What does revelation mean? Explain the different types of revelations. Explain the types of revelations that our Prophet received. What type of revelation was the Qur’an that was sent to our Prophet by Allah? Which prophets were sent divine books and booklets? How was the Qur’an delivered and what were the first verses that were revealed? Explain how the Qur’an was written. What does the word Mushaf refer to? What are the attributes of the Qur’an? What are our duties towards the Qur’an? Memorize five hadiths regarding the virtues of reciting the Qur’an.
Topics:
- The nature and the types of revelations
- Divine Books and Scriptures
- The Revelation of the Holy Qur’an
- The script of the Holy Qur’an and how it was transformed into a book
- The characteristics of the Holy Qur’an
- Our duties towards the Holy Qur’an
- Sacred statements by our Prophet about the virtues of reciting the Qur’an (Reading)
THE NATURE OF REVELATIONS
Revelation literally means to notify something quickly and secretly to someone. In a religious context, it means an expression of certain knowledge notified to the prophets directly by Allah or through a messenger.
This is one of the special ways by which Allah notifies His commands to His chosen servants. Allah has made His word heard to the prophets through various types of revelations.
TYPES OF REVELATIONS
1) Faithful dreams: Allah has notified the prophets the messages through true dreams. The first revelation that came to our Prophet was a true dream and each dream He saw turned out to be true.
2) Through inspiration: Allah directly put His message into the hearts of the prophets directly without any intermediary.
3) Words from behind a curtain: To hear Allah’s words directly as if they come from behind a curtain, without seeing the teller.
4) Revelation through an intermediary (Angel): Allah the Almighty has notified His words through an angel to His Prophets.
The angel notifying Allah’s word to the prophets would sometimes appear in their own form. Or the angel would appear in the form of a person, so that everyone could see and hear the angel.
Sometimes, the angel would notify a revelation to the prophets without being seen.
Most of the Qur’anic verses were revealed to our Prophet through an intermediary angel. The angel who brought the Qur’an from Allah to our Prophet is the archangel Jibreel.
DIVINE BOOKS AND SCRIPTURES
The third of six conditions of faith is to believe in Allah’s books. Allah the Almighty has sent books to His servants conveyed by the prophets. These books deliver Allah’s commandments and prohibitions to us; teach us the duties that servants must perform and the ways to obtain happiness in this world and in the Hereafter.
We Muslims believe in all of the books sent to all of the prophets. However, the divine books before the Qur’an have been corrupted and changed by people over time. It is for this reason that we believe in their uncorrupted form as sent to the prophets and not in their current corrupted states. Only the Qur’an has been under the divine protection, and has never been changed until today.
Some books sent by Allah to the prophets are small booklets, consisting of only a few pages. They are called “SUHUF”, which literally means “pages”.
The other books are called “Four Major Books.”
Pages were sent to the following prophets:
1) 10 pages to Adam (alayhi as-salãm),
2) 50 pages to Shith (alayhi as-salãm),
3) 30 pages to Idris (alayhi as-salãm),
4) 10 pages to Ibrahim (alayhi as-salãm).
The four holy books were:
1) The Torah to Musa (alayhi as-salãm),
2) The Zabur (Psalms) to Dawud (alayhi as-salãm),
3) The Bible to Isa (alayhi as-salãm),
4) The Qur’an to our Prophet Muhammad (saw).
THE REVELATION OF THE HOLY QUR’AN
Shortly before prophethood was bestowed upon our Prophet Muhammad (saw), He retired to the cave of Hira, located at Jabal al-Nour (The Mountain of Light) close to Mecca, and occupied himself with the thinking of Allah’s greatness.
When Muhammad (saw) went to seclusion in the cave of Hira, on one of the Monday nights in the month of Ramadan in 610, He turned to Allah with all His heart and mind. It was at this time that, with Allah’s command, the archangel Jibreel went to our Prophet and said, “Read.” This command was repeated three times. When our beloved Prophet said, “What should I read?”, Jibreel delivered the first five verses of the Qur’an to him. Thus, the first revelation was received and the Qur’an began to be formed.
When the first revelation was received, our Prophet (saw) was forty years old. The meaning of those first five verses of Surah al-‘Alaq is as follows:
1) Recite in the name of your Lord who created.
2) Created man from a clinging substance.
3) Recite, your Lord is the most Generous.
4) Who taught by the pen –
5) Taught man that which he knew not.
It was disclosed to the Prophet Muhammad (saw) with the revelation of the Qur’an that He was the last prophet. The Qur’an was delivered in parts in over 23 years, sometimes verse by verse and sometimes chapter-by-chapter (surah). Verses were mostly revealed as a response to a question or an incident. The question or incident that caused the verse to be revealed is called “reason for revelation” (sabab al-nuzul).
