The Quran on Human Embryonic Development

 

In the Holy Quran, God speaks about the stages of man’s embryonic development:

"We created man from an extract of clay.  Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed.  Then We made the drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We made the alaqah into a mudghah (chewed substance)…" (Quran 23:12-14)

Literally, the Arabic word alaqah has three meanings: (1) leech, (2) suspended thing, and (3) blood clot.

In comparing a leech to an embryo in the alaqah stage, we find similarity between the two[1]  as we can see in figure 1.  Also, the embryo at this stage obtains nourishment from the blood of the mother, similar to the leech, which feeds on the blood of others.[2]

Figure 1: Drawings illustrating the similarities in appearance between a leech and a human embryo at the alaqah stage. (Leech drawing from Human Development as Described in the Quran and Sunnah, Moore and others, p. 37, modified from Integrated Principles of Zoology, Hickman and others.  Embryo drawing from The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 73.)

The second meaning of the word alaqah is "suspended thing."  This is what we can see in figures 2 and 3, the suspension of the embryo, during the alaqah stage, in the womb of the mother.

Figure 2: We can see in this diagram the suspension of an embryo during the alaqah stage in the womb (uterus) of the mother. (The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 66.)

Figure 3: In this photomicrograph, we can see the suspension of an embryo (marked B) during the alaqah stage (about 15 days old) in the womb of the mother.  The actual size of the embryo is about 0.6 mm. (The Developing Human, Moore, 3rd ed., p. 66, from Histology, Leeson and Leeson.)

The third meaning of the word alaqah is "blood clot."  We find that the external appearance of the embryo and its sacs during the alaqah stage is similar to that of a blood clot.  This is due to the presence of relatively large amounts of blood present in the embryo during this stage[3]  (see figure 4).  Also during this stage, the blood in the embryo does not circulate until the end of the third week.[4]  Thus, the embryo at this stage is like a clot of blood.

Figure 4: Diagram of the primitive cardiovascular system in an embryo during the alaqah stage.  The external appearance of the embryo and its sacs is similar to that of a blood clot, due to the presence of relatively large amounts of blood present in the embryo. (The Developing Human, Moore, 5th ed., p. 65.)

So the three meanings of the word alaqah correspond accurately to the descriptions of the embryo at the alaqah stage.

The next stage mentioned in the verse is the mudghah stage.  The Arabic word mudghah means "chewed substance."  If one were to take a piece of gum and chew it in his or her mouth and then compare it with an embryo at the mudghah stage, we would conclude that the embryo at the mudghah stage acquires the appearance of a chewed substance.  This is because of the somites at the back of the embryo that "somewhat resemble teethmarks in a chewed substance."[5] (see figures 5 and 6).

Figure 5: Photograph of an embryo at the mudghah stage (28 days old).  The embryo at this stage acquires the appearance of a chewed substance, because the somites at the back of the embryo somewhat resemble teeth marks in a chewed substance.  The actual size of the embryo is 4 mm. (The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 82, from Professor Hideo Nishimura, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.)

Figure 6: When comparing the appearance of an embryo at the mudghah stage with a piece of gum that has been chewed, we find similarity between the two.

A)        Drawing of an embryo at the mudghah stage.  We can see here the somites at the back of the embryo that look like teeth marks. (The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 79.)

B)        Photograph of a piece of gum that has been chewed.

How could Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, have possibly known all this 1400 years ago, when scientists have only recently discovered this using advanced equipment and powerful microscopes which did not exist at that time?  Hamm and Leeuwenhoek were the first scientists to observe human sperm cells (spermatozoa) using an improved microscope in 1677 (more than 1000 years after Muhammad).  They mistakenly thought that the sperm cell contained a miniature preformed human being that grew when it was deposited in the female genital tract.[6]

Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore[7]  is one of the world’s most prominent scientists in the fields of anatomy and embryology and is the author of the book entitled The Developing Human, which has been translated into eight languages.  This book is a scientific reference work and was chosen by a special committee in the United States as the best book authored by one person.  Dr. Keith Moore is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.  There, he was Associate Dean of Basic Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and for 8 years was the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy.  In 1984, he received the most distinguished award presented in the field of anatomy in Canada, the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian Association of Anatomists.  He has directed many international associations, such as the Canadian and American Association of Anatomists and the Council of the Union of Biological Sciences.

