Sermon Of
Imam A. M. Khattab
Jan.11, 1932---Sept.15, 2001
Imam and Director
Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Ohio
1982-1998
SURA QĀF (PART I)
I am going to go through the verses of Sura Qāf (Qaaf) one by one and explain them according to the tafseers of the Qur’ān written by past scholars. Then I am going to deal with it from the point of view of our own time to see what we can gain from these Qur’ānic verses and to see what is the function behind their revelation and how they are pertinent to our life nowadays. The Prophet, peace be upon him, described it as a very powerful sura in the Qur’an and he used to repeat it on many occasions. It is dealing with death, with resurrection, and with questioning and accountability of man before his Creator.
The various suras of the Qur’an were revealed either in Makkah or in Madinah. Sura Qāf is a Makkan revelation. The revelations in Makkah are characterized by being geared towards the essentials of the faith, particularly the essential belief in the oneness of God, resurrection after death, believing in the Day of Judgment and believing in the accountability of man before God. The suras that were revealed in Madinah are of a legislative type. They give us the rules of conduct. They explain ways of worshipping.
The opening letter of the sura is Qāf, one of the letters of the Arabic alphabet. There are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet. However, this was not always the case. A long time ago the Arabic alphabet had 29 letters. But with the passing of time one letter was deleted and now there are 28 letters. I am sure those who attended school back home in the olden times are familiar with a character then known as “laamalif”. Laamalif was in fact, a combination of two characters— Laam [L] and Alif [A]. So if you come across anyone teaching Arabic nowadays using 29 letters, then you can be sure that he is a teacher from bygone days.
The letter Qāf is a unique letter. You don't find it in any other language. It exists in languages, which use the Arabic alphabet only, such as Urdu and Persian. When the word “Qur’an” is translated into English some people spell it with a K, while others spell it with a Q. As a result, sometimes you have a translation of the Qur’ān in English, and you find the title written two different ways: “The meaning of the Qur’ān” and they spell it either as K-O-R-A-N or as Q-U-R-A-N.
Qāf is a perplexing character. Although Qāf is commonly used and, though it is a full Arabic character, in our normal conversations nowadays, some people pronounce the Qāf as Alif. For example, when talking, instead of "Qal" (said) we say "aal", except if one is in Sultan Yaqoob [a village in Lebanon from where a large number of the audience listening to the sermon are from] where they pronounce Qāf as Qāf and say “Qal” and “Qulna”— eh? But, in most of the other Arab countries, they changed the Qāf into Alif. They say: “Aal”, “this person aal…” [Meaning: this person said]
In the Qur’ān you find suras that start with:
|
Alif, Lām, Mēm Alif, Lām, Rau Hā, Mēm Qāf, Hā, Yā, Ayn, Sād |
A, L, M A, L, R H, M Q, H, Y, A, S |
[“Ayn” and “Sād” are written in English as an A with a dot underneath and S with a dot underneath to distinguish them from A and S respectively because they do not have an equivalent in English].
When we read these letters normally we ask what is the meaning of these characters? What is the meaning of Qaaf, for example? Or what is the meaning of Nūn (noon)? Or what is the meaning of alif, laam, meem? Many of the ulama did not give any opinion and they said that is something we don't know and it is better to keep away from it because God only knows what He meant by that. Other ulama ventured an opinion.
In Islamic history there are famous sooqs known as Sooq ‘Ukadh, Sooq Dhu-l-Majannah and Sooq Dhu-l-Majaaz. These are areas in the Arabian Peninsula where the Arabs used to meet on certain occasions to compete with each other and excel in using the highest style of Arabic language. So in the midst of such a situation the Qur'an came as a miracle to challenge those people. The scholars explain the challenge from Allah to the Arabs thus: ‘This Qur'an consists of Arabic alphabets like the letter (Qaaf) and if you claim that this is not the word of God then you produce something similar to it. If you deny Muhammad and insist that this is his word—that this Qur’an is written by a human being—then you are human beings like him who know the language why don't you produce something similar. Write such a word, write such a Qur'an which consists of these alphabetical letters which you know’. This is one opinion of past scholars of the Qur’ān. And, we find that this challenge came in the Qur’ān in three degrees: the first is a challenge to write something like the Qur’ān; when they failed, another verse came asking them to write something equal to ten chapters of it; when they failed at that, their task was reduced to writing just one sura [chapter] like it. When they failed for the third time, a revelation in the Qur’ān came to confirm their failure by proclaiming: “If the Jinn and the human kind gathered together and backed one another to write such a Qur’ān they will fail to do so”. So this is the highest type of challenge to those who deny the Qur’ān as being the revealed word of God.
