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Imam Muhammad Shirazi THE QUR’AN j{xÇ ãtá |à vÉÅÑ|ÄxwR Translated by Ali ibn Adam fountain books BM Box 8545 London WC1N 3XX UK www.fountainbooks.co.uk First published 2001 © fountain books All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of fountain books. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1-903323-05-3 ii In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent The Merciful. All Praise is to Him, Lord of the Worlds. Let Allah’s Blessings be upon Muhammad and upon his righteous and pure family. iii iv Table of Content Publisher’s Foreword................................................................vii Author’s Introduction.................................................................. 1 Part One .................................................................................... 3 On the Compilation of the Holy Qur’an...................................... 3 The Hadith of Ibn ‘Abbas........................................................... 3 Who Compiled the Qur’an? ....................................................... 5 The Prophet Compiled the Qur’an............................................. 7 Other Evidence.......................................................................... 9 1. The ‘Opening’ Chapter................................................................9 2. The Hadith of the “Two Momentous Things”.............................9 3. The Complete Recitation of the Qur’an ....................................11 4. Between the Mihrab and the Pulpit ...........................................12 5. Presentation of Qur’an to the Messenger of Allah ....................12 6. The Memorisation of the Qur’an...............................................13 7. Concordance with the Book of Allah ........................................13 Related also from the Purified Imams ..................................... 14 The Integrity of the Qur’an....................................................... 15 The Qur’an of ‘Ali..................................................................... 16 The Different Readings............................................................ 16 The ‘Corruption’ of the Qur’an’ in the Traditions...................... 17 Part Two .................................................................................. 18 The Qur’an in the Traditions.................................................... 18 Learning the Qur’an ......................................................................18 The Magnificence of the Qur’an ...................................................21 The Bearers of the Qur'an .............................................................31 The Recitation of the Qur'an .........................................................33 The Reciters of the Qur’an............................................................40 How to Read the Qur’an................................................................41 The Memorisation of the Qur’an...................................................43 Listening to the Qur’an .................................................................44 Abandoning the Qur’an.................................................................46 The Qur’an and the People of the Prophet’s Household ...............47 The Intercession of the Qur’an......................................................50 The Qur’an as a Cure ....................................................................51 v vi Publisher’s Foreword {Verily this Qur’an guides to that which is most upright.} 1 The Holy Qur’an is the eternal celestial message revealed by Allah to His prophet Muhammad (Blessings and Peace be upon him and his family) so that he might rescue a confused humanity from the darkness of doubt and ignorance to the light of certainty and knowledge, for the Qur’an delineates the road of guidance and righteousness in both religious and worldly affairs. The Qur’an represents the foundation stone of Islam, which Allah has promised to keep free from corruption: {We have sent down the Reminder and We shall be its protectors.}2 Therefore the hand of corruption has not touched it like it has the other divine books. The Qur’an remains the eternal divine message that has come for humanity in its entirety. The enemies of Islam despite their efforts to the contrary, have not been able to fault the integrity of the Holy Qur’an after the challenge posed by Allah for them to bring forth even one chapter of its ilk. Human intellect has not been able to meet this challenge. Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an: {If you are in doubt as to that which We have sent down upon Our servant, then bring forward a chapter of its ilk and call upon your witnesses other than Allah if you speak the truth.}3 One of the most important reasons for the preservation of the Qur’an in addition to it being the will of Allah is the fact that the Messenger of Allah concerned himself with collating the Qur’an during his life and insisted upon it. Hence, from then until now, the Qur’an has remained the same without any change. 1 The Qur’an: The Night Journey (17):9. 2 The Qur’an: The Rocky Tract (15):9. 3 The Qur’an: The Heifer (2):23. vii This book, ‘When was the Qur’an Compiled’ by the esteemed writer and source of religious knowledge Imam Muhammad Shirazi, deals with the subject of the collation of the Qur’an. It provides firm evidence that the Holy Qur’an was compiled at the time of and at the command of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in the form in which it exists today dispelling the view of those who imagine that the Qur’an was compiled after the time of the Messenger of Allah. The writer also tackles the question of the non-corruption of the Qur’an, which Shi’a scholars have stated throughout history refuting the notion that there has been any addition to or subtraction from the verses of the Qur’an. Imam al-Shirazi then touches upon the inauthenticity of the different ‘readings’ except that which is present in the holy text itself. Finally he presents a number of traditions regarding many aspects of the Holy Qur’an. This is seen as further evidence that the Holy Qur’an was compiled in the form we have it today, and ‘in use’ by the Muslims during the lifetime of the holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad peace be upon him and his infallible descendants. viii Author’s Introduction Here are a number of traditions to be found in the ‘Shi’a Guide to the Shari’a’4 and other books regarding the importance of the Qur’an and its etiquettes and disciplines which we have mentioned hoping to bring benefit to many. We have preceded this with information about the collation of the Qur’an and its textual non-corruption and that not one word or letter has been added nor subtracted. It is the same Qur’an today that was sent down to the Messenger of Allah and was compiled by him in the same structure of verses and chapters at the command of Allah during his life. 4 The Arabic title of the book is “Tafseel Wassa’el al-Shi’a ila Tahseel Massa’el al-Shari’ah” Imam Muhammad Shirazi 2 THE HOLY QUR’AN When was it compiled? Part One On the Compilation of the Holy Qur’an The Hadith of Ibn ‘Abbas In ‘al-Manaqib’ it is related that Ibn ‘Abbas said: ‘When Allah’s words: {You are mortal and they are mortals.} 5 were revealed, Allah’s Messenger (S)6 said: ‘If only I knew when this (my death) would be.’ This, when the Prophet (S) knew ‘the unseen’ with the permission and inspiration of Allah. Then the 110th chapter of the Qur’an named al-Nasr (Succour) was revealed, after which the Prophet (S) remained silent between the ‘takbir’7 and the ‘reading’ then he used to say: ‘Praise be to Allah, I seek the forgiveness of Allah and turn towards Him in repentance.’ He was asked about this and said: ‘It is that my soul has foretold me of my impending death.’ Then he began to weep intensely. He was then asked: ‘Oh Messenger of Allah, do you weep over death when Allah has forgiven all your sins both past and future?’ The Prophet (S) said: ‘But what of the terror of the questioning and what of the confines of the grave and the darkness of the tomb, and the resurrection and the other fearsome things?’ (Here the Prophet means to draw attention to these fearsome things rather than say that he will be tried by them as is clear.) Then 5 The Qur’an: The Groups (39):30. 6 Sall-Allah Alayhi wa Alihi wa Sallam, meaning Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him and his infallible family. This is always stated after the mention of the name of the Prophet out of respect for the Prophet of Islam (s). 7 The takbir or takbir al-ihram (sanctification) consists of the words ‘Allahu Akbar’, (God is Great) which are said at the beginning of every one of the daily canonical prayers and other supererogatory prayers denoting the beginning of the prayer and the fact that the person praying has entered the sanctity of prayer. The reading mentioned here is the reading of the opening chapter of the Qur’an, which forms the basis of prayers in Islam. 3 Imam Muhammad Shirazi Ibn ‘Abbas said: ‘The Prophet (S) lived for a further year after the revelation of this chapter.’8 Thenceforth, verse after verse was revealed until only seven days remained of the Prophet’s life. Then the following verse was revealed: {And fear ye a day in which you will be returned to Allah and every soul will be given what it has earned and they