The Qur’an is a book of no doubt. And Allah has told us that, but not just told us, but has confirmed that it is the book of no doubt. This means whatever this book contains, is for the better for human kind and is ultimately the truth. And this is the exact sentence from the second Surah (Chapter) of the Qur’an, Surah Bakarah, verse 2: “This is the book; In it is guidance sure, without doubt, To those who fear God.” (Abdullah Yusuf Ali Translation). Let’s look at this verse closely. “This is the Book.” It is not just any book, but “the” book. One book, specifically.If you asked for the Bible, the person who you’d have asked would reply, “Which one?” because there are so many versions of the bible. It just goes to show how corrupted the Bible has become. How can you have a holy book with different versions, and still be the word of God when half of it is written by man? (I mean no offence to any Christians reading).Allah doesn’t do anything in vain. Not one word of the Qur’an has Allah sent down upon us in vain. And Allah has reassured us by saying, “In it is guidance sure, without doubt.” This book contains guidance, and the guidance is surely without doubt, as it created by the Most High, Most Wise, Allah.“To those who fear God.” When we hear the word fear, we commonly think of being scared of something. Although we do fear Allah in this way, the fear of Allah goes much further. If you fear the king, you won’t kill his game. If you fear Allah, you will not commit sins. I am not trying to say we cannot commit sins, because we inevitably will. It is human nature to do so. Whether we do it intentionally, or without realising it we should always ask for forgiveness, because Allah loves those who asks. And do not despair, because Allah has mentioned many a time in the Qur’an that he is “… oft forgiving, Most Merciful.” Hopes the thing that keeps us going. Despair is a ploy of the devil. Anyway, Allah finds ways to be merciful towards humankind, because his “Mercy overcomes his anger“, just like children would try to find excuses because they forgot their homework. Also Allah loves those who fear Allah whence alone. This is because….Say you had some sweets and you were alone, and you had to divide then equally between yourself and a friend. If you fear Allah you would be honest, and if you don’t you’d pocket a few. Fearing Allah is part of your Iman as it says in Al-Bakarah, Verse 2.
One part of Iman or your level of faith/closeness to Allah and Islam is believing in the Qur’an among other things. As it says in Al-Bakarah, Verse 4: “And who believe in the revelation Sent to thee, And sent before thy time, And (in their hearts) have the assurance of the Hereafter.”
We can’t be a Muslim if we don’t believe in the Qur’an. But the Qur’an is a book that will stay with humans till the end of time, and is the last revelation revealed through the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). This means we don’t just believe in the book, but we also believe in what the book contains. Also, not a word of the original text of the Qur’an has been changed since it was revealed. You can pick up as many Qur’an’s as you want, and they’ll all be the same. Note: The Qur’an was revealed in the Arabic language and it will only be exactly the same in the Arabic text. Translations may not be the same, but because the Qur’an cannot be understood and sometimes can be misinterpreted, footnotes will always or normally be with translation in a different language, and will always agree on the same thing, i.e. you will always understand it the same. You do get books called Tafseer and these books contain extreme in depth analysis of the Qur’an, which still can’t be fully understood with these books to help. The Qur’an is a book that will reveal to you more each time you read it, even if it is the same text.
We can’t be a true Muslim if we don’t believe in the revelations sent before the Qur’an. We cannot believe in what those books contain now, because they have been corrupted, but if the books were in their original format then we could. But because times have changed, the Bible’s or Torah’s tackling with everyday life such as law and society cannot be impute into today’s modern era. This is because the Bible was supposed to be believed in for a certain period of time before the revelation of the Qur’an. The difference between the Qur’an and the previous revelations are that the Quranic law – if followed properly – will produce a stable, God fearing community, whilst the Biblical law and the law of the other revelations would have provided what the Qur’an can provide for us now only in that specific period of time it was meant to be followed for before another revelation came. Notice how I put “can” instead of “is” because we have so veered of the right path that we have started making or own worldly laws, which in any case will never provide what the Qur’an can provide for us. And even if the Shariah law is put into place, it is always not upheld properly, and there are various other reasons why it is not stable, reasons which I’m not going to mention here.
The 7th-16th century Muslim empires were stable, because the Shariah law was upheld properly. This provided a united community, which is the basis of all civilisations and empires. The Muslim civilization and empires started to decline because we started veering and NOT FOLLOWING ALLAH’S LAW, stated for us in the Qur’an and shown to us through the Sunnah (what the Prophet Muhammad showed us).
Believing in the hereafter is a major part in a Muslims life, but that we shall discuss some other time.
