew, it was arranged for purposes of public prayer and reading; this is the Book, or the Reading, or the Qur'an.

The Qur'an is one leg of two which form the basis of Islam. The second leg is the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW). What makes the Qur'an different from the Sunnah is primarily its form. Unlike the Sunnah, the Qur'an is quite literally the Word of Allah, whereas the Sunnah was inspired by Allah but the wording and actions are the Prophet's. The Qur'an has not been expressed using any human's words. Its wording is letter for letter fixed by no one but Allah.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the final Messenger of Allah to humanity, and therefore the Qur'an is the last Message which Allah has sent to us, humans. Its predecessors such as the Torah, Psalms, and Gospels have all been superseded. It is an obligation - and blessing - for all who hear of the Qur'an and Islam to investigate it and evaluate it for themselves. Allah has guaranteed that He will protect the Qur'an from human tampering, and today's readers can find exact copies of it all over the world. The Qur'an of today is the same as the Qur'an revealed to Muhammad (SAW).

The Last Book

The Divine Presence in the text provides food for the souls of men. The Qur'an is like existence itself, like the Universe and the beings who move through it. It contains all the elements of universal existence. It is in itself a universe in which a Muslim places his life from beginning to end.

The Divine Word

The covenant made between man and God by virtue of which man accepted the trust [amanah] of being an intelligent and free being with all the opportunities and dangers that such a responsibility implies, is symbolized physically by the stone by the stone of the Ka'ba. Spiritually the record of this covenant in contained in the Qur'an, that central theophany of Islam which is itself the eloquent expression of this eternal covenant between God and man.

The Qur'an contains the message with the aid of which this covenant can be kept and the entelechy of human existence fulfilled. It is thus the central reality in the life of Islam.

The Qur'an is the tissue out of which the life of a Muslim is woven; its sentences are like threads from which the substance of his soul is knit.

The Qur'an for the Muslim is the revelation of God and the book in which His message to man is contained. It is the Word of God revealed to the Prophet through the archangel Gabriel. The Prophet was therefore the instrument chosen by God for the revelation of His Word, of His Book of which both the spirit and the letter, the content and the form, are Divine. Not only the content and meaning comes from God but also the container and form which are thus an integral aspect of the revelation.

In other religions the 'descent of the Absolute' has taken other forms, but in Islam as in other Semitic religions but with more emphasis, revelation is connected with a 'book' and in fact Islam envisages the followers of all revealed religions as 'people of the Book' [ahl al-kitab].

A man who understands religion metaphysically and intellectually must either accept religion as such, that is, all orthodox tradition, or be in danger of either intellectual inconsistency or spiritual hypocrisy.

The unlettered nature of the Prophet demonstrates how the human recipient is completely passive before the Divine. Were this purity and virginity of the soul not to exist, the Divine Word would become in a sense tainted with purely human knowledge and not be presented to mankind in its pristine purity.

Sacred Text, Sacred Language

The form of the Qur'an is the Arabic language. Arabic is sacred in the sense that it is an integral part of the Qur'anic revelation whose very sounds and utterances play a role in the ritual acts of Islam.

The formulae of the Qur'an read in prayers and acts of worship must be in the sacred language of Arabic which alone enables one to penetrate into the content and be transformed by the Divine presence and grace [barakah] of the Divine Book. That is also why the Qur'an cannot be translated into any language for ritual purposes. The very sounds and words of such a sacred language are parts of the revelation.

Religion is not philosophy or theology meant only for the mental plane. It is a method of integrating our whole being including the psychical and corporeal. The sacred language serves precisely as a providential means whereby man can come not only to think about the truths of religion, which is only for people of a certain type of mentality, but to participate with his whole being in a Divine norm. This truth is universally applicable, and especially it is clearly demonstrated in the case of the Qur'an whose formulae and verses are guide posts for the life of the Muslim and whose continuous repetition provides a heavenly shelter for man in the turmoil of his earthly existence.

The text of the Qur'an reveals human language crushed by the power of the Divine Word.

The Qur'an, like every sacred text, should not be compared with any form of human writing because precisely it is a Divine message in human language.