Normally we find that in the Qur’ān chapters are named after an incident occurring in it. We have Sura Al Baqarah, for example. Why is it named Al Baqarah? Because there is a whole story about Al Baqarah (The Cow). When Moses, alayhi salaam (upon him be peace), went to the Jews and said to them: “God ordered you to slaughter a cow”. They said to him: “What is it? Tell us about it.” So Moses gave them some description. Then they waited for a while and said: “Ask your God what is the color of the cow which He wants us to slaughter.” Moses said: “It is a yellow cow, very shining in color, it appears attractive to people who look at it.” Then the Jews or Israelites came back to Moses for the third time and said: “There are lots of similarities among the cows; tell your God to give us some more details.” So finally Moses came with some more description and they finally agreed to slaughter the cow.
In our present time what lessons can we learn from the above story? We can discern what we call “At tasweef [procrastination] wa qatul-l waqt min qibal al-yahuud” meaning: it is the habit of the Jews to do something to bide for time. When Moses came to them for the first time they said: “Hmm, tell us about that cow.” He came again and they asked about its color. When he came back with an answer, they asked for more information because there is great similarity among the cows— the shuttle diplomacy! It is the dangerous kind, which we have nowadays. That is the way the Jews act to gain time. With this Qur’ānic verse in mind if one had followed the news of the peace conference among the Arabs and the Jews taking place [Madrid in the fall of 1990], you would have found the same scenario being played out today. It took them two months to agree just where to meet!
If we understand our Qur’ān in the context of our present life, it will show us the way we should act in our life of the 20th-century. But our problem as Muslims is that we stick to the explanations of the Qur’ān from 300 and 500 hundred years ago expounded by people who were thinking according to their mentality, their knowledge, their time and environment and their circumstances. Today we have to think it more because we have more knowledge, our minds and our horizons are wider, and our ten-year-old kids are what we call computer age children. They know better than us when we were in the University. So we have to take these things into consideration when we read and understand the Qur’ān.
What is Qāf? It is the first “word” in the Sura of that name. And the first word after Qāf is "wal Qur’ān-il majeed". The word Qur’ān starts with the letter Qāf, so they say the importance of the letter Qāf is that it is also the first letter of the word Qur’ān. This is another opinion. With the invention of the computer two more opinions have come about which might invite a Muslim to think. There is no need to take anything as definitive but, at least, it will open one’s mind to think.
Today the Qur’ān is on computer and one can search for the number of times certain words occur all over the Qur’ān. Ask the computer how many Qāfs there are in this chapter and you will find that the letter Qāf is mentioned in it more than in any other chapter in the Qur’ān. To me personally, that is why it is called Chapter Qāf. That is my personal ijtehad. I could be right and I could be wrong. But that is how I look at it.
There is nothing definitive regarding any of these explanations and one is inclined to think that, may be, all these explanations of the Qur’ān which are now current, may become, at a certain point in time, obsolete. And this proves that the Qur’ān poses a continuing challenge until the end of time because it came as a challenge. What concerns us here, as Muslims, is that we should not exceed our limits.
In our modern times someone utilized the computer and came up with another opinion and though he went far beyond the limits which he should have heeded, there is, still, something attractive in his research also. This man who utilized the computer to arrive at his conclusions is dead now. However, the computer fascinated him to such an extent that he deviated from the limits when he should have stopped. This man concluded there are 57 Qāfs in Sura Qāf. He found, too, that in Sura Dhāriyāt the number of Qāfs is 57. He added the two figures, which total 114 and this is equal to the number of chapters (suras) in the Qur’ān.