In 1981, during the Seventh Medical Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Professor Moore said: "It has been a great pleasure for me to help clarify statements in the Quran about human development.  It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, because almost all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later.  This proves to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of God."[8] (To view the RealPlayer video of this comment click here).

Consequently, Professor Moore was asked the following question: "Does this mean that you believe that the Quran is the word of God?"  He replied: "I find no difficulty in accepting this."[9]

During one conference, Professor Moore stated: "....Because the staging of human embryos is complex, owing to the continuous process of change during development, it is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah (what Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, said, did, or approved of).  The proposed system is simple, comprehensive, and conforms with present embryological knowledge.  The intensive studies of the Quran and hadeeth (reliably transmitted reports by the Prophet Muhammad’s companions of what he said, did, or approved of) in the last four years have revealed a system for classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was recorded in the seventh century A.D.  Although Aristotle, the founder of the science of embryology, realized that chick embryos developed in stages from his studies of hen’s eggs in the fourth century B.C., he did not give any details about these stages.  As far as it is known from the history of embryology, little was known about the staging and classification of human embryos until the twentieth century.  For this reason, the descriptions of the human embryo in the Quran cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century.  The only reasonable conclusion is: these descriptions were revealed to Muhammad from God.  He could not have known such details because he was an illiterate man with absolutely no scientific training."[10] (View the RealPlayer video of this comment).

- islamreligion.com

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Footnotes:

[1]The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 8.

[2]Human Development as Described in the Quran and Sunnah, Moore and others, p. 36.

[3]Human Development as Described in the Quran and Sunnah, Moore and others, pp. 37-38.

[4]The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 65.

[5]The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 8.

[6]The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 9.

[7]Note: The occupations of all the scientists mentioned in this web site were last updated in 1997.

[8]The reference for this saying is This is the Truth (videotape).  For a copy of this videotape, please visit www.islam-guide.com/truth.htm

[9]This is the Truth (videotape).

[10]This is the Truth (videotape).  For a copy, see footnote no. 9.

The Fitrah

 

When a child is born, it has with it a natural belief in God.  This natural belief is called in Arabic the “Fitrah”.[1]  If the child were left alone, it would grow up aware of God in His oneness, but all children are affected by the pressures of their environment whether directly or indirectly.  The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, reported that God said,

“I created My servants in the right religion but the devils made them go astray.”[2]

The Prophet also said,

“Each child is born in a state of “Fitrah”, but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian.  It is like the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring.  Have you noticed any (young animal) born mutilated before you mutilate them?”[3]

So, just as the child’s body submits to the physical laws which God has put in nature, its soul also submits naturally to the fact that God is its Lord and Creator.  But its parents try to make it follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of its life to resist or oppose its parents.  The religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing and God does not hold it to account or punish it for this religion.  When the child matures in youth and clear proofs of the falsehood of his religion are brought to him, the adult must now follow the religion of knowledge and reason.”[4]  At this point the devils try their best to encourage him to stay as he is or to go further astray.  Evils are made pleasing to him and he must now live in the midst of a struggle between his Fitrah and his desires in order to find the right road.  If he chooses his Fitrah, God will help him overcome his desires even though it may take most of his life to escape, for many people enter Islam in their old age although most tend to do so before that.

Because of all these powerful forces fighting against the Fitrah God chose certain righteous men and revealed to them clearly the right path in life.  These men whom we call prophets were sent to help our Fitrah defeat its enemies.  All the truths and good practices present in societies around the world today came from their teachings, and if it were not for their teachings, there would be no peace or safety in the world at all.  For example, the laws of most Western countries are based on the “Ten Commandments” of Prophet Moses, like “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not kill” etc., even though they claim to be “secular” governments, free from the influence of religion.