It is not the sacred text that is incoherent. It is man himself who is incoherent and it takes much effort for him to integrate himself into his Centre so that the message of the Divine book will become clarified for him and reveal to him its inner meaning.

The whole difficulty in reading the Qur'an and trying to reach its meaning is the incommensurability between the Divine message and the human recipient, between what God speaks and what man can hear in a language which despite its being a sacred language is, nevertheless, a language of men. But it is a sacred language because God has chosen it as His insrurment of communication, and He always chooses to 'speak' in a language which is primordial and which expresses the profoundest truths in the most concrete terms.

The Qur'an is composed of a profusion and intertwining of plant life as seen in a forest often combined suddenly with the geometry, symmetry and clarity of the mineral kingdom, of a crystal held before light. The key to Islamic art is in fact this combination of plant and mineral forms as inspired by the form of expression of the Qur'an which displays this character clearly.

Power

The power of the Qur'an does not lie in that it expresses a historical fact or phenomenon. It lies in that it is a symbol whose meaning is valid always because it concerns not a particular fact in a particular time but truths which being in the very nature of things are perennial. Of course the Qur'an does mention certain facts such as the rebellion of a certain people against God and His punishment of those people as we see also in the Old Testament. But even those 'facts' retain their power because they concern us as symbols of a reality which is always present. The miracle of the Qur'an lies in its possessing a language which has the efficacy of moving the souls of men now, nearly fourteen hundred years since it was revealed, as much as it did at the beginning of its appearance on earth.

The Book

The Book is first of all al-Qur'an, namely a recitation from which its common name is derived. It is a recitation in the sense that it is a means of concentration upon the truth for 'recitation' is a concentration in which ideas and thoughts are directed towards the expression of a certain end. It is also al-Furqan, that is a discernment, a discrimination, in that it is the instrument by which man can come to discriminate between Truth and falsehood, to discern between the Real and the unreal, the Absolute and the relative, the good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly. Finally it is Umm al-kitab, the mother of all books. As the 'Mother of books' the Qur'an is the prototype of all 'books', that is, of all knowledge. From the Islamic point of view all knowledge is contained in essence in the Qur'an, the knowledge of all orders of reality. But this knowledge lies within the Qur'an potentially, or as a seed and in principle, not actually.

The Qur'an is then the source of knowledge in Islam not only metaphysically and religiously but even in the domain of particular fields of knowledge.

The Message

The Qur'an contains essentially three types of message for man.

Firstly, it contains a doctrinal message, a set of doctrines which expound knowledge of the structure of reality and man's position in it. As such it contains a set of moral and juridical injunctions which is the basis of the Muslim Sacred Law or Shari'ah and which concerns the life of man in every detail. It also contains metaphysics about the nature of the Godhead, a cosmology concerning the structure of the Universe and the multiple states of being, and an eschatology about man's final end and the hereafter. It contains a doctrine about human life, about history, about existence as such and its meaning. It bears all the teachings necessary for man to know who he is, where he is and where he should be going. It is thus the foundation of both Divine Law and metaphysical knowledge.

Secondly, the Qur'an contains a message which on the surface at least is like that of a vast book of history. It recounts the story of peoples, tribes, kings, prophets and saints over the ages, of their trials and tribulations. This message is essentially one couched in historical terms but addressed to the human soul. It depicts in vivid terms the ups and downs, the trials and vicissitudes of the human soul in therms of accounts of bygone people which were not only true about such and such a people and time but concern the soul here and now.

Every event recounted about every being, every tribe, every race bears an essential meaning which concerns us. All the actors on the stage of sacred history as accounted in the Qur'an are also symbols of forces existing within the soul of man. the Qur'an is, therefore, a vast commentary on man's terrestrial existence. It is a book about whose reading reveals the significance of human life which begins with birth and ends with death, begins from God and returns to him.

Thirdly, the Qur'an contains a quality which is difficult to express in modern language. One might call it a divine magic, if one understands this phrase metaphysically and not literally. The formulae of the Qur'an, because they come from God, have a power which is not identical with what we learn from them rationally by simply reading and reciting them. They are rather like a talisman which protects and guides man. That is why even the physical presence of the Qur'an carries a great grace or barakah with it.