The last verse revealed in the Qur’an was verse 281 of Surah al-Baqarah, which means:
“And fear a Day when you will be returned to Allah. Then every person will be compensated for what he earned, and they will not be treated unjustly.”
THE SCRIPT OF THE HOLY QUR’AN AND HOW IT WAS TRANSFORMED INTO A BOOK
As the verses of the Qur’an were revealed, our Prophet (saw) called upon the scribes who wrote down the revelation and showed them which verses were part of which chapters and in what order. The revelation scribes would write as it was shown to them. Some of the Companions of our Prophet memorized the verses revealed. By this way, the Qur’an was conserved both in writing and in memory since the time of our Prophet.
Since verses were still being revealed during the life of our Prophet, the written pages had not yet formed into a book. The Qur’an was completed when the revelations ended.
After the death of our Prophet (saw), the Caliph Abu Bakr established a commission of the leading Companions (Sahabahs). This commission gathered the individual pages of the Qur’an together and compared them with the verses memorized by the Companions and transformed them into a book. This collection was called the book, or “Mushaf.”
In this process, the chapters were arranged in the order shown by our Prophet. This mushaf was preserved by Abu Bakr.
As Islam spread, copies of the Qur’an were produced and sent to various Muslim Nations by the third Caliph Uthman.
Thus, the Qur’an has been conserved as it was revealed to our Prophet without any change until the present day and it will remain the same until Judgment Day. The Qur’an that we have today is the same copy that was written and memorized during the time of our Prophet, transformed into a book during the time of Abu Bakr and reproduced during Uthman’s era.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOLY QUR’AN
The Qur’an is a holy book that was sent to Muslims by Allah through the last and greatest Prophet.
There are many specific characteristics that differentiate the Qur’an from the other divine books.
The main attributes are:
- a) The Qur’an has reached us without any change as it was revealed to our Prophet. This will continue until the Day of Judgment.
Some sacred books had been completely lost and yet some others had been altered or corrupted by people. None of them could be preserved in the form that Allah sent.
Allah the Almighty gave an assurance with the following verse that He will protect the Qur’an:
Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian. [5]
Allah the Almighty protected our sacred book the Holy Qur’an to this day and will continue to protect it until the Day of Judgment.
- b) The Qur’an was revealed part by part in verses and chapters in response to the questions and the incidents. This ensured that we could easily memorize and understand it.
- c) The Qur’an is the last divine book, and no other book will be sent. The rulings of the Qur’an are valid until Judgment Day and they will not be changed.
- d) The Qur’an is a book sent to the humankind. It is equipped with the truth and wisdom to meet the needs of each century. Whereas other sacred books were sent to specific nations.
- e) The Qur’an is our Prophet’s greatest miracle, a unique miracle with its words, its meanings and the lofty truth it carries.
OUR DUTIES TOWARDS THE HOLY QUR’AN
1) Every Muslim must know that the Qur’an is the word of Allah and must recite it without error following the rules of tajweed.
2) We are allowed to hold the Qur’an while we are in a state of ablution and commence reciting it with the Basmala. We should face the qiblah when possible when reciting the Qur’an and try to learn the meaning of it.
3) We should recite the Qur’an in clean places and not next to people busy with other things or people who are not listening.
4) We should listen with respect those reciting the Qur’an.
5) We should keep the Qur’an in clean and not to put in lower places.
6) We should do the things that the Qur’an commands and refrain from the things that it tells us not to do. We should act in accordance with the morals and principles laid down in the Qur’an.
READING:
The sacred words of our Prophet regarding the virtues of reciting the Qur’an:
“The most auspicious among you are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.”
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“There is merit for whoever reads a letter of the Qur’an, the book of Allah. Each merit is to be given multiplied by ten times.”
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“A multitude of merits will be given to whoever listens to one verse of the Qur’an, the book of Allah. And there will be a divine light on the Day of Judgment for those who recite one verse of the book of Allah.”
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“Recite the Qur’an, for it will become an intercessor for the reader on Day of Judgment.”
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“Whoever reads the Qur’an and acts according to it, their mother and father will be adorned on the day of judgment with a crown of light whose gleam is like that of the sun. Now, you calculate the merits of acting accordingly.”
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Our Prophet (saw) said to Abu Dharr:
“Learning one verse of the Qur’an, the book of Allah before leaving home in the morning is more auspicious for you than 100 rakahs of nafilah (additional) prayer.”
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“Whoever reads the Qur’an and memorizes it believing its halal to be halal and regards its haram to be haram, Allah will place him in paradise and accept intercession for ten of his relatives deserving Hell.”[6]