Thus, it is man’s duty to follow the way of the prophets since it is the only way which is truly in harmony with his nature.  He should also be very careful not to do things simply because his parents and their parents did it, especially if knowledge reaches him that these practices are wrong.  If he does not follow the truth, he will be like those misguided people about whom God says in the Quran:

“If they are told to follow what God has revealed, they say: ‘No, we will continue to follow what we found our foreparents doing!’ Even though their foreparents did not comprehend anything nor were they rightly guided.” (Quran 2:170)

God forbids us from obeying our parents if what they want us to do is against the way of the prophets.  He said, in the Quran,

“We advise man to be good to his parents, but if they try to make you do in My name what you know to be false, do not obey them.” (Quran 29:8)

Born Muslim

Those who are fortunate to be born in Muslim families must be aware that all such “Muslims” are not automatically guaranteed paradise, because the Prophet warned that a large part of the Muslim nation would follow the Jews and Christians so closely that if they entered the den of a lizard, Muslims would climb in after them as well.[5]  He also said that before the Last Day some people would actually worship idols.[6]  .  Today, there are Muslims all around the world praying to the dead, building tombs and masjids over graves and even performing rites of worship around them.  There are even some who claim to be Muslim and worship Ali as God.[7]  Some have turned the Quran into a good luck charm which they hang on chains around their necks, in their cars or on key chains etc.  Therefore, those born into such a Muslim world who blindly follow whatever their parents did or believed, have to stop and think whether they are simply a Muslim by chance or a Muslim by choice, whether Islam is what their parents, tribe, country, or nation did or does, or what the Quran teaches and what the Prophet and his companions did.

- islamreligion.com

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Footnotes:

[1]Al-’Aqeedah at- Tahaaweeyah, (8th ed..  1984) p.245.

[2]Saheeh Muslim

[3]Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim

[4]Al-’Aqeedah at-Tahaaweeyah, (5th ed.: 1972).  p.273.

[5]Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim

[6]Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim

[7]The Nusayris of Syria and the Druzes of Palestine and Lebanon.

God’s Sole Right to Worship

 "O mankind, worship your Lord who has created you and those before you, that you may become righteous.  He Who has made the earth a resting-place for you and the sky a canopy, and has sent down water from the sky and thereby brought forth fruits for your sustenance.  Do not, then, claim that there is any power that could rival God, when you know." (Quran 2:21-22)

In these verses is the first commandment mentioned in the Quran, God proves the illogicality of worshipping others besides or instead of Him.  He addresses humanity as a whole to direct all acts of worship to Him alone.  He announces to them that He is their Lord, Sustainer, and Creator.  Human beings did not appear out of nowhere, but rather God is the One who brought them into being out of nothingness.  After their creation, God did not leave them on their own, rather He took care of them when they were in the womb of their mothers, and God has been caring for them throughout their life by providing for them various sources of sustenance. He created things in this life in such a way that they would be of benefit and comfort for people.  Therefore, it is the Sole right of God – who created us and those who came before us - that He be worshipped, for it is He and none else who provided us these things.

Everything apart from God, such as humans, angels, and spirits, are created by God.  Thus, creation should not be adored and worshipped as God.  No created being owns or controls anything in the universe and, therefore, can neither harm nor benefit without God’s permission.  God asks us rhetorically, how can we worship other beings besides Him while we know deep inside that God has no equal or rival?  Due to this, God, and none other, has the sole right to command and He, and none else, deserves our strict obedience.  He deserves to be singled out in all acts of worship, without association of any partners.

But so often we see worship being reduced to dry, empty rituals.  God informs us in this verse that the goal of worship is to achieve Taqwa.  In most Quran translations, Taqwa is translated as fear, piety, or righteousness.  Perhaps a more accurate translation is ‘God-consciousness’ or ‘God-awareness.’ Taqwa is to be aware of God’s presence at all times and to put a shield between oneself and God’s displeasure by doing what is right.  God does not benefit and is not in need of our worship, rather worship, as all His other commandments, is of benefit to our own selves.  When a person worships God, they are reminded about Him, and in turn reminded of the purpose of their life, and they themselves will be discouraged from committing vein and evil deeds.  These reminders lead to Taqwa or God-consciousness.  If a person achieves this state of being, they do or say nothing except that they keep in mind the true reality of that deed, whether it is pleasing to his Lord or incurs His anger. - islamreligion.com