Divine Presence

The Qur'an possesses precisely a barakah for believers which is impossible to explain or analyze logically. But because of this Divine presence and barakah it endures from generation to generation. The Divine presence in the text provides food for the souls of men. It is in fact a sacred act to recite the Qur'an. Its reading is a ritual act which God wishes man to perform over and over again throughout his earthly journey.

Existence and Creation

Taken as a whole, the Qur'an is like existence itself, like the Universe and the beings who move through it. It contains all the elements of universal existence and for this reason is in itself a univerese in which a Muslim places his life from beginning to end.

In a metaphysical sense, the Qur'an contains the prototype of all creation. Metaphysically, the Qur'an has an aspect of knowledge connected with its text as a book and an aspect of being connected with its inner nature as the archtypical blueprint of the universe.

Multiplicity and Unity

The Qur'an corresponds to the world we live in from day to day. Man lives in a world of multiplicity and before he becomes spiritually transformed, he is profoundly attached to this multiplicity. The roots of his soul are deeply sunk into the soil of this world. That is why he loves this world and finds it so difficult to detach himself from it and attach himself to God.

The Qur'an, being like the world, is also a multiplicity in its chapters and verses, words and letters. The soul in first encoutering it discovers the same differentiation and multiplicity to which it is accustomed through its experience with the world. But within the Qur'an is contained a peace, harmony and unity which is the very opposite of the effect of the world as such on the souls of men. The external multiplicity of the world is such that in it man runs from one thing to another without ever finding peace and contentment. His soul runs from one object of desire to another thinking that it will find contentment just around the corner. Yet, it is a corner which he somehow never reaches.

The Qur'an begins by also presenting to the soul the possibility of running from one 'thing' to another, of running around corners, of living in multiplicity, but within lies a peace and contentment which leaves the very opposite effect on the soul.

The Qur'an does present itself as the world but a world in which there is not differentiation and dissipation but essentially integration and unification.

Signs and Realities

The Qur'an is the cosmos, the vast world of creation in which man lives and breathes. God displays his 'signs' the vestigia Dei, on the horizons, that is, the cosmos and more specifically the world of nature and within the souls of man until man comes to realize that it is the Truth.

The Qur'an corresponds in a sense to nature, to God's creation. That is why when a Muslim looks at a natural phenomenon he should be reminded of God and His Power and Wisdom. Man should be reminded of the 'wonders of creation' and constantly see the 'signs' of God upon the horizons. This attitude which is one of the essential traits of Islam is enextricably tied to the correspondence between the Qur'an and the Universe.

Human experience is based on a world and a subject that lives in this world and travels through it. Man's existence can be analyzed in terms of two realities, a world, a background, an environment, and a being, a traveller, who journeys through this background and lives in this environment.

The Qur'an again reflects this reality. The chapters of the Book are like worlds and we who read them like the traveller journeying through them. Or from another point of view the chapters are like the worlds, or realms, and the verses like the subject passing through them. In this aspect as in so many other essential ones the Qur'an corresponds to the very structure of reality; it corresponds in its external and inward aspects to all degrees of reality and knowledge, of being and intellection, whether it be practical or theoretical, concerned with social and active life or with metaphysical knowledge and the contemplative life.

Besides containing the basis of the Divine Law, the Qur'an expounds also a metapysics, a cosmology and an eschatology whose expression and formulation is what it should be.

Levels of Meaning

The Qur'an is meant for both the simple peasant and the metaphysician and seer and of necessity contains levels of meaning for all types of believers.

Many people in fact who read the Sacred Book receive no more from it than the literal message. This is because no sacred text opens itself to human scrutiny and reveals its secret so easily. The Qur'an is like the Universe wtih many planes of existence and levels of meaning. One has to be prepared to be able to penetrate its meaning. It is, moreover, particularly in the inspired commentaries, that man comes to understand explicitly and in more extended form what is contained often implicitly and in a contracted form in the Qur'an.

The inner meaning of the Qur'an can be understood, but for certain exceptional cases, only through the inspired commentaries each of which seeks to elucidate and elaborate certain aspects of the Book.

This type of commentary which is a penetration into the inner meaning of a sacred text is written by a traditional authority who has himself penetrated into the inner dimensions of his own being.

