RELIGIOUS movements, led by inspired individuals called prophets or apostles of God, were socio-political upheavals based on lofty moral principles meant to better man's secular life. They took birth in different societies and had reference to the makeup of those societies, but their moral import was universal. They were champions of the unity of mankind, not of its division.
Human life is a dynamic affair. Innumerable factors, known and unknown, keep on changing it from moment to moment. Religious movements undergo a spectacular transformation with the change of time. Their new champions, product of their particular environments, have their own character, outlook and interests. Retaining the original nomenclature, they suppress the essential features, meanings and purpose of these movements. Some messages of the apostles exist only as translations or retranslations, edited and re-edited.
This is not the case with the Quran. It exists in its original language, Arabic, intact. Yet, distortions have occurred, and lasted for centuries, in its meanings and import. Many terms and expressions used in the Quran have been grossly distorted. The author has dealt with a number of such expressions in the first chapter on a rational basis.
The second, third and forth chapters explain the sense of a very commonly used term, 'malaekah', generally translated as 'angels.' It has, however, more than one meaning. All the meanings have been explained in the various contexts in which they occur.
The fifth chapter deals with the ceaseless creativity of God. In the spatio-temporal world, this creativity manifests itself in the birth and death of the old and birth of new realities. The birth of new realities is resurrection. In the human world it takes place as the destruction of communities or empires and the birth and prevalence of new forces. The Arabic word used for resurrection is 'qiamah'. Many 'qiamahs' occur in human history as stages in the forward march of man to the final goal -- the conquest of time and space -- the final resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus has been dealt with in a separate chapter (chapter 8) under the heading, 'Was Jesus killed?'
Chapter 6 deals with the question of the Oneness of God. God is not one in the sense in which material things are one. Material things are divisible into many ones, but the oneness of God is indivisible. It is the Infinite, the Unfathomable One.
Chapters 7 and 10 deal with the missions of Moses and Noah. In chapter 9, entitled, 'Miracles or myths?', the significance of Jonah's mission, and partly that of Abraham's, has been brought out.
There is a common pattern in the struggle of the prophets. But this commonness has remained buried under the debris of misrepresentations and distortions for centuries. The unmasking of the truth in the Quran will also unmask the truth of the teachings of all the prophets and show the common platform for mankind to stand on.
The last chapter traces briefly the journey of mankind from their peaceful primitive past to the present through bloodshed and points to its final destiny, the conquest of time and space -- THE ULTIMATE RESURRECTION.
About the Author: THE author is a veteran journalist of over 46 years' standing in the profession. Born at village Madina of Gujrat district, Pakistan, he did his B.A. from the Zamindar College, Gujrat, in 1943 and M.A. in philosophy from Government College, Lahore, in 1945. He joined the Zamindar College as lecturer in philosophy soon after and left it on the expiry of the contract. After some time, he left for Lahore, where he joined the prestigious daily, The Civil and Military Gazette (now defunct) as a sub-editor. He shifted to The Pakistan Times when the Gazette management changed. He served The Pakistan Times for 33 years, during which he held various positions, such as senior sub-editor, edition-in-charge, chief sub-editor, news editor, and finally magazine editor, the position he held for eight years. He was still on the staff of The Pakistan Times when the Nawa-e-Waqt Publications hired his services for their forthcoming English daily, The Nation, which came in the market three months later. He served The Nation for about eight years and a half, after which he retired. He was then past 72 years. After retirement, the author studied history (Muslim, European and American) and various religions - Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism -- and finally settled down to devote himself to the study of the Quran. His first publication on the Quran appeared in the form of an 80-page book in November 2010. The present is a more comprehensive book and includes the contents of the earlier publication also. The author is now in his early nineties.