Piety and Wickedness

 

Masjid Terapung Yan, Yan, Kedah , Malaysia

“O Mankind!  Partake of what is lawful and good on earth, and follow not Satan’s footsteps: for, verily, he is your open foe and bids you only to do evil, to commit deeds of immorality, and to attribute unto God what you do not know.” (Quran 2:168-169)

God addresses all of humanity, the faithful and the faithless, to think about something we take for granted: food.  God produces everything on earth: seeds, fruits, vegetables, and meats for human consumption, but forbids us relatively few things that are unwholesome.  Some of the foods God has forbidden are the meat of dead animals, blood, and pork.  Every food is lawful in God’s law except what He has forbidden, that has been stolen, or taken by breaking God’s law.  The best foods for us are organic, natural, and wholesome – foods produced by God, but when people start altering the food chain, they produce new, unknown diseases like the mad cow disease.  We need to be grateful for what God provides us.

This verse also indicates that eating enough to live is a duty imposed on human beings by God.  Going to extremes in starving oneself to look beautiful, for example, is not permitted.

God also commands humanity not to follow the footsteps of Satan, meaning what Satan commands.  First, Satan is real.  Second, Islam tells us everything important for us to know about Satan, including how to protect ourselves.  What does Satan command?  Disbelief, rejecting faith in God, oppression, injustice, sins, and eating what God has forbidden.  God reminds us that Satan is an enemy, so human beings should be on guard against him.  God, in His mercy, did not stop at warning us from following Satan’s footsteps, but also warned against what Satan commands:

(a)   Satan commands evil.  Evil includes all types of sins.

(b)  Satan commands adultery, fornication, drinking alcohol, getting drunk, and killing.

(c)   The greatest command of Satan is to make us say of God what we don’t know.  Satan’s greatest way of misguiding people is to say God has a son, an equal, to liken God to an old man sitting in heaven, to think God will punish everyone or forgive everyone without any knowledge from God Himself, or to say God permits or forbids something without any basis in knowledge from what God has revealed.  As for God, He commands justice and forbids immorality and wrongdoing.  Everyone should assess what they believe in order to ensure what they are following is God's guidance rather than the promptings of Satan. - islamreligion.com

“Rivalry in worldly increase distracts you…”

 "Rivalry in worldly increase distracts you, until you come to the graves. Nay, but you will come to know!" (Quran 102:1-3)

Twenty years ago, I wrote an article which I gave the title "The Age of Reduction". It was published in the book Islamic Views on Contemporary Issues. Now I find the need to talk about "The Age of Increase".

There is no contradiction between these two descriptions of our age. They are two sides of the same coin – a coin we could give the name "wretchedness".
We live in the Age of Reduction with respect to the human being, but it is the Age of Increase with respect to material things.

The reduction we see is in the human spirit. It is in our feelings, our sensitivities, our very humanness. This is while we revel in the excess of material things, go to dizzying heights in building our cities, and rush forward in technological progress. Nevertheless, people are not happy. Human happiness continues to diminish.

We are losing ourselves. We are becoming more and more superficial. Our spirits are shallow. We have lost the richness of our inner sensibilities. We rush towards the material world and our experience becomes inseparable from it, moving, expanding, growing. However, our faith, our inner meaning, and our moral sensibilities are lost on the wayside.

There is an increasing abundance of services, consumer goods, essentials, and amusements. We have more choices of entertainment than ever before. There is more wealth, and more things to buy. Science and technology are advancing at an increasing rate. So why is it that people feel more and more wretched? What have we lost of life’s beauty?

We are becoming closed in by material things more and more every day. We are becoming less social as a consequence, more distant from family and friends, from our spouses and our children. We are even becoming strangers to our own selves. We are slowly blocking ourselves off from each other with invisible walls.
Even the voices that are raised here and there seem to get caught in their throats so that no one really hears them.