Man sees in the sacred scriptures what he is himself, and the type of knowledge he can derive fromt he texts depends precisely on 'who' he is.

It is essential to realize that we cannot reach the inner meaning of the Qur'an until we ourselves have penetrated into the deeper dimensions of our own being and also by the grace of heaven. If we approach the Qur'an superficially and are ourselves superficial beings floating on the surface of our existence and unaware of our profound roots, then the Qur'an appears to us also as having only a surface meaning. It hides its mysteries from us and we are not able to penetrate it. It is by spiritual travail that man is able to penetrate into the inner meaning of the sacred text by that process which is called ta'wil or symbolic and hermeneutic interpretation, just as tafsir is the explanation of the external aspect of the Book.

The Arabic term ta'wil contains etymologically the meaning of the process involved. It means literally to take something back to its beginning or origin. To penetrate into the inner mysteries of the Qur'an is precisely to reach back to its Origin because the Origin is the most inward, and the revelation or manifestation of the sacred text is at once a descent and an exteriorization of it. Everything actually comes from within to the outside, from the interior to the exterior and we who live 'in the exterior' must return to the interior if we are to reach the Origin.

When intellectual intuition is present and under the guidance of revelation one can penetrate the appearance to that reality of which the appearance is an appearance, one can journey from the exterior to the interior by this process of ta'wil, which in the case of the Qur'an means coming to understand its inner message.

The idea of penetrating into the inner meaning of things is to be seen everywhere in Islam, in religion, philosophy, science and art.

There is an inner meaning to the Qur'an not meant for anyone except those who are qualified to hear and understand it.

The Qur'an possesses an inner dimension which no amount of literal and philological analysis can reveal. And it is precisely this aspect of the Qur'an that is least known to the outside world.

Religion, Science and Symbols

Qur'anic commentary was the meeting ground for the knowledge derived from science and from the tenets of revelation.

The whole process of penetrating the inner meaning of the Qur'an, of discovering that wisdom which alone is the common ground between religion and science, is based on this process of ta'wil, which does not mean seeking after a metaphorical meaning or reading into the text. Ta'wil in the sense used by Sufis and Shi'ite sages is the pentration into the symbolic -- and not allegorical -- meaning of the text which is not a human interpretation but reaching a divinely pre-disposed sense placed within the Sacred Text trhough which man himself becomes transformed. The symbol has an ontological reality that lies above any mental constructions. Man does not make symbols. He is transformed by them. And it is as such that the Qur'an with the worlds of meaning that lie hidden in its every phrase transforms and remakes the soul of man.

A Grand Purpose

The purpose of the Qur'an is to furnish guidance to mankind so that they may be led along the path that would bring them to their Maker in a state of complete submission to Him, thus fulfilling the purpose of their own creation.

'This is a Book that We have revealed to thee that thou mayest bring mankind out of every kind of darkness into the light, by the command of their Lord, to the path of the Mighty, the Praiseworthy Allah, to Whom belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth' [14:1,2]

For that purpose it draws attention to every type of phenomenon and thereby reveals vast treasures of profound truths, but all this is in pursuit of its appointed purpose, and must be viewed and appreciated in that context.

For instance, the Qur'an makes numerous statements based on historical fact to emphasize different aspects of the guidance it sets forth, but it is not a book of history. It draws attention to stages of creation of the universe [21:30] and of man [71:14; 32:7-9; 40:67] but it is not a treatise on cosmology or on the origin of species.

'He is the one who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each gliding along its orbit' [21:33]

'He has constrained to your service the sun and the moon, both carrying out their functions incessantly' [14:33]

'He created the sun and the moon and the stars, all made subservient to man by His command. Hearken, His is the creation and its regulation. Blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds' [7:54]

'He has constrained to your service the night and the day and the sun and the moon; and the stars too have been constrained to your service by His command. Surely, in all this there are Signs for a people who make use of their understanding' [16:12]

Yet the Qur'an is not a primer on astronomy. It makes reference to the operation of the law which revives the dry earth through rain [7:57] and to the wonderful system through which the supply of sweet and salt water is maintained in rivers and oceans [25:53; 35:12] but it is not a manual of meteorology or hydraulics.

