The Qur’an is a map of the geography of the mind. The Qur’an is also a template of the external world; that is to say, it is a microcosm containing the universe. The organization of the Qur’an as a logical or historical document is neither necessary nor useful. Since the pattern it follows is that of nature itself, it has contours of verses, subject matter, allusions, symbols, stories, motifs and cadences forming a vision of the universe externally and the human soul internally. The Qur’an is objective in the true meaning of the word – it objectively delineates the status of the soul on its journey to God as well as a landscape of that journey in inward and outward nature.
While this magnificent structure and organization of the Qur’an is the focus of a lifetime study unfolding before the seeker its truths even as the seeker experiences joy and sorrow, love and betrayal, friendship and malice, profit and loss. As these various states correspond to inner turbulence and the faith gets its trials and shaking, the wisdom of the Qur’an with its lilting poetry and symphony reaches into the heart like a balm of the soul. It is both healer and healing, always earnest in its wisdom and warning, showing the soul the final destination which is also its destiny, and re-energising it once again to renew its effort towards it.
Such reflections about the totality of the Qur’an as Revelation are very different from the mundane purposes for which a student in his teens approaches the Qur’an. The student studying the Qur’an as a book needs quick guidance in a simply way. There are a range of topics, and since they are scattered throughout the text of the Qur’an for deep purposes suggested above, the student wants to have them in a different organization so that the Qur’anic stance towards that topic may be determined. The purposes are more academic than spiritual, more mundane than salvatory, more tentative and naïve than the firmness with which the great spiritual masters sought to plunge the depths of the Qur’an.
Dr. Hassan Rizvi is to be congratulated for having taken on this task and in simple, flowing language collected together the verses of the Qur’an under various themes. By no means is this a concordance, nor is it a complete index of the topics chosen. It is truly the quintessence of the Qur’an, that is to say, it captures the flavour of the Qur’anic medium thereby allowing the student models of disciplined discourse. An added feature of this book is the reliance on the traditional commentaries of the verses because it is also an axiom of the faith that the Prophet SAW and his Household (AS) are the finest explicators of the Book. Indeed it would not be amiss to say that just as the Qur’an depends upon the exemplary life of the Prophet SAW so also does it depend upon other exemplary lives to suggest appropriate meanings to seekers in a changed and broken world.
Thanks are due to the young collaborators who made the English version possible – … … … (sister and daughter), and Sara Kalia for her assiduous efforts in checking and re-checking the Qur’anic references and nuances of English words in the translation.
May Allah bestow his Grace and Mercy on all those who have contributed to making this work reach a wider, English speaking audience. In the end, our prayer is:
‘Wa ma taufiqi illa bil-Lahil Aliyil Azeem.’
“All this is not but due to the Grace bestowed upon me, by Allah, the Elevated, the Great”