This blockade of material things has deluged us. It is difficult for anyone to stand in its way. It moves forward relentlessly and irresistibly. We have put ourselves into a difficult situation from which we cannot extract ourselves.

I am reminded of a play of the French playwright Eugène Ionesco where the protagonist finds himself blocked in by things, which encroach upon him more and more every day, until the protagonist is cut off from everything around him. He is expelled from the world. Even his screams can barely be heard by anyone. Things do not merely posses the ability to exclude the person, but even his ability to speak out, like in a dream or a nightmare where one cannot make an utterance.

I am also reminded of what Leopold Weiss writes in The Road to Mecca about his experiences as a Western man living the incessant and feverish quest for material increase. He reproaches his people for their depression and wretchedness. He writes:

One day -- it was in September 1926 -- Elsa and I found ourselves travelling in the Berlin subway. It was an upper class compartment. My eye fell casually on a well-dressed man opposite me, apparently a well-to-do businessman, with a beautiful briefcase on his knees and a large diamond ring on his hand. I thought idly how well the portly figure of this man fitted into the picture of prosperity which one encountered everywhere in Central Europe in those days: a prosperity the more prominent as it has come after years of inflation, when all economic life had been topsy-turvy and shabbiness of appearance the rule. Most of the people were now well dressed and well fed, and the man opposite me was therefore no exception. But when I looked at his face, I did not seem to be looking at a happy face. He appeared to be worried: and not merely worried but acutely unhappy, with eyes staring vacantly ahead and the corners of his mouth drawn in as if in pain -- but not in bodily pain. Not wanting to be rude, I turned my eyes away and saw next to him a lady of some elegance. She also had a strangely unhappy expression on her face, as if contemplating or experiencing something that caused her pain; nevertheless, her mouth was fixed in the stiff semblance of a smile which, I was certain, must have been habitual. And then I began to look around at all the other faces in the compartment -- faces belonging without exception to well-dressed, well-fed people; and in almost every one of them I could discern an expression of hidden suffering, so hidden that the owner of the face seemed to be quite unaware of it.

This was indeed strange. I had never before seen so many unhappy faces around me; or was it perhaps that I had never before looked for what was now so loudly speaking in them? The impression was so strong that I mentioned it to Elsa; and she too began to look around her with the careful eyes of a painter accustomed to study human features. Then she turned to me, astonished, and said: "You are right. They all look as though they were suffering torments of hell... I wonder, do they know themselves what is going on in them?"

I knew that they did not -- for otherwise they could not go on wasting their lives as they did, without any faith in binding truths, without any goal beyond the desire to raise their own "standard of living," without any hopes other than having more material amenities, more gadgets, and perhaps more power...

When we returned home, I happened to glance at my desk on which lay open a copy of the Koran I had been reading earlier. Mechanically, I picked the book up to put it away, but just as I was about to close it, my eye fell on the open page before me, and I read:

You are obsessed by greed for more and more
Until you go down to your graves.
Nay, but you will come to know!
Nay, but you will come to know!
Nay, if you but knew it with the knowledge of certainty,
You would indeed see the hell you are in.
In time, indeed, you shall see it with the eye of certainty:
And on that day you will be asked what you have done with the boon of life.

For a moment I was speechless. I think the book shook in my hands. Then I handed it to Elsa. "Read this. Is it not an answer to what we saw in the subway?"

It was an answer: an answer so decisive that all doubt was suddenly at an end. I knew now, beyond any doubt, that it was a God-inspired book I was holding in my hand: for although it had been placed before man over thirteen centuries ago, it clearly anticipated something that could have become true only in this complicated, mechanized, phantom-ridden age of ours.

At all times people had known greed: but at no time before this had greed outgrown a mere eagerness to acquire things and become an obsession that blurred the sight of everything else: an irresistible craving to get, to do, to contrive more and more -- more today than yesterday, and more tomorrow than today: a demon riding on the necks of men and whipping their hearts forward toward goals that tauntingly glitter in the distance but dissolve into contemptible nothingness as soon as they are reached, always holding out the promise of new goals ahead -- goals still more brilliant, more tempting as long as they lie on the horizon, and bound to wither into further nothingness as soon as they come within grasp: and that hunger, that insatiable hunger for ever new goals gnawing at man's soul: Nay, if you but knew it you would see the hell you are in...

