THEMES OF THE QURAN pdf download

Themes of the Quran, What Does The Quran Say To Us By Dr Sabiha Saleem

THEMES OF THE QURAN

Although it might appear self-evident, this matter of reading is not all that it appears to be.

 The Qur’an is The Reading, but it is necessary to grasp something of what the nature of reading is in order to be able to approach the Book, for in this apparently most literate of ages, increasing numbers of people are only able to read what they already conceive to be there in the text, and when confronted with anything even slightly different from their preconceptions, are simply unable to comprehend it.

Thus the first task of the reader is to open him- or herself — whether Muslim or non-Muslim — to listening in order to try and hear what the Lord of the Universe is saying to us.

There is simply no other starting point that is of any use to the reader than understanding that this Book, although revealed over a thousand four hundred years ago to the Messenger of Allah 38, is from one’s own Lord directly to oneself.

 It is only reading with that alertness to hear what Allah is saying to one that can begin to allow one to see beyond the thick mass of prejudices that are the consequence of living in this deeply programmed society.

Then sometimes one is just able to grasp some of the astonishing statements that are so liable to slip past one’s everyday consciousness.

Although it is widely acknowledged that a knowledge of Arabic and the sciences of Quranic commentary — shariah, hadith, the abrogating and abrogated ayat, the Makkan and Madinan Surahs, Arabic rhetoric, tasawwuf, etc., — are vital for a deep understanding of Qur’an, yet a great deal can be gleaned from a competent translation, and we hope that the reader will find Dr. Saleem’s arrangement of some of the ayats of the Qur’an according to their thematic content useful in his or her study,