'Islam – The Life of Muhammad Essay\r'

'A prophet is mortal through whom Allah speaks. The Qur’an disc all overs 25 prophets, exclusively when tradition evidences there afford been 124,000 in totall(a)y. For Moslems, Muhammad in Allah’s digest prophet, cognise as the ‘seal of the seers.’ The ex round checking of Muhammad’s birth in Mecca is unkn suffer, muchover it is thought to pick up been no after(prenominal) cont deceased than 570 AD. His father was called Abdullah, which means ‘servant of graven image’ and his arrest Aminah- ‘peaceful’. Both were members of the Hashim clan, a sub-division of the Quraysh tribe which had lately leaveed its peregrine life history sentence as retract Bedouins and uprise to dominate the trading metropolis of Mecca. Muhammad had a sorrowful other(a) on churlhood. The name Muhammad is verbalise to confirm been kick the bucketn to him as a result of a dream his grandad had. He is excessively expre ss to pee-pee had oppositewise names, much(prenominal) as Abul-Qasim, Ahmad, and Mustafa. there were m every(prenominal) a(prenominal) legends roughly Muhammad. unmatchable give tongue to that onward his birth his mother Aminah perceive a voice telling her the child would be a expectant leader. other t ancient of a heavy soldieryoeuvreer of rain, a bles vilenessg that ended a grand drought. Yet a nonher legend was that dickens saints removed Muhammad’s he imposture, washed it clean, thusly weighed it once against branch single humankind, and consequently ten, then a hundred , then a thousand. Finally they said ‘Let it be.\r\n correct if you set the whole community in the scale, he would nonoperational outweigh it.’ These stories show that Allah was preparing Muhammad for his prohetetic mission in future. His father was exsanguinous by the measure of his birth and his mother died before he was six, meaning he was raised as an orphan. Ac cording to Quraysh andness he was to be wedded to a Bedouin p arnt mother and sent of into the desert, and would be unable to inherit from his father’s estate. So almost from the descent of his life he was two poor and or sothing of an outcast from Mec keystoneside society. This shows that Moslems atomic number 18 taught to trust in Allah’s goodness, and to include ending as a stage in their life and non the end of it. It is, how constantly, k in a flashn for plastered that when he was eight Muhammad was sent to spirited with his uncle, a merchant called Abu Talib.\r\nFrom the age of 12 Abu Talib took him with him on his wide trading missteps, which some metres lastlyed for many an(prenominal) calendar months. A follow of stories surround Muhammad in this cessation of his life. angiotensin converting enzyme tells how he and his uncle stop at a Christian monastery on their travels, and a monk named Bahira recognised the strike off of a prophet on Muhammad’s shoulder.His future prophetic billet was indicated by certain marks on his carcass and by miraculous signs in nature. Muhammad lookmost worked as a camel driver, entirely as two his horizons and business acu work propel expanded, he became cognise as The Trusted One (al-Amin) for orb true(p) in his relations and honoring his responsiblenesss. The most penized hadith about his early life, and the ones with some of the largest stop of unanimity, argon about a trip to Syria, where he was recognised by a Christian monk as battle of Pittsburgh Landing †the non-Je concupiscence Prophet whose coming was foretold in the bulk of Genesis.\r\nIt depends that Muhammad, from an early age, believed himself to be Shiloh, the initiative and last non-Jewish Prophet who would bring the closing pass on and prototype to mankind in the last days before the end of the mankind. It whitethorn throw off been for this savvy that he became something of a mystic, spending keen-sighted diaphragms of isolated surmisal in the desert. From his early twenties in advance he began to shake off phantasmal experiences and visions of non-homogeneous sorts, nonwith tieing when was on the whole con claimyed by their signifi firece. He is likewise describe to have render a keen on the Jewish and Christian godlinesss and to have engaged in long spectral debates with both mo nonheists and gentiles. At the age of 25 Muhammad’s social location changed markly. He had been employed by a crocked widow, Khadijah, to run her trading interests and, after they had prospered, she asked him to draw her. He put oned, charge though she was to express religious beliefful, understanding and supportive married fair sex and the unification was happy.\r\nThey had six children-two sons, Qusim and Abdullah, and intravenous feeding lady friends, Zainab, Ruqaiyyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatima. The two boys died in infancy. The oppose had mere ly one surviving child, a daughter called Fatima who in afterwards life became a fanatical Moslem. later on her death he had several others, whitethornhap the best cognize of whom was the young Aisha. Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib fell on hard times, and Muhammad repaid his forgivingness by taking responsibility for his unretentive son Ali. Another child in the house was Zaid ibn Haritha, a slave boy given(p)(p) to Khadijah as a present. One day Zaid’s father, who had been searching for him for years, discovered where he was and offered to buy him back. Zaid was asked what he wished to do and chose to await with Muhammad.\r\nMuhammad was so moved that he freed the boy instantly, and raised him as his own son. At that time Mecca was tumultuous melt pot of Christianity, Judaism, and the motley ethnic religious beliefs in effect(p) by the desert tribes and Mec female genitals clans. Khadijah’s family had been loose to monotheism, which was growing in popularity in its various variances and it is k straight offn that her uncle was a practicing Christian. In contrast, the irreligious clan crazes of the Qursysh in the city had be produce decadent, especially in their shameless reverence of material goods and worldly robustes and the effect huge disparities between rich and poor, which Muhammad, with his wide-ranging background, was able to appreciate. These chores, springing from the difficult transition of the Quraysh from fluid poverty to sedentary merchant wealth, touch him greatly, and social in yetice-especially the treatment of orphans like himself-is the national of many of the early surahs of the Qur’an. The cults of the irreligious desert Bedouin clans, who visited Mecca only occasionally, were equally divisive, degenerate and cruel.\r\n homosexual sacrifice and female infanticide were widely practiced. to severally one Arab tribe had its own gods and worshiped idols. The most important of these was the House of idol (Ka’bah), located in Mecca itself. When Muhammad was a young man it contained 360 cultural idols, worshipped by dozens of purloin tribes and clans. His clan, the Hashemites, had the honour of guarding it, through tradition which held that the depository had been re-built by their ancestors Ibrahim and Isma’il after the lord- believed to have been built by Adam at the beginning of time- had fallen into disre couple. The Quyrash’s wealth was found on the dozens of agnostic cults who used the Ka’bah as their central shrine. They change idols, and Mecca’s position as a trading city was more often than not based on contacts do with the visiting tribes.\r\n bracing religions were welcomed as good for business. At archetypal Islam was seen as just another money-making cult and Muhammad was encouraged to use the Ka’ba on board the others in a spirit of circus and toleration. quiet down in 613 Muhammad began preaching to the national at large, rejecting all other religions, demanding the removal of idols from the Ka’ba and therefore threatening trade. As Quyrash hostility grew Muhammad showed himself to be skillful pol as strong as a construeed theologian. Steadily he self-collected around him the elders of minor clans and middle rank merchants through preaching a progeny to the religion of Ibrahim. Whilst the Quyrash continued to ridicule him, called him a madman and an impostor. Muhammad had begun to receive Allah’s final substance to mankind in the form of the Qur’an through miraculous divine revelations which did not come until he was †by the standards of the time- al discovery an old man.\r\nThe Qur’an Muhammad certain his first revelation during the month of Ramadan in the year 610 AD when he was about 40 years old. He was engaged in one of his unbroken finiss of solitary meditation in a cave known as Hira dependable the top of Mount Jabal Nur, nea r Mecca, when he genuine a visitation from the angel Gabriel(Jibreel). Muhammad had experienced religious visions before, except this was preferably distinguishable. Angel Gabriel (Jibreel) commanded him to ‘Recite in the name of your Lord’, and the Prophet lost enc discharge of himself and, Muslims believe, began to speak the actual lecture of Allah. in conclusion he was told to recite what is now the beginning of Chapter 96 of the volume: Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from profligate congealed.\r\nRecite! Your Lord is the most beneficent, who taught by the pen, taught men that which they did not know. After a short termination during which he received no further revelations, they then began again and continued until the end of his life. In the 23 perching years of his life Muhammad received a total of 114 separate revelations which were compiled as the Qur’an after his death. Muhammad was illiterate so he would repeat each revelation afterwards. approximately were written down on any(prenominal) was available, from parchment to palm leaves and animals bones, hardly the majority, in the tradition of the times, were memorized. A year after Muhammad’s death they were collected together by his secretary, Zayd, under the supervision of a committee, shown to many of the Prophet’s companions, and concur to be accurate. only by about thirty years after his death a number of antithetic versions were locomote and being recited, so a unambiguous ‘ jakesonical’ version was issued and sent to the four main Islam cities of Basra, Damascus, Kufh and Medina.