This, I saw, was not the mere human wisdom of a man of a distant past in distant Arabia. However wise he may have been, such a man could not by himself have foreseen the torment so peculiar to this twentieth century. Out of the Koran spoke a voice greater than the voice of Muhammad...

Leopold Weiss had read Surah al-Takathur and embraced Islam. We can read above his translation of this chapter of the Quran the way he understood it at that time. His "You are obsessed by greed for more and more" captures much of the essence of the meaning of the verse "Rivalry in worldly increase distracts you."

He articulates the problem when people put a premium on outward appearances and give little value to inner worth, when they prefer worldly success over success in the Hereafter, when they place greater stake in personal interests than they do on ethical conduct, and when they focus their lives on material acquisition over the development of their inner selves.

What happiness have we achieved in this deluge of material excess? How can we recapture our own souls? We know more about the physical aspects of our lives than ever before in history. However, the inner dimensions of our lives have fallen to a disgraceful state. - islamreligion.com

Chapter 21 The Prophets (Al-Anbiya)

 

Introduction

Chapter 21, The Prophets, is one of the longer chapters of the Quran.  It contains 112 verses and its title comes from the subject matter from verses 48 to 91, stories, and lessons from the lives of many of the more notable prophets.  This chapter was revealed in Mecca and thus it stresses that Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, was a human being like all the earlier prophets and that his message was the same, the oneness or unity of God.  It also warns, as do many chapters, of the inevitability of the Day of Judgement.

Verses 1 – 9  Accusations and lies

God warns that the Day of Accountability is getting closer, yet many people are heedless.  They ridicule the warnings and warners that come to them and continue to play, their hearts preoccupied with worldly affairs.  In their private conversations, they say that Muhammad is a just human being like themselves, and that he is trying to trick them with witchcraft.  God says to Prophet Muhammad, tell them that I (God) hear everything they think is said in secrecy.  Many accuse Prophet Muhammad of having muddled dreams, or making up false stories, or being a poet.  The disbelievers ask for a sign, but God mentions that all the cities and towns destroyed previously asked for and received signs yet they did not believe.  The disbelievers dispute as to how a human being can be a prophet yet the previous prophets were all mortal men.  God fulfilled His promise to them, they were saved, as were those who believed in them but many were destroyed for their disbelief. 

Verses 10- 24  Falsehood blown away

We (God) have sent you a reminder.  Prior nations were destroyed because of their iniquities.  Other communities were raised up in their place.  They tried to escape when they felt Our (Gods) wrath upon them.  (They were told) Go back to your houses and play.  They admitted their wrongdoing and continued to do so until they were extinguished, just like a fire.  Heaven and earth and all that lies between them were not created to be a playground.  Falsehood is blown away by the truth, so woe to those who have created false gods.  Those who are with God worship and praise him tirelessly.  Do your false deities have the power to raise the dead? There is proof and there is the reminder (the Quran) yet most people do not recognise the truth and turn away.

Verses 25- 47  Every soul will taste death

All the prophets were sent with the same message; there is no deity but God, so worship Him alone.  Despite having received the true message people tell lies against God.  These evil doers are rewarded with Hell.  Do the disbelievers not consider the world around them? The heavens and the earth were once one mass split asunder by God; all living creatures have their origin in water.  The earth is covered with firm mountains and broad pathways and the sky is a canopy.  God created the night and the day; the celestial bodies move in their orbits.  Every soul will taste death.  Everyone is tested and then they will return to God.  The Day will arrive suddenly and the disbelievers will be powerless to turn it away.  The previous messengers were ridiculed but in the end those who ridiculed were overcome by what they mocked.   Invented gods cannot defend themselves so how will they defend the disbelievers? They are warned but refuse to hear, and then if even a breath of punishment touches them they cry to God.  Be warned that on the Day of Judgement the scales will be set up and God will take account.

