{"id":29361,"date":"2021-04-30T11:50:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T03:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=29361"},"modified":"2021-04-30T11:50:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T03:50:17","slug":"al-quran-the-source-of-guidance-through-the-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/al-quran-the-source-of-guidance-through-the-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Quran: The Source Of Guidance Through The Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe chapter of Joseph is\nthe most beautiful story, as the Quran itself says.&nbsp; Reading it opened my heart.&nbsp; I knew then that this book could not have\nbeen invented or authored by any human hand. It was truly a revelation. From\nthat moment it became clear there was nothing left for me to do but to\nsurrender and embrace Islam.\u201d \u2013 Yusuf Islam, <em>Why I Still Carry a Guitar \u2013 The Spiritual Journey of Cat Stevens to\nYusuf<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The amazing experience gained after reading the Quran as\nindicated by Yusuf Islam is also shared by many other reverts. One of them is\nMuhammad Asad, a converted Austrian Jew, author, activist, diplomat and traveller.\nHis well-known \u201cThe Message of the Quran\u201d which is the translation of the Quran,\nin spite of receiving some criticisms, assisted his good friend Murad Wilfried\nHoffman, a German diplomat and author to embrace Islam. Apart from Muhammad\nAsad and Hoffman, scholars such as Dr. Jeffrey Lang, Professor of Mathematics\nat the University of Kansas and Dr. Atsushi Kamal Okuda, Professor of Political\nSystems, Keio University, Japan also found their journey to Islam through the\nQuran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Professor Lang\nwas mesmerized by the Quran with the first two chapters. He had also found\nanswers to every question and objection that came to his mind. Furthermore,\nwith its unique style which consisted of profound technicalities that is rules\nand regulations at the beginning, beautiful stories in the middle and burst of\npowerful spirituality in the end, the Quran according to Professor Lang finally\nfaded his atheism. As for Professor Okuda, he was astonished by a Quranic verse\nregarding the creation of mankind out of sounding clay from an altered black\nmud (Surah al-Hijr, verse 26). These beautiful\npersonal experiences with Quran are in line with a verse which states, \u201c<em>Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was\nrevealed as a guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the standard\nto distinguish between right and wrong<\/em>.\u201d (Surah al-Baqarah, verse 185) and\nanother verse which asserts, \u201c<em>Whoever All\nwills to guide, He opens their heart to Islam<\/em>.\u201d (Surah Al-An`am, verse 125)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Al-Quran will\nremain as a source of guidance and is applicable to all situations at all time and\nplace. The beauty of the Quran lies in its protection from alterations and\nerrors that happened to earlier Holy Scriptures.&nbsp; The guarantee for its protection is given by\nAllah in Surah al-Hijr verse 9. The aesthetic value and beauty of al-Quran also\nlies in its universal message which can be clearly seen through the verse, \u201c<em>Surely this Quran is only a reminder to the\nwhole world<\/em>.\u201d Muslims are enjoined to read and memorize as well as ponder\nupon the Quran.&nbsp; Therefore, they are\nurged to study both the meaning and application of the verses and be guided by\nthem in their daily lives and conduct. In other words, the Quran is intended to\nbe the source of guidance and direction for Muslims. It regulates the\nrelationship between a servant and his Creator as well as within the members of\na family and society; be it amongst fellow Muslims or non-Muslims. The Quran\nalso determines the relationship of a subject to the State and its ruling\nauthorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even though the\nQuran contains unlimited benefits and exceptional guidance to mankind, it is\nnot immune from targeted hatred proposed to undermine the religion of Islam.\nThe hatred and mockery are nothing new. The Prophets of Allah were also mocked\nand denied, and so were the messages they brought. The Quran states in Surah\nal-Kahf, verse 106, \u201c\u2026<em>and [because] they\ntook My signs and My messengers in ridicule<\/em>.\u201d&nbsp; Nowadays, the abomination of enemies of Islam\ntowards Muslims and their holy book for is manifested in events such as \u201cBurn\nQuran Day\u201d. Such is in fact an act that challenges the patience of the Muslim\ncommunity. Regrettably, one of the pertinent problems faced within the Muslim\ncommunity is that the Quran no longer serves as a reference and reverence in\nour lives. Thus, we are easily swept away by worldly pleasures which cause us\nto lose our self-identity as well as the purpose of life both in this world and\nHereafter. Apart from that, there are religious extremists who falsely and\nselectively take the Quran as a command to serve their ends. By using verses\nrelated to jihad, they vindicate the brutal killing not only of non-Muslims but\nalso fellow Muslims. Unfortunately, numerous\nverses of the Qur&#8217;an that call for peaceful co-existence and mutual respect,\ncounter-balancing many of the verses used to justify violence, are ignored and\nexcluded from their one-sided narrative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the other extreme, there are also groups who take provocative approaches to re-interpret\nthe Quran to justify same-sex relationship and inter-religion marriage.&nbsp; While their numbers may be small, these\ngroups are vocal on social media and published books. All of these challenges\nmust be addressed with knowledge and wisdom. In conjunction with the\ncelebration of <em>Nuzul<\/em> Quran this year,\nlet us revive the spirit and practice the morals of the Quran by emulating\nProphet Muhammad SAW.&nbsp; By doing this, the\nimportant messages of the Quran can be conveyed and the true face of Islam will\nbe manifested as a religion that brings mercy and blessing to the whole world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe chapter of Joseph is the most beautiful story, as the Quran itself says.  Reading it opened my heart.  I knew then that this book could not have been invented or authored by any human hand. It was truly a revelation. From that &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}