\r\nTwo of these original copies still exist today. One is in capital of Uzbek in Soviet Uzbekistan and other is in the Topkapi palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The text is separate into 114 surahs, each containing the speech of one revelation. The number of verses, or ayahs, in each surah varies from terzetto to 286 and totals 6, 239. Each has a title, and 86 have sub-headings indicating they were received in Mecca, whilst another 28 were received in Medina. The Mec batch surahs atomic number 18 shorter, more mystical and warn about the dangers of paganism, marked by vigorous semi-poetic expression, and relate with warnings that men would inevitably be judged by God for their behaviour in this world and intemperately punished if they did not mend their ways. The Medinan surahs atomic number 18 in general overnight, less imperative in tone, and deal in great detail with aspects of Allah’s legal philosophy such(prenominal) as the rules for declaring war, accepting converts, disassociate proceeding and the mandatory punishments for various crimes †more concerned with the solution of virtual(a) problems facing him and his chase.\r\nThe body structure of the Qur’an is unusual and, app bently, illogical. In general the seven-day Medinan surahs, given last, are at the front of the re strain and shorter Mec go off surahs, the earliest, at the back. There is no logical explanation for their order that at the same(p) time western sandwich scholars, attempting to reorganise them on this basis, have found that no other order flora without splitting the surahs up into scattered verses. Sunni Muslims bound that the order was dictated by Jibree to give the Qur’an an esoteric inner meaning reflecting the foretell rather than gracious order of things. word meaning of any word of the Qur’an as the true(a) word of Allah is a binding obligation on all Muslims. The idea that Muhammad was the author of the Qur’an, or any eccentric of it, is spurned absolutely. At the he dodge of the Qur’an is the simple, repetitive warning that mankind must renounce paganism, accept Allah as the one God of all mankind and live according to his righteousnesss. The message is awfulctly addressed to the pagans, Jews and Christians of Mecca, amongst whom M uhammad lived, complete with threats of dire consequences if they failed to mend their polytheistic ways.\r\nThe first revelation received by Muhammad deals with this very theme. In another early revelation Allah openly threatens Muhammad’s brother-in- right Abu Lahab, who, as head of his Hashemite clan, had disowned Muhammad and annulled the pairing between his son and Muhammad’s daughter Fatima. Allah besides shows himself to be equally baseless with Abu Lahab’s wife, who had ridiculed the idea of Muhammad’s Prophethood. The Hijah Muhammad’s flight into exile is the most meaning(a) episode in the Prophet’s life apart from the revelations he received which do up the Qur’an. It marks the foreland in the Prophecy when Allah demanded not just a reform of the religious life of Mecca, but a total break of serve with it. It besides marks the start of jehad ( devoted War †both religious and physical) against the pagan Quyras h and, in conclusion, all those oppressing Muslims and opposing by force the blossom of Allah’s word.\r\nThe date of this closure of war was later chosen as the first day of the Muslim calendar, with 622 the first year of the Age of Hijrah. By this time most of Medina’s population regarded themselves as his followers. Many, in addition, had signed military treaties with his followers in Mecca promising military aid. They now eagerly awaited Muhammad’s declaring of war. But instead, after receiving fresh revelations, he obdurate to first convert the nomadic Bedouins in the surrounding desert. Between 622 and 628 Muhammad set in motion the biggest tribal avalanche Arabia had ever seen. The tribal chieftains rapidly converted to Islam and united Muhammad’s legions. The surgical procedure was helped by Islam’s being an entirely new religion free from the feuding assocations of both the localised pagan cults and the ‘foreign’ monothe ist doctrines of Judaism and Christainity.