Verses 48 – 70 Brief stories of the prophets

God says He gave Moses and his brother Aaron the scripture that distinguishes between right and wrong and the Quran is also a blessed message.  God sends it down yet some people continue to deny it.   Long ago right judgment was bestowed upon Abraham.  He questioned his father and his people about their clear idolatry but they answered that they only followed the ways of their ancestors.  Abraham said to them that their true Lord was the Lord of the heavens and the earth that had created them and that he (Abraham) would plot against the idols as soon as he could find the opportunity.  Abraham destroyed all the idols except the largest one.  He left it whole.  When they returned to find the carnage the people remembered Abraham’s threats so they called him and questioned him.  He asked them to question instead the remaining idol, pointing out the absurdity of their beliefs.  At first Abraham’s people admitted their errors but then they were seized with pride and obstinacy.  They threw Abraham into the midst of a fire but God kept the fire cool.   They planned to hurt Abraham but God made them the losers.

Verses 71 – 77 God saves those who believe

Prophet Abraham and his nephew Lot were delivered from harm and sent to a land that God had blessed for the entire world.  Here Abraham was blessed even more with his righteous son Isaac and his grandson Jacob.  They were righteous, doing good deeds, establishing the prayer, giving alms and worshipping in the correct way.  Lot was given sound judgment and knowledge and God saved him from the city of wicked deeds.  Even further back in the past Noah called out to God and God accepted his prayer against the unbelievers.  Prophet Noah and the believers were saved from the great calamity (the flood) but those who had denied the warnings were drowned.

Verses 78 – 88 …And those who cry to Him in distress

God blessed Prophet David and Solomon with wisdom.  God was watching them when they were trying to judge a case about sheep straying a night and He made Solomon understand the case in a better way.  However both were given wisdom in abundance.  It was God who made the mountains and the birds sing His (God’s) praises with David and it was also God who taught David to make coats of armour for protection in battle.  God harnessed the wind for Solomon and made some of the jinn subservient to him.   God asks us to remember Job, who cried to his Lord when he was afflicted.  God heard his cry and removed his suffering.  And remember Ishmael, Idris, and Dhu’l- Kifl.  They were all steadfast and were admitted into God’s mercy.  And remember the man in the whale? He was angry but admitted his wrong and God saved him from his distress.  God saves the faithful.

Verses 89 – 112  Great news for the believers

God blessed Zachariah and accepted his prayer for a child.  He was given John (the Baptist).  Remember the one who guarded her chastity (Mary, mother of Jesus).   God made her and her son a sign for all people.  God calls all the prophets a single community and says worship Me alone.  If a believer does righteous deeds the angels will record it.  Towards the end of time the people of Gog and Magog will be let loose to swarm across the land.  On the Day of Judgement the eyes of the disbelievers will stare in horror and say, "We were wrong".  But the people destined for Paradise will be kept far away from Hell; they will not even hear a sound of it.  This day of great terror will not grieve them and the angels will greet them.  Surely this is great news for the believers.  My (God’s) righteous servants will inherit the earth.

Muhammad has been sent as a blessing for all the worlds and was told to warn them (humankind) asking them to affirm their belief that God is one.   - islamreligion.com

First Chapter of the Quran

 

“I begin with the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

All praise is to God, Lord of all the worlds

Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Master of the Day of Judgment

You Alone do we worship and You Alone do we ask for help

Guide us to the straight path

The Path of those on whom You bestowed Your bounties

Not the path of those who incurred Your wrath or those who went astray.” (Quran 1:1-7)

Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, told us, that this chapter in the Quran is unlike any other. Nothing like it was revealed in any previous scripture. When one recites this chapter sincerely they would be professing their belief as a true Muslim.

All praise is to God

When you state that all praise is due to God alone, you are in fact acknowledging that only He has all the attributes of perfection and that only He is the bestower of all the bounties that any of His creation enjoys.  And since gratefulness is the essence of worship, you are also acknowledging that He is the only one who deserves to be worshipped.

