AlQur'an is a Book that those in the Islamic faith, the Mus.lims, call their Primary Religious Book. They believe it, to be word of their God, whom they say His proper name is All.ah. The very first word through the very last word of it.

They say that M.uhammad (as), the Arab Prophet, is the "Human Interpreter or Exegist," of this Book, since it was revealed to him, alone. The period of the revelation is approximately 23 years, with the first 13 in Makka, the birth place of this man named M.uhammad. This 13 years in Makka was followed by the Madina period of revelation, which lasted 10 years. Mu.hammad died after this Madina period of revelation. In the first 13 years, known as the Makkan period, there was just a single message in this Book: There is no god but God (All.ah) and Mu.hammad (as) was His Messenger. What is known as laws or (Shariah)) came later in the Madina period of revelation.

There is over 6000 verses, and there are exactly 30 sections and 114 Chapters, in this Unique Book. The Author, the God who revealed it all to His Messenger, Mu.hammad throws a challenge to mankind that if they think they can they should produce a book that is capable of being compared to it. He said mankind can not do it. So He lowered the expectation, to a single chapter! The smallest of these chapters is Surah Kawthar, Chapter 106, which contains just 3 Verses. In all of the over 1400 years of this challenge, there has not been any one who have been capable to produce a book that can be said to have answered the challenge, adequately.

M.uhammad was the prophet and messenger This God said He sent to all of mankind in one single sweep. It means therefore that all others before him, from Adam to Jesus, a total of 124,000 of them have only been sent to their own limited and specified people.

I am going to present the very first verse in the very first Chapter, a chapter known as Surah Fatiha or Umm Kitab (The mother of the Book). This verse is known as Bismallah. It contains the proper name of God in Arabic, All.ah and two of His Unique attributes, ownership of Beneficence and Mercy. This verse is in the beginning of every Chapter, except the Chapter known as Taubah (Chapter 9) or Surah Barah. However it is written twice in Surah Naml or The Ant.

As what is known as AlQur'an, it is what is in the form of what it was revealed in, in its ORIGINAL Language, Arabic. Every other form of it therefore, in the other languages of the world is not proper AlQur'an, except it is what the translator thinks it means, in that language, for the benefit of the speakers of the language.

All comments, to agree or disagree or to question are welcome. But it must be relative to the AlQur'anic verse or verses. We should try to be orderly so that in the long run, we can provide a complete AlQur'an in what it may mean, since English language can not possibly do a good Job on this superior Book written in Superiorly PURE Arabic; Fusat.



The First Verse From the Opening Chapter of Qur'an: "In the name of God (All.ah), The Most Benficent, The Most Merciful."


Please note that the qualifier, Most tells us that these two qualities of All.ah the God, there is no one else that comes close to Him, or equals to Him, or surpasses Him in the Beneficence and Mercy. It shows that all other who may show beneficence or mercy have it of what He, All.ah permits. (I am always reminded of the camper funds advert with the Umbrella. You see if All.ahs Mercy or Beneficence is illustrated by an Umbrella, His will be the One that covers Every thing. Known and Unknown as He wills. Any one elses will only cover as much as God Permits, yet it will be under the Umbrella of God.

@Huxley: Of course you ignored my 'apeal,' against off topic post. I do not want to deviate from this topic. However, if you wanna argue your point, as you have stated it above, open up a thread on it.

Am sure you are not shy about opening up another thread. You have had much practice. The unfortunate thing is that the distractors, will be many. Just as you have tried to do above, Mr. Soffistication. I hope you can handle the truth.

My first entry in the new topic, if you are capable of handling is to challenge you for a simply proof. You will see that I will help you that there is nothing barbaric about anything in the AlQur'an. Every thing is condition appropriate. You know that an infant who cries for the attention of the mother or the usual family friend, is condition appropriate than a mature person, eg, a person in your age range doing the same thing.

Since I am here I will like to point out that when one begins to read the AlQur'an, apart from the first chapter, which undeniably the first verse is the "Bismallah," the verse stated above, it can be read or recited without it. But in its place, Audu Billahi minal Shaitani Rajim is a most. (I seek refuge in All.ah against the accursed Devil). This means that Even Surah Fatiha must begin with it, before the Bismallah. You will see that Isla.m is very detail oriented.

Huxley pls allow them to post their verses in peace. I and many others are interested in reading something from the quuran for a change.

@4Him; lol. This is in your response to your caution to Huxley.

The Prophet of Alla.h says in an ahadith that one should say the Bismallah, to Honor Alla.h, instead of saying "Audu billahi minah Shaitani Rajim," when one is struggling through or out of a difficult condition, slipping, tripping, falling. One should not give the Devil a chance to feel important, for shaitan will be proud and says that I make such and such person go through this condition.

Olawale,

May God Bless you.


Huxley, what is that "a barbaric mind"? Are you echoing what you heard some else said or is this your genuine response. Define barbaric.

Olawale may Allah bless you

(A book produced from a barbaric mind)! i think we should not dwell on this quote! we should instead concentrate on what we can all learn from Al-Qur'än.

The Qur’an is the holy book of Islam. Muslims believe that this sacred scripture, which is also called the Koran, is the infallible word of Allah, as it was revealed to the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. In 114 chapters, called suras, the Qur’an examines a number of topics, including the relationship between God and humans, prophets and messengers, human responsibility and judgment, and the life of Muhammad(S.A.W). The Qur’an is central to Muslim religious life, and portions of it are recited on many occasions. The opening chapter, translated here as The Exordium, is recited during each of the five daily prescribed prayers.

The Exordium


IN THE NAME OF GOD
THE COMPASSIONATE
THE MERCIFUL

Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe,
The Compassionate, the Merciful,
Sovereign of the Day of Judgement!
You alone we worship, and to You alone
we turn for help.
Guide us to the straight path,
The path of those whom You have favoured,
Not of those who have incurred Your wrath,
Nor of those who have gone astray. 


Source: The Koran. Translated with notes by Dawood, N. J. Penguin Books, 1990.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

@netprofitt: Jazakallahu Khair. May All.ah the Almighty reward you for posting the whole entire surah Fatiha (the first chapter), of the Qur'an. This chapter, though containing seven verses, was revealed all in one short. It was reporte that when Jibril came down to reveal it to the messenger, Jibril was accompanied by 70,000 Angels! This is how powerful the Surah is.

The Surah is a dialogue of man, the slave/servant of God the Creator and Master. In this dialogue we see that there are two sections; The first being, the identification of who the dialogue is directed toward, then description of Him who has just been identified. The last part is presentation of request by the subject to the Master.

It is reported that Alla.h when man recites this surah, right from the beginning, Allah will say, my Servant acknowledges me when man says "In the name of God, ," which is the first verse. When the next 2 verses are recited, Alla.h will say my servant has glorified me. When the verse that begins with, "You alone we worship, ," Alla.h will say, Oh my servant ask me all that you want and I shall fulfill them for you.

The last part, is the request, starting from "Guide us to the right path, till the end of the chapter." It is therefore that All.ah presents the rest of the AlQur'an as the road map for be conscious of and avoid pitfalls and failures and deviations. Therefore, to do things that will lead to success and happiness, in this world and in the hereafter, for certainly, there will be a hereafter.

This Surah Fatiha, is so important that no Salah or is.lamic prayer is accepted if it is not recited in it, or any of its standing position portion. It is the first Surah to be recited in every beginning of the standing position (Rakah). It is compulsory and sufficient, if no other part of AlQur'an is recited. It is reported that the prophet saw a man in prayer in the Mosque in Madina. He called the man to come out of the prayer. The man did not come out, until he finishe his prayer.

He then approached the prophet to inform him that he was in Salah, which was his reason for not answering the prophet, since the prophet reminded him that Alla.h says that one should answer the prophet when he call, because what he will say will give "life!" The prophet then said that he will teach the man a Surah that is so complete that no Salah is accpeted unless it is recited in its standing position. This surah was Surah Fatiha.

One can therefore realise that the man who was making his salah would have came out of the salah, if only he knew that a Surah that makes salah totally complete had been revealed and the prophet was going to tell him, so that his salah can now be as complete as can be.

We would not deviate from cronological posting of Verses of the AlQur'an here. The next post from the AlQur'an should be from the beginning of Surah baqarah.

@Samba123, give us your thoughts and what you know about Surah Fatiha.