\r\nMuhammad showed himself to be a promising military leader in early skirmishes with the Quyrash and this, along with further revelations promising Allah’s support and certain victory, is likely to have persuaded yet more shayks to join. In just six years Muhammad assembled an army of 10,000 Arabs †a huge force for those times †and marched with the peck of Medina against Mecca. The force was so overwhelming the city was comportn without resistance. Muhammad issued a general mercy to the Quyrash and urged them, without pressure, to convert to Islam, which they slowly did. The conquest of Mecca alike gave him control of the Ka’bah and he resumed his preaching to pagan pilgrims as they visited the shrine. Conversion was rapid and only nine months after the occupation of Mecca his army had grown to 30,000.\r\nMore clans and tribes converted to Islam. Muhammad died at Mecca on June 8th 11 AH/632 AD. look upon is sh own towards Muhammad by saying peace be upon him (PBUH). He was respected as a man who was close to God, who thought deeply and was kind and wise. Muhammad had known the Ka’ba all his life, with it’s many shines. He had also known the greed, exploitation, lack of compassion of the rich merchants. Muhammad spent his life searching for spi ritual guidance, drawing ever closer to God. Islam is not just a matter of ritual prayers or fasting or feasts. It is the aware bringing of every moment of the day, every decision, every detail of the muslim’s thoughts and actions, into deliberate line with what they accept as being the volition of Allah. How is the ordain of Allah known? The muslim bases all decisions on the revealed words of the Blessed Qur’an, the messages that were delivered, over a occlusion of 23 years, to the inspired prophet Muhammad.\r\n non one word in the Qur’an is believed by muslims to be the thought or belief of Muhammad himself - although he is refered above all human beings as one od the most perfect of Allah’s messengers. Other messengers were Abraham, Moses, the Nazarene and, in fact, at least 24,000 prohets. Muhammad’s ministry was not based on any mircles other than the receiving of the Qur’an. Muhammad is so important to muslims because be was the last prophet, the seal of all that was revealed to the prophets before him. Muslims family life The Qur’an speaks about the family more than any other topic and deals with the rights and responsibilities of husbands and wives, dissever, orphans, inheritance and so on. The Sunnah also deals with relationships within the family: in one tradition, the Prophet says that a man is the guardian of his family and a women is guardian of her husband’s floor and children.\r\nTwo occurrence Qur’anic verses underline the Muslim view of the family: . . . he created for you mates that you may d soundly in tranquillity with them and he has put sock and mercy between your affectionatenesss . . . 30:21 We created you from a simple pair of a male and a female. . . that you may know each other (not that you may dispise each other) 49:13 This declares the native equality between men and women but Islam does not see this as contradicting incompatible roles played by men and women. For example, muslim men carry the heavy commit of family maintenance and are supposed to be the only, or the main, breadwinners supporting not only their wives and children but other married or widowed women in the family. If a man’s wife does not wish to live with his family or anyone else, he must respect her wishes. The major responsibility which travel to the woman is creating a harmonious family standard pressure and bringing up the children. Women may kake up paid work outside the home but it is not expected of them as part of the equal partnership and many muslims feel women should only do so if there is a real direct for the money.\r\nMature muslim men and women are allowed to mix at work, in macrocosm military positions and social gatherings. Divorce Islam allows decouple if share warrant or necessitate it. Islam has permitted disassociate reluctantly, neither liking nor recommending it. The Prophet of Islam has said: â€Å"Among lawful things, split up is most dislike by Allah” Islam has not made it indispensable that the lawsuit of dissever should be publicized. It, just; does not mean that Islam views divorce lightly. In fact, publicity of thousand may not be of any positive consequence. The grounds may not be enunciate but genuine. On the other hand, the grounds may be stated and may in reality be false. Islam does not also want washing boggy linen of private affairs in public or in the tap except in exceptional circumstances. It is for this reason that judicatory comes in as a last resort in the Islamic scheme of separation of husband and wife.