This man aligned himself with the group called the Baha'is, which was supporting him financially. The Baha'i have the belief that Muslims, Christians and Jews are one unit and that they are to live together in peace. So the obligations of Islam are of no significance for them, what they are concerned with is peace. To them the year is 19 months not 12, and a month has 19 days. The number 19 is sacred to them and their reason for 19 being sacrosanct is found, according to them, in Sura al-Muddaththir (Sura number 74), which says in the description of Jahannam [hell], that “there are 19 angels over it” [74:30].
This person who utilized the computer to search the Qur’an began to defer to Baha’i beliefs, and he considered the number 19 as sacred too. By playing with various numbers he started to issue certain conclusions. For example, he calculated that the number of Qāfs in the two suras of Al Qāf and Ad Dhāriyāt add up to 114 as mentioned before, which is the total number of suras in the Qur’ān. Then he said that if you divide this number 114 by 19 there will be no remainder.
He then went on to analyze other suras in this way. For example, take Sura at-Tawbah (Sura number 9), which ends by the Qur’ānic verses—Imam quotes them in Arabic. [These verses, quoted by Imam, are 128 and 129: “Indeed, there has come unto you (O mankind) an Apostle from among yourselves: heavily weighs upon him (the thought) that you might suffer (in the life to come); full of concern for you is he and full of compassion and mercy towards the believers. But, if those who are bent on denying the truth turn away, say: ‘God is enough for me! There is no deity save Him. In Him have I placed my trust, for He is the Sustainer, in awesome almightiness enthroned.” [Translation M.Asad]. He said that the number of verses in this chapter when divided by the number 19 will yield a remainder two and, therefore, he concluded that these two verses are not from the Qur’ān and that they are inserted.
Such conclusions discredited all his research, and then he went on in that business even further and made predictions for the Day of Judgment based on his computer analysis. And of course this is contradictory to the Qur’ānic verses: “They ask you, Muhammad, about the Day of Judgment, say to them that the knowledge of that is limited to the knowledge of God.” And even when the Angel Jibreel came to Muhammad and asked him: “When will the Day of Judgment come?” The Prophet said: “The one who is asked is of no more knowledge than the one who is asking.” Definitely no one knows about the coming of the Day of Judgment but our brother equipped with a computer, computed even a specific time for it.
The foregoing research, which he called mathematical research of the Qur’ān, at least, opens our minds to something, which may perplex us more. But then that's the job of the Qur’ān: to perplex you; it's an everlasting challenge and we will never reach a definite answer with regard to it. As the Qur’ān put it: “If the Jinn and the human kind are gathered together and backed one another they will never be able to write such a Qur’ān”. That is the challenge! So, the more perplexed we are the more research we should be doing. As a consequence of our research we should become more knowledgeable during that time period and this will prove the statement that the Qur’ān is applicable everywhere and in all times. At least that is what we can gain from that kind of research but there is no need to reach conclusions with regard to it.
The first verse of Chapter Qāf represents an oath. God is making the oath: “Qaaf. wal Qur'anil majeed.” (Qāf. I swear by the sublime Qur’ān!) And normally when God makes an oath by something it must be a great thing! The oath, therefore, indicates the greatness of this Book—the Glorious Qur’ān— and by turn it indicates the greatness of the One who revealed it. That greatness is apparent nowadays. In the olden times, if you look into the tafseers of five and six hundred years ago, you find all the concentration is on the linguistic challenge of the Qur’ān. What is occupying the mind of the people nowadays is the science and technology and we find, in our era, that there is another kind of challenge in the Qur’an as well: a scientific challenge.
While we find that the Jews and the Christians falsified science at certain times because it did not match the Torah (Old Testament) or Injeel (Bible), as they understood them, we, the Muslims, agree with science in many cases. Knowledge does not belong to any religion or to any specific people. It does not belong to the West and it does not belong to the East. Knowledge is the production of the human mind and we have to Islamise it. Yet we cannot Islamise it until we utilize our brain and we utilize our Qur'an. Could any scholar existing four or five hundred years ago understand the developmental stages of the child in the womb of his mother as they are detailed in the Qur'an in Sura Al Mo'minoon? Imam quotes the verses. See these stages? Two points are to be noted: 1. No one (including Muhammad) knew about these stages in the development of the intrauterine embryo four or five hundred years ago. 2. No one could fathom, five hundred years ago, the meaning of these verses, which describe the stages of embryonic development as stated in the Qur’ān because of their lack of knowledge. It did not make sense to those people. Embryology is a new science discovered after advances in anatomy, coupled with the use of x-ray and ultrasound equipment made it possible to understand these things while all this is mentioned in the Qur'an revealed more than 1400 years ago.
