we declare Your Perfection above and beyond all: we have no knowledge whatsoever except what You have taught us. No doubt it is You, and You alone that is all Knowledgeable and all Wise. (al-Baqarah, 32)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Amazing facts about the Quran - the precision in arrangements


The Quran is a Book full of wisdom. And said wisdom doesn't only show in the contents but also through the way the speech is presented. This is one of the most amazing features of the Quran that is easily overlooked by simply reading it casually - the eloquence of the arrangements of words.

To give a basic example of this, let's look at this ayat from surah An-Nur


يَوْمَ تَشْهَدُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَلْسِنَتُهُمْ وَأَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَرْجُلُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
On the day when their tongues and their hands and their feet testify against them as to what they used to do (24: 24)

This ayat is referring to a scene of the Day of Judgement. Notice how these words are sequenced here, "their tongue and their hands and their feet". This sequence tells us something. It tells us the order in which our own body parts will testify against us on that Day.

Why is the tongue the first to give the testimony? It's because it's the organ that whether we realise is or not, will commit the most crime. So the tongue will have to give the most testimony. The next one to commit the most crime will be the hands and finally, the feet which only lead the hands and tongue to where they are used.

Just in this sequence is a profound lesson for us to be aware of out tongue the most. SubhanAllah.

Here's something a bit more complex. We find in two surah where Allah Azza wa Jall says something very similar :

وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَوْلَادَكُمْ مِنْ إِمْلَاقٍ ۖ نَحْنُ نَرْزُقُكُمْ وَإِيَّاهُمْ
and do not kill your children because of poverty, We provide for you and them (6:151)

وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَوْلَادَكُمْ خَشْيَةَ إِمْلَاقٍ ۖ نَحْنُ نَرْزُقُهُمْ وَإِيَّاكُمْ
and do not kill your children due to fear of poverty, We provide for them and for you” (17:31)

It's easy to dismiss the small difference between "We provide for you and them" and "We provide them and you" and say they're the same thing said differently, but as I've mentioned in another post, the Quran is hyper sensitive even in its sentence structure.

In the first ayat, Allah Azza wa Jall says "do not kill you children BECAUSE OF poverty", indicating the family is already poor so the first thing they worry about is themselves. So He says "We provide for you" first and "them" i.e the children later.

In the second ayat, Allah Azza wa Jall says "do not kill your children DUE TO FEAR of poverty", indicating a family who fears of poverty after having children for fear of not having enough to provide for the children. This family is thinking about the children first, so He says "We provide for them (the children)" first and "you" later.

SubhanAllah! See how perfect the words are arranged? Again, I would like to say here as I've said in a previous post; It is impossible for such perfection in speech to be uttered verbally without some kind of draft. But that is exactly how this Quran was revealed. An evidence that this Quran is no speech of a man but the speech of the Lord Himself, revealed through the mouth the Messenger, Muhammad s.a.w.

The Quran is like a gold mine that is full of hidden gems of wisdom. There is just no end to how much wealth we can gain out of it. We only need to start putting effort into it.

Wallahua'lam.


2 free comments:

Jarod Yong said...

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

Najib Azmi said...

thanks for reading =)

 
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