\r\nThe accoun t book states as regards grounds of divorce in very general terms: â€Å"And if you reverence that the two (i.e husband and wife) may not be able to stop the limits request by Allah, there is no fiendish on either of them if she redeems herself (from the matrimony tie) ” (2 : 229). The general ground of divorce in the Quran, therefore, is hopeless failure of one or both parties to discharge their marital duties and to consort with each other in kindness, peace and compassion. prospicient absence of husband without any information, long imprisonment, refusal to provide for wife, impotence etcetera are some of the grounds on which wife can ask for divorce. Either companionship may take steps to divorce in end of chronicle disease, insanity, delusory misrepresentation during pairing contract, desertion etc. A Muslim male is allowed tether chances, that is to say, acts of divorce on leash different occasions provided that each divorce is enounce during the time when the wife is in the period of purity.\r\nA husband may divorce his wife once and let the Iddat (the period of delay after divorce) pass. During the waiting period the two have the option of being reconciled. If however the waiting period passes without propitiation, they stand fully divorced. If after the first divorce the husband is reconciled with his wife but the hostility and manage begins all over again, he may divorce her a split second time in the same manner as stated above. In this slick also he can return to her during the Iddat (or waiting period). If however, after second reconciliation, he divorces the wife the third time, he can not take back the wife during the Iddat. She is totally prohibited for him. The lady, thenceforth can marry any person she likes according to her choice. The wife can divorce her husband if this condition is stipulated in the man and wife contract. This kind of divorce is called ‘Delegated Divorce’ (Talaq Taffiz). wedding c eremony can also be turn through mutual consent.\r\nThis is called Khula in the proficient language of Islamic law. Marriage can also be dissolved by judicial process through the court on complaint of the wife on the grounds explained before. One of the consequences of the divorce is the root of waiting period for the wife. This usually lasts terce months. If there is a pregnancy, it lasts as long as pregnancy lasts. The waiting period is introductoryally a term of probation during which reconciliation can be attempted. It is also mandatory to establish whether the wife has conceived. It also allows time for planning the future. Maintenance of wife during the waiting period is on husband. The wife can not be expelled from her govern of sign and he can not in any way harass her. These will constitute moral as advantageously as criminal offence.\r\nIn case of divorce, the young children remain in the handcuffs of their divorced mother. However, the father has to provide the apostrophize of maintenance of young children though they remain under the duress of mother. Islamic law of divorce is based on practical considerations. The process of separation is basically a matter of husband and wife. However; when conflict arises, attempts should be made for reconciliation. It has not made judicial process obligatory in divorce for reasons explained earlier. The intervention of court has nowhere cropd the number of divorce. Judicial process in Islam is the last resort in so far as divorce is concerned. Islamic law on divorce if followed in true spirit will enhance the dignity of man and woman, reduce conflict and ensure justice.\r\nThe consecrate Qur’an explicitly prohibits the divorcing husbands from taking back their wedlock gifts no matter how expensive or expensive these gifts exponent be In the case of the wife choosing to end the pairing, she has to return the marriage gifts or money to her husband. Returning the marriage gifts in this case is a fair compensation for the husband who is keen to guard his wife while she chooses to leave him. But the majority of ulamma’ have tot upd that to act unfairly against the husband is not allowed and the marriage cannot be annulled by such way. The Holy Qur’an has instructed Muslim men not to take back any of the gifts they have given to their wives except in the case of the wife choosing to dissolve the marriage. Also, a woman came to the Prophet Muhammad seeking the dissolution of her marriage, she told the Prophet that she did not have any complaints against her husband’s character or manners. Her only problem was that she honestly did not like him to the terminus of not being able to live with him any longer. The Prophet asked her: â€Å"Would you give him his garden (the marriage gift he had given her) back?” she said: â€Å"Yes”. The Prophet then instructed the man to take back his garden and accept the dissolution of the marriage.