Lord of all the worlds

The Arabic word for Lord, Rubb, conveys a number of meanings that are not accurately captured by the English word Lord. It means that He is the one who owns, who creates, who sustains and who looks after all that exists.  The only relationship between Him and all creation is that He is the creator of all that exists.  He cannot therefore be the father of anyone in any real sense! To say that He is the Creator and yet the father of some of His creation is a contradiction in terms.  You don’t create your child, you beget him.  It is because of this that the Quran keeps reminding those who claim that God has children (the Arabs who used to say that the angels are the daughters of God, the Christians who say that Jesus is the son of God, and a Jewish sect who used to believe that Ezra is the son of God) that God is the Creator and Owner of everything.    

Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The two Arabic words, Rahman and Raheem, for which these English phrases stand, are two intensive forms of a root word which conveys the meaning of mercy.  Rahman is more intensive than Raheem, and refers to God’s all-encompassing mercy, His mercy to all His creation in this life and the life to come.  Raheem refers to His special mercy to the faithful.  No created being can therefore be Rahman, but created beings can be described as Raheem in a limited and special sense of the word. 

Master of the Day of Judgment

God is the Master of all days and all things, but while some people can have some limited mastership or even falsely claim to have it, no one can be, or claim to be master in any sense on the Day of Reckoning.  On that Day God will ask all of His creation: “To whom is sovereignty today?” And the answer will be “To God, the One who holds absolute sway over all that exists”.  This reminds us of the fact that this world is only a transient station on the road to the final abode where we shall either be rewarded or punished for what we do here. 

You Alone do we worship and You Alone do we ask for help

The foregoing verses were like an introduction to this one.  It is as if you are saying: because we acknowledge the fact that all praise is to You, that You are the Lord of all the worlds, that You are Most Gracious and Most Merciful, and that You Alone are the Master of the Day of Judgment, we hereby declare that we worship none but You and seek help from none except You.   This verse emphasizes the fact that what is important is not only that You worship God, but that you worship none besides Him, because none except Him deserves to be worshipped.  Worship in the broader sense of the word includes that you obey none but Him in any absolute sense, love no one as or more than you love Him and pray to no one except Him. It also includes that you seek help from none but God; this doesn’t mean that you don’t extend or accept any help from any of God’s created beings in matters in which they have the power to help.  It only means that you believe that even when you give or receive such help that it is ultimately coming from God because nothing in this world happens without His will and power.  So it is from Him alone that you are ultimately turning for help, and it is on Him that you ultimately and absolutely depend. 

Guide us to the Straight path

Having acknowledged all those truths about God, and having declared to Him that it is He Alone that we worship and ask for help, we now go on to ask Him to grant us the thing that we need most: knowing and taking the shortest path that leads to Him.  Having known who God is we are convinced that such guidance must come from Him, that it must be available to all who want to follow it, and that there must be no doubt about the fact that it is from Him.  That guidance, we know, is no where to be found in any complete way except in God’s words, the words that He revealed to His chosen Prophets like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, may God praise them all.  But we also know for sure that none of the books that contain that guidance is now at our disposal except one - the Quran.  It is to this Divine book that we must turn for a detailed description of the Straight Path that leads to our Lord.  This path is an absolute path that was given to each Prophet and Messenger of God and it does not change over the passage of time.

The Path of those on whom You bestowed Your bounties

The straight path described in the Quran is not a theoretical path; it is an actual path that some people before us have taken.  As Muslims, we believe every Prophet and Messenger of God preached the belief in the Oneness of God and that all worship was to be dedicated to Him alone.

Not the path of those who incurred Your wrath or those who went astray

Just as the Straight Path is described above in a positive way, the paths of those who deviated from it are described in a negative manner. We always ask our Lord to keep us away from the paths taken by two kinds of deviant people: those who knew the truth about religion and yet refused to act according to it, and there brought upon themselves the wrath of God. The second group of people were those who made their religion suit their whims and desires and are thus went astray.  The Quran tells us in some detail about their main deviations, among the greatest of which is that they have no great respect for God or His words: they ascribe to Him imperfect, even insulting attributes; they distort His words at will to make them suit their own wishes or preferences and they commit immoralities in the name of religion. - islamreligion.com