'He it is who has constrained the sea to your service that you may eat fresh seafood therefrom, and may take out therefrom articles that you wear as ornaments. Thou seest the vessels ploughing through it that you may voyage across the oceans seeking His bounty and that you may be grateful' [16:14]

Yet it is not a volume of oceanography, nor a guidebook on pearl-fishing or deep-sea fishing.

'We created man from an extract of clay; then We placed him as a drop of sperm in a safe depository; then We fashioned the sperm into a clot; then We fashioned the clot into a shapeless lump; then out of this shapeless lump We fashioned bones; then We clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed it into a new creation. So blessed be Allah the Best of Creators' [23:12-14]

This was revealed close upon fourteen centuries ago, and yet the Qur'an is not a work on obstetrics.

It mentions that David and Solomon were taught the process of smelting iron and copper [34:10-13], and this has recently been confirmed by the discovery of the site of the furnaces and the system employed for the purpose, but the Qur'an does not treat of metallurgy. It warns that flourishing ancient civilizations, very much more advanced than that of Central Arabia of the early seventh century of the Christian era, were destroyed in consequence of the disobedience and wrongdoing of the people [30:9] and the discovery of their remains in different parts of Arabia and of the rest of the earth has supplied confirmatory proof, but the Qur'an is no archaeological tome. It states that when the Pharaoh who pursued Moses and the Israelites was about to be overwhelmed by the rising tide and beseeched God for mercy, he was told his last-minute repentance could not avail him, but that:

'We will grant thee a measure of deliverance by preserving thy body this day that thou mayest serve as a Sign for those who come after thee' [10:92].

This was confirmed by the discovery of his body in 1909. But the Qur'an is not concerned with Egyptology. The prophecies contained in the Qur'an continue to be fulfilled in every age. All this is in support of the purpose of the Qur'an set out above.

Qur'anic Journey

Knowledge & Understanding

Glory to God Most High, full of Grace and Mercy; He created All, including Man. To Man He gave a special place in His Creation. He honored man to be His Agent. And to that end, endued him with understanding, purified his affections, and gave him spiritual insight; so that Man should understand Nature, understand himself, and know God through His wondrous Signs, and glorify Him in Truth, reverence, and unity.

Free Will

For the fulfillment of this great trust Man was further given a Will, so that his acts should reflect God's universal Will and Law, and his mind, freely choosing, should experience the sublime joy of being in harmony with the Infinite, and with the great drama of the world around him, and with his own spiritual growth.

Distorted Views

But, created though he was in the best of molds, Man fell from Unity when His Will was warped, and he chose the crooked path of Discord. And sorrow and pain, selfishness and degradation, ignorance and hatred, despair and unbelief poisoned his life, and he saw shapes of evil in the physical, moral, and spiritual world, and in himself.

Reality & Illusion

Then did his soul rise against himself, and his self-discord made discord between kith and kin: men began to fear the strong and oppress the weak, to boast in prosperity, and curse in adversity. And to flee each other, pursuing phantoms, for the truth and reality of Unity was gone from their minds.

Brotherhood of Man

When men spread themselves over the earth, and became many nations, speaking diverse languages, and observing diverse customs and laws; the evils became multiplied, as one race or nation became alienated from another. The Brotherhood of Man was now doubly forgotten -- first, between individuals, and secondly, between nations. Arrogance, selfishness, and untruth were sown and reaped in larger fields; and Peace, Faith, Love and Justice were obscured over masses of men, as large tracts of land are starved of sunshine by clouds floating far on high.

The Struggling Soul

But God, in His infinite mercy and love, Who forgives and guides individuals and nations, and turns to good even what seems to us evil, never forsakes the struggling soul that turns to Him, nor the groups of men and women who join together to obey His Will and Law and strengthen each other in unity and truth, nor the Nations that dwell in mountain or valley, heat or cold, in regions fertile or arid, in societies that roam over land or seas, or hunt, or tend flocks, or till the soil, or seek the seas for food or oil or fat or gems, or dig out from the bowels of the earth precious stones or metals or stored-up heat and energy, or practice arts and crafts, or produce abundant wealth by machines of ingenious workmanship, or live a frugal life of contemplation: for all are creatures of One God, and share His loving care and must be brought within the pale of His eternal unity and harmony.

