SPIRIT OF ISLAM MAY 2O18

6 Spirit of Islam Issue 65 May 2018 The most repeated invocation in the Quran is “In the name of God, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful”. The occurrence of this invocation 114 times in the Quran is in itself an indication of its importance. Every piece of work must have a beginning. It is the Quran’s desire that when one initiates any undertaking one should begin by uttering the name of God. One is thus always reminded of God’s attributes of benevolence and compassion. The Quran is a medium sized book as far as its volume is concerned. It comprises of 114 chapters or surahs . The Quran is a revealed book: it is not authored by a human being. It is the actual word of God in human language. The Quran began to be revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, through the angel Gabriel, in 610 AD, while the Prophet was sitting in seclusion in the cave of Hira at the top of the Mountain of Light, two miles from Makkah. The Quran was not revealed in book form at one point of time. Its various parts were revealed as the occasion demanded. It was later compiled in Madinah during the last days of the Prophet. The entire revelation was completed over a period of 23 years. The last passage was revealed to the Prophet while he was addressing a gathering at Mount Arafat after performing his last Hajj in 622 AD. Since the Quran came into existence prior to the era of the press, it could be preserved in only two ways: either by committing the entire text to memory or by writing it on paper or other materials. That is why there have always been a large number of hafiz (those who committed the entire Quran to memory), in every age right from the moment of revelation of the Quran to the present day. The earliest written copies of the Quran are still available in different museums, one of these being in Tashkent. When any part of the Quran was revealed to the Prophet, he used to recite it to his Companions. Since the verses of the Quran were recited during prayer the Companions had to memorize them in order to recite them in their daily prayers. In this way the memorization and the transcription of the Quran both started from the very first day of revelation. Whenever a revelation was received, the Prophet would call one of his scriber Companions and dictated the verses to him. After dictation the Prophet would ask the The Quran asserts that human beings are eternal creatures, yet only an extremely small part of their lifespan has been assigned to this present world, the remainder is ordained for the Hereafter.