Thank Olabowale for opening this thread it can shed light to those people who luck understanding about the Qur’an. I think this definition that I put here are the most common one.

The named Al-Fatiha…Fatihah is that which opens a subject or a book or any other thing. In other words, Al Fatihah is a sort of preface.

This surah Fatihah has a total of 7 verses.

It is one of the very earliest Revelations to the Holy Prophet. As a matter of fact, we learn from authentic traditions that it was the first complete surah, which was reveled to Moham’mad (saw). before this, there are other surah revealed like Surah Alaq, Muzzammil, Muddathir, I just mention few of them.

This surah Al Fatihah is in fact a prayer which Al’lah has taught to all those who want to make a study of this book. It has been placed at the very beginning of the book to teach this lesson to the reader: if you sincerely want to benefit from the Qur’an, you should offer this prayer to the Lord of the Universe. This preface is meant to create a strong desire in the heart of the reader to seek guidance from the Lord of the Universe, who alone can grant it. Thus Al Fatihah indirectly teaches that the best thing for a man is to pray for guidance to the straight path, to study the Qur’an with the mental attitude of a seeker-after- truth and to recognize the fact that the Lord of the Universe is the source of all knowledge. He should, therefore, begin the study of the Qur’an with a prayer to him for guidance. From this theme, it becomes clear that the real relation between Al Fatihah and the Qur’an is not that of an introduction to a book but that of a prayer and its answer.

Al Fatihah is the prayer from the servant and the Qur’an is the answer from the Master to his prayer. The servant pray to Al’lah to show him Guidance and the Master places the whole of the Qur’an before him in answer to his prayer, as if to say, This is the Guidance you Begged from Me.

The ko'ran like the bible was written by great men who were very intelligent and gave out their point of view about god. god did not write the ko'ran as purported by mus'lims men wrote it cos there is nothing therein that an intelligent man can not write. is arabic the only language that god understands? this is pure bull. . . . . . . . .

@Mazaje: Its nice to make a statement. At best you are only suggesting, but your accusation has no proof. Who can not do that? But support your argument if you can. Am sure that you can not know about Arabic more than Arabs. So your whole statement, because there is no valid proof, is Zero!

salam all,

As someone have said up there that God said in the Qur'an that

SAY IF THE WHOLE OF MANKIND AND JINN WERE TO GATHER TOGETHER TO PRODUCE THE LIKE OF THIS QUR'AN , THEY COULD NOT PRODUCE THE LIKE THEREOF EVEN IF THEY BACKED EACH OTHER WITH HELP AND SUPPORT. (Q17:88)

AND WE HAVE EXPLAINED TO MAN IN THIS QUR'AN EVERY KIND OF SIMILITUDE: YET THE GREATER PART OF MEN REFUSE EXCEPT WITH INGRATITUDE.
(Q 17:89)


ANOTHER PROOF GOES THUS
OR THEY MAY SAY 'HE FORGED IT" SAY "BRING YE THEN 10 SURAS FORGED, LIKE UNTO IT AND CALL (TO UR AID) WHOMSOEVER YOU CAN OTHER THAN ALLAH IF YE SPEAK THE TRUTH (Q11: 13)

IF THEN THEY (YOUR FALSE god) ANSWER NOT YOUR (CALL) KNOW YE THAT THIS REVELATION IS SENT DOWN (REPLETE) WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF ALLAH, AND THAT THERE IS NO god but HE! WILL YE EVEN THEN SUBMIT (TO ISLAM)? (Q11:14)

I hope with this you need to know the Qur'an is from ALLAH and not from an intelligent man,

A word is enough for the wise,

We thank Allah, the Almighty God Who alone truly creates. The importance of Suratul fatiha could not be emphasiszed enough. There is a story, where sayidina Ali bin Abitalib (RA), was in the company of the muslims. It was after Salatul Isha. As they gathered around him, for the explanation of Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, he began with Ba (the fisletter of the Bismillah. He did not finish the explanation of it, until the Ahdan of Salatul Subh, at fajr time was called.