\r\nT he children usually stay with their mother unless she is shown to be in unfastened or unsuitable but she loses the right of custody of her children if she remarries. Marriage The most important ingredients in a Muslim marriage are shared values and beliefs, so that even if a couple come from different cultures and backgrounds they possess the same basic world view, attitudes and habits which will bind them together. Many Muslims seem to marry their cousins, Islam neither encourages nor refuses this practise. The prophet’s seventh wife, Zaimab bint Jahsh, was his cousin, but he only married her when she was 39 after his foster son Zaid divorced her. Cousin marriages inbreeds ancestral disorders, and makes it very hard for a couple to divorce from a failed marriage if other close relatives will be offended. Muslim boys may marry Christians and Jews, but Muslim girls are not permitted to marry non- Muslims because in Islam the children have to take the religion of the father, a nd so would blend non-Muslims. The prohet said : ‘A woman should only be married to a person who is good enough for her or compatible to her.’\r\nThe prophet permitted marriages between sight of vastly different social experimental condition and financial backgrounds, knowing it was not these factors which made for compatibility, but what they were like in their hearts. Do not marry only for a person’s looks, their beauty might become the cause of moral decline. Do not marry for wealth, since this may become the cause of disobedience. Marry rather on the grounds of religious devotion. ( Haddith) Islam sees marriage as the only moral and legal status for a sexual relationship as it provides in public for the security and well being of man and woman. The ceremony itself is highly simple and takes the form of a basic contract set in a social gathering. It can take place anywhere usually in a home in Muslim countries but in Britain it is most likely to be in a mos que.\r\nThe imam does not consider to be present and there is no fixed formula but it must be clear that both man and woman conform to to the marriage and there may be readings from the Qur’an on the theme of married life. The contract- Aqd nikah- is written, as well as talk, and bride and groom sign three copies. They keep one each and, in a Muslim country, the third is unbroken by officials. The Qur’an requires that the groom give the wife mahr- a sum of money or property or some other gift of value. It system hers, whatever happens, and they agree between them what it is to be and when it is to be given. jihad Arabic for â€Å"exerting one’s consequence efforts to a determined objective”, such objective normally being the repugn against anything that is not good.\r\nTwo kinds of jihad traditionally exist for mainstream Muslims: the â€Å"greater” (al-Jihad al-akbar) and the â€Å"lesser” ( al-jihad al-asghar). The greater jihad is also known as jihad al-nafs, and is understood as an individual’s inner, spiritual struggle against vice, passion, and ignorance. The lesser jihad is defined as meaning â€Å"holy war” against infidel (non-Muslim) lands and subjects. It has both legal and doctrinal deduction in that it is prescribed by the Koran and mainstream Muslim hadiths (recorded sayings and actions ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad and accorded a status on a par with revelation). â€Å"Holy war” is the sole form of war that is theoretically permissable in mainstream Islam. Muslim law has traditionally divided up the world into dar al-Islam (abode of Islam) and dar al- harb (abode of war, that is, of non-Muslim rule). As Islam is the last, most superior and common of man’s divinely decree religions, it is believed that the entire world must ultimately surrender to its rule and law, if not its faith. Until that time, a jihad against non-Muslim neighbours and neighbouring lands is t he duty of all adult, male, and capable Muslims.\r\nAccording to this traditional view, Muslims who die in jihad automatically become martyrs of the faith and are awarded a special place in Paradise. According to the law-books, two kinds of non-Muslim enemies exist, caffre (pagans) and ahl al- kitab (people of the book). The term â€Å"people of the book” primitively meant only Jews and Christians, but later on it included other groups such as followers of Zoroastrianism. â€Å"People of the book” need only submit to Muslim political authority to avoid or end jihad and may keep their original faith: their status, defined as dhimmi (a â€Å" defend” non-Muslim), is inferior to that of a Muslim and they must pay the prescribed â€Å"jizya” (poll tax). As for pagans, that is, those whom Muslims do not recognize as a â€Å"people of the book”, such as Buddhists and Hindus, they must either convert to Islam or suffer execution. This drastic alternative , however, was rarely compel in practice.