The Qur’ān tells us about the creation of the first human being—Adam—that he was originally created from a piece of mud (clay or dust) and water. That is the origin of man. The subsequent creation of man is described in the Qur’an as originating from a sperm, which is deposited in “qaraar makeen.” See the description of the Qur'an? Qaraar makeen is descriptive of a place with certain qualities that suit the development of a new human being. It means “a place of rest firmly fixed” (the womb of the mother) built specially for this task. And from that stage of a sperm God creates ‘alqah. ‘Alqah means piece of blood, thick blood, and the word 'alqah in the Arabic language implies that this thick clot of blood is not in the bottom of the womb but it is hanging from the roof of the womb. So even the name is indicative of its location. In the next stage the thick clot of blood is converted into "mudghah". Mudghah is taken from “ma yamdughuhu-l-insaanu”(the piece of bread which one chews and swallows). It means that this new human being moved to the third stage to be a little piece of flesh big enough for someone to swallow—a piece of flesh the size of a morsel. And from that little thing God creates the bones and then clothes the bones with flesh. Then that final stage is: “We made him a new human being (khalqan aakhar)”. It means that the second Unseen element, what we call the Soul, is finally inserted. [13:23]
As Muslims we are frequently asked the question: what do you think of abortion?
On the basis of the above Qur’ānic passage the ulama of Islam have different opinions with regard to abortion. Abortion as a general rule is prohibited because it is killing a prospective human being. That is the general rule. Some ulama came with exceptions and said that if we are to select between the survival of the child and the mother we have to sacrifice the child because the mother is the origin. And they put it in that form: “We cannot sacrifice the origin for the branch”. That is one opinion. The other ulama went a little bit further and said: if the Qur'an talks about “Then We made him a new human being” (thumma ansha'naho khalqan aakhar) it means that prior to that stage the embryo is not a human being or "khalqan aakhar" or a complete creation; there is no Soul in it. So, therefore, if you abort a woman at that stage you didn't kill anyone because there is no Soul and you did not separate a body from a Soul. That is another opinion. When does the fetus reach that stage? Some of the ulama said four months or120 days, when the child moves in the womb of the mother and she feels the movement, then that is when the Soul enters the body. But, however, this is the weak opinion among the Muslim ulama and it is not the opinion of the majority. Sometimes, however, it makes sense to adopt this opinion especially if there is a need and the abortion prior to the 120 days will be legitimate.
If you take the above analysis and compare it to the analysis of several hundreds of years ago then we have to conclude that this word, which is the Qur'an, must be the word of The Aware, the One who is aware of everything. That is the challenge to the Arabs and, indeed, all men, that you cannot write such a word because you don't know while the One who has dictated this Word through the Angel Jibreel to His messenger is aware of everything. As a result He put these scientific statements about human birth in the Qur’an whose veracity is only just now being verified in our era. This is an example of just one thing, but if we go through the Qur'an we find scientific statements on a host of other topics such as, e.g. the hydrologic cycle. We have a book, “The Bible, the Qur’an and Science” here in the library written by a French man. His name is Maurice Bucaille (Imam pronounces this in Arabic!). That French man converted to Islam. This book is available in Arabic, in English and in French. He collected and classified under different headings all the scientific type statements occurring in the Qur'an the Bible and the Old Testament. He then scrutinized each statement in the full light of scientific knowledge as it exists today. While not a single statement in the Bible or the Torah withstood such scrutiny, on the other hand, not even one statement in the Qur’an has been disproven.
Now we go back to our topic, which is Sura Qaf, about which we read in our tafseers nowadays that either God only knows what is the meaning of the letter Qaaf at the beginning of the sura or that it is a linguistic challenge. But now we can say that the Qur'an is not only a linguistic challenge but a challenge on the level of some basic sciences as well. And because of that greatness of the Qur'an, God made an oath on it: “Qaaf. wal -Qur'anil majeed.” Then the verse proceeds to show why God is making that oath.
posted 09/6/2003