We should now move to Surah Baqarah; The longerst Chapter of the glorious Qur'an. The Surah, Chapter 2 discusses many and all details of Islamic disciplines. First, there are 286 verses, having the most important single verse and as well as the longest verse in all of Qur'an. The first verse are simple but unexplained 3 single letters of alif, Laaam, Miiim. Only God Almight alone knows the meaning. This is an indication that the human knowledge is limited and only God alone has complete knowledge. (We should also ponder that if it has been a human mind that penned this masterpiece, it will be unwise for that mind to pen a thing he himself does not have 100% complete knowledge of every part of it). We will leave the first verse, having these 3 letters alone along with the other verses in AlQur'an, like knowledge of the Soul, as Allah is the only One who has the knowledge of them. (We accept them as the Prophet himself accpeted them.And if we we find any further explanation(s), leading to the prophet, we will embrace them without any reservation).

The next 4 verses with the first actually describe the believers, the group of people who would recite the first surah Fatiha, in prayer. (Remember tht this Surah fatiha, is a complete prayer. And the rest of the Qur'an is an answer of that prayer, providing the proper course to be charted for full acceptance of the prayer, in order to receive complete Mercy, by the Will of Allah from Him, alone).


(I) Begin with the Name of Allâh WHO is Most Loving and Most Merciful



1. Alif-Lâm-Mîm (Aliflâmmîm -- these letters are called prefixes, muqatta’at, only Allâh, subhaana wa ta’aala, Knows the meanings).


2. This (Al-Qur'ân) is the Book of Allâh there is no doubt in it. It is guidance for those self-restraining people (Al-Muttaqûn)


3. Who bring Faith in an unseen (Ghaib), establish prayer (As-Salât), the provisions WE (Allâh, subhaana wa ta’aala) have given them, (they) spend from it,


4. The Book (Al-Qur'ân) which has been revealed to you (Muhammad sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and the Books which were sent down before you (they) bring Faith in all of those, and have Faith on the Day of Judgment.


5. Such people are on the Straight Path from their Râbb and they are going to be successful.

These five verse gives a complete in a nutshell, overview of what a believer, a muslim is to be, in quidance, belief, worship and deeds of action. In due time, we will see the differences between this group (may Allah count us among them. Amin), and others as disbelievers (people of other religions), and the hypocrites ( a group of muslims who just say it by their tongue, or in public, but their hearts and in secret, are completely the opposite. may Allah not count us among them. Amin)

Oh Muslims, male and female, contribute and make propagation of your religion. Invite people to it, by good manners and excellent deeds. Your responsibility is just the invitation and the making of muslims, is Allah's alone. It reminds me of a story of an american white, who became a muslim, even though the Arabs he had known for many years did not invite him.

He was in the company of muslims after his conversion, and he greeted an arab in the following manner, "AS Salaamualaykum ya kafiri!" The Arab was shocked nd asked why would this white American muslim called him kafiri? The American said to him: Even though you have the truth, you kept it for yourself as you came to us. It is your not inviting us to this noble religion, that my forebearers did not know about it. And they died not knowing anything, not having the chance to acept or reject.

We should not let anyone have the right to say that to us. The history of the righteous forebearers in Islam is what we should follow. And not the greed and the selfishness of those who keep this religion to themselves. God Almighty Allah will protect us from all our open and secret enemies. Amin.

Surah Baqarah continued: We discussed about the believers in the last session. Now, we need to talk about the Dis believers. There are two types of disbelievers; those who are outright in disbelief and you can see it. They are known as kafr. The others are those who hide their disbelief in their heart. These are the munafiq, they are from the ranks of the muslims. We will tackle the first group before we go to the second group of closet disbelievers.


6. As to those who reject Faith, it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe.

7. Allah hath set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a veil; great is the penalty they (incur).

These people truly believe that their religions or ways are correct to God. They may be straight up Idol worshippers like buhhdist, hindu or not, like Judaism or Christains or not even in either camp, like the Agnostics and or Atheists, etc. But they are all disbelievers in Truly one god and the total chain links of all the prophets and messengers to one another in successions. They do not believe in all the books. And of course reject some Angels and declare open enemity to such and such an Angel. Finally, they reject the true religion that has been in practice in this form or the other, from Adam to now and the end of time. Amongs themselves they differ about books that are correct, even though they use the same book. Example is the Jew who does not belief in the New Testament. But surprisingly, the Christian whave the Old Testament in their complete book of bible, but reject and go against the verses that do not fit teir agenda thereof.