\r\nThere can be no going back for a convert to Islam-be that person a dhimmi or pagan-since it is a capital offence to abandon Islam, even for a former religion with a recognized revelation. However, ways of avoiding the exact enforcement of the law were often found. Jihad can also be defensive, that is, for the purpose of defend Muslim lands from non-Muslim incursions such as, for example, the crusades of the Christians in the Holy Land during the Middle Ages or the Spanish Reconquista. Some modern font Muslim scholars have stressed the defensive aspect of jihad above others. In contrast to the Sunnis, some Muslim groups like the Imami and Bohora-Ismaili Shiites are nix from participating in offensive jihad. This is because for both sects the only person legitimately capable of conducting an offensive jihad is their Imam, and he is directly in occultation (that is, in privacy and incommunicado until the end of time).\r\nThe two sects, however, are permitted participation in defensive jihad. I have been asked to evaluate the following teaching ‘The Qur’an would be more useful to everyone if it were translated into modern position. Whether the Qur’an may be translated from its original Arabic into another language, and, if so, under what circumstances a translation may be used, has also been a matter of dispute. Nevertheless, it has been translated by Muslims and non-Muslims into a variety of languages. Today there are many versions available in English and the other major languages of the world. Although it can now be read in at least 40 languages, all translations lose part of the inspiration and meaning, and are not treated with the same respect as the original. Since the Qur’an is believed to be from Allah, every word, every letter, is sanctified to muslims. It is therefore considered very important to keep the Qur’an in the language in which it was first spoken i.e. Arabic .\r\nMuslims were taught to recite it, and it must still be learnt in Arabic. As Islam spread from Arabia, its language was adopted by a number of Islamic countries, and is still spoken in these countries today. Muslims in these countries should find the Qur’an instead easy to read, even though the ardour of modern Arabic has naturally changed since Muhammad’s time. In other countries, muslims need to learn enough Arabic to take part in their worship and to read the Qur’an. You can find translations of the Qur’an for people who do not know Arabic, or copies with both Arabic and another language for those who do not have Arabic as their first language, but muslims do not accept these translations as proper Qur’ans. The main pipeline used to defend the Divine fatherhood of the Qur’an is the incomparable quality of compose.\r\nMuch of it is represent in rhyming Arabic and the language is particularly beautiful and graceful. The surahs wer e given in Arabic and, since it would be a sin to alter the word of Allah, Arabic remains the sacred language of Islam. Non- Arabic public speaking muslims can use translations but the Qur’an is so important to them that many learn Arabic just so they can read it in its original form. Muslims and non-believers alike agree the full power and beauty of its writing can only be appreciated in the original. But for muslims it goes further than that. Translations can only be interpretations which cannot truly say what is said in Arabic.\r\nThe combination of the words and rhythms in the original language- the way the Qur’an sounds when recited- is also an important part of its power. Muslims think of the Qur’an as a complete philosophy, a universal description of the universe and the entirety of the law by which people must live. The longer and later Medina surahs stress Allah’s tender nature more fully, with extensive pally practical advice on personal and family matters. The Qur’an is also the focus of Islamic art. Many individuals copies of the Book are major works of art in their own right †with wondrous Arabic calligraphy on splendid hand-made paper, and high quality decorative lather and metal work. Figurative art is disallow by classical Islam, especially the universe of discourse of images of Allah and the Prophets, and the astonishingly fine decorative art found in many mosques is largely based on Arabic calligraphy, interweave into patterns repeating passages from the Book.\r\nEven the most distrustful non-believer, Muslims insist, is forced to admit that the Qur’an is a book of immense beauty and importance †not least because it has now almost certain become the most widely read and memorised book in the world. The preface to one of the most widely available Qur’an in English, the Tahrike Tarsile translation, puts it like this: ‘The Qur’an’s miracle lies in its migh t to offer at least something to non-believers and everything to believers’. erudition large parts of the the Qur’an by heart is an important part of Muslim religious devotion and children start memorising it at an early age. In many Muslim countries learnedness the Qur’an by heart forms the basic political platform of primary school education. Muslims who memorise its content in their entirety are given the honourable title of al-hafiz.\r\n'