The Light of His Revelation

Joys & Sorrows

And so this light of eternal Unity has shown in all ages and among all nations, through chosen Messengers of God, who came as men to dwell among men, to share their joys and sorrows, to suffer for them and with them -- aye, and to suffer more than falls to ordinary mortal lot -- that so their message and their life might fulfill the eternal and unchanging purpose of the Most High -- to lead man to his noblest destiny.

The One Truth

Ever this eternal light of Unity, this mystic light of God's own Will, has shone and shines with undiminished splendor. The names of many Messengers are inscribed in the records of many nations and many tongues, and many were the forms in which their message was delivered, according to the needs of the times and the understanding of the people; and manifold were the lives of the Messengers, and manifold also was the response of their people; but they all witnessed to the One Truth: of God's unity, might, grace and love.

Ignorance & Misunderstanding

As the records of man are imperfect, and the memory of man unstable: the names of many of these messengers are known in one place and not in another, or among one people and not among others; and some of their names may have perished utterly; but their message stands one and indivisible, even though it may have been forgotten, or twisted by ignorance, error, superstition or perversity; or misunderstood in the blinding light of time or tortuous Circumstances.

Ancient Wisdom

Many were the faiths in the composite world of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Europe, and many were the fragments of ancient wisdom, saved, transformed, renewed, or mingled; and many new streams of wisdom were poured through the crucibles of noble minds -- prophets, poets, preachers, philosophers, and thinking men of action; and many were the conflicts, and many were the noble attempts reaching out towards Unity, and many were the subtle influences interchanged with the other worlds of further and Eastern Asia -- aye, and perchance with the scattered Isles of the Pacific and the world between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The Voice of Unity

The Unfolding

At length came the time when the Voice of Unity should speak and declare to the People, without the need of Priests or Priest-craft, without miracles save those that happen now an always in the spiritual world, without mystery, save those mysteries which unfold themselves in the growing inner experience of man and his vision of God -- to declare with unfaltering voice the Unity of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and Grace and Mercy, Bounty and Love, poured out in unstinted measure forever and ever.

The Healing Light

And this great healing light shone among a people steeped in ignorance, brave and free, but without cohesion or union, simple and rude, but with an easy familiarity with Nature, accustomed to Nature's hardships and her rugged resistance to man, but dreaming of the delights of gardens and fruitful fields, cruel, yet with a rough sense of equality, and wielding a tongue, flexible, beautiful, and able to respond, with brevity and eloquence, to the sublimest thoughts which man could conceive.

Love & Justice

Who were fit to be vehicles of this light? -- not men intoxicated with words and mysteries, men whom politics had debauched or tyranny had subdued, men whose refinements had ended in vices, who saw Nature only through books or artificial conceits, or in moods which bred softness, indolence, or luxury, who spoke of love and justice but practiced gross selfishness between class and class, sex and sex, condition and condition; and had perverted their language, once beautiful, into jargons of empty elegance an unmeaning futility.

Exclusive Arrogance

For the glory of Hellas, and her freedom and wisdom had departed; Rome's great systems of law, organization and universal citizenship had sunk into the mire of ecclesiastical formalism, and dogmatism, and exclusive arrogance; the living fire of Persia's prophet scarce smoldered in her votaries of luxury; in India, countless castes and kingdoms cancelled the unity of Buddha's teaching; the wounds of China had not yet been healed by T'ang culture; and Japan was still a disciple of China.

The Spreading Light

Then, in the sacred city of pagan Arabia, shone a light that spread in all directions. It was centrally placed for the bounds of the world of men's habitations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It made the Arabs the leading nation of culture and science, of organized enterprise, law, and arts, with a zeal for the conquest of Nature and her mysteries.

Summary

The Qur'an is both a source of law to guide the practical life of man and of knowledge which inspires his intellectual endeavors. It is a universe into whose contours both the natural and social environment of man are cast, a universe which determines the life of the soul of man, its becoming, fruition, death and final destiny beyond this world. As such it is the central theophany of Islam, but one which would never have come to men and never been understood save for him who was chosen as its messenger and commentator to men.

And it is in studying the life, teachings and significance of the Prophet that the full meaning of the message of Islam as contained in the Qur'an can be understood.