Sunday 11 March 2012

The Qur'an says to use the Qur'an Alone.

The Qur'an tells us in a specific verse to use the Qur'an alone.
The verse is as follows.

17:46 - We place shields around their minds, to prevent them from understanding it, and deafness in their ears. And when you preach your Lord, using the Qur'an alone, they run away in aversion.

How ever, this is a minority translation, the majority of translations say "your lord alone". As follows.

17:46 - And We have placed coverings on their hearts and a heaviness in their ears lest they understand it, and when you mention your Lord alone in the Qur'an they turn their backs in aversion.

17:46 - We have placed covers on their hearts, preventing them from understanding it, and heaviness in their ears. When you mention your Lord alone in the Qur'an, they turn their backs and run away. 

17:46 - And We place covers upon their heart, lest they should understand it, and deafness in their ears. And when you do mention your Lord alone in the Qur'an they turn their backs in aversion. 

So which is it? Is the Qur'an saying "Lord alone" or "Qur'an alone". 
To find out we need to look at the Arabic transliterations.

The word alone in Arabic is "wahdahu" and it occurs a total of six times in the Qur'an including the verse above.  These verses are 7:70, 17:46, 39:45, 40:12, 40:84, and 60:4.
Next i will show the 5 other verses with the world "alone" with the English and respective Arabic transliterations.

7:70 - They said: "Comest thou to us, that we may worship Allah alone, and give up the cult of our fathers? bring us what thou threatenest us with, if so be that thou tellest the truth!"
Qaloo aji/tana linaAAbuda Allaha wahdahu wanathara ma kana yaAAbudu abaona fa/tina bima taAAiduna in kunta mina alssadiqeena

39:45 - And when Allah alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the hereafter shrink, and when those besides Him are mentioned, lo! they are joyful.
Wa-itha thukira Allahu wahdahu ishmaazzat quloobu allatheena la yu/minoona bial-akhirati wa-itha thukira allatheena min doonihi itha hum yastabshiroona

40:12 - That is because when Allah alone was called upon, you disbelieved, and when associates were given to Him, you believed; so judgment belongs to Allah, the High, the Great.
Thalikum bi-annahu itha duAAiya Allahu wahdahu kafartum wa-in yushrak bihi tu/minoo faalhukmu lillahi alAAaliyyi alkabeeri

40:84 - But when they saw Our punishment, they said: We believe in Allah alone and we deny what we used to associate with Him.
Falamma raaw ba/sana qaloo amanna biAllahi wahdahu wakafarna bima kunna bihi mushrikeena

60:4 - Indeed, there is for you a good example in Ibrahim and those with him when they said to their people: Surely we are clear of you and of what you serve besides Allah; we declare ourselves to be clear of you, and enmity and hatred have appeared between us and you forever until you believe in Allah alone-- but not in what Ibrahim said to his father: I would certainly ask forgiveness for you, and I do not control for you aught from Allah-- Our Lord! on Thee do we rely, and to Thee do we turn, and to Thee is the eventual coming: 
Qad kanat lakum oswatun hasanatun fee ibraheema waallatheena maAAahu ith qaloo liqawmihim inna buraao minkum wamimma taAAbudoona min dooni Allahi kafarna bikum wabada baynana wabaynakumu alAAadawatu waalbaghdao abadan hatta tu/minoo biAllahi wahdahu illa qawla ibraheema li-abeehi laastaghfiranna laka wama amliku laka mina Allahi min shay-in rabbana AAalayka tawakkalna wa-ilayka anabna wa-ilayka almaseeru

As you can see, all the English verses correctly say "Allah alone" as the Arabic transliterations all say "Allah wahdahu".
How ever, let us have a look at the transliteration for 17:46. Bear in mind that the Arabic word for Lord is "Rabb" and in this context "Rabbaka" considering this verse uses the title Lord and not Allah.

WajaAAalna AAala quloobihim akinnatan an yafqahoohu wafee athanihim waqran wa-itha thakarta rabbaka fee alqur-ani wahdahu wallaw AAala adbarihim nufooran

As it is plain to see, this verse does not say "Lord Alone", it says "Qur'an Alone", or "alqur-ani wahdahu", literally, "The Qur'an alone". If it was "Lord alone" then surely, just as in all the other instances of the word "Alone", "Wahdahu" would have occured right after "Rabbaka", but it does not, it occurs after "Qur'an". So the only logical conclusion is that the correct translation is "Qur'an alone" as followed in some various but minority translations of 17:46

We place shields around their minds, to prevent them from understanding it, and deafness in their ears. And when you preach your Lord, using the Quran alone, they run away in aversion.

And We made/put on their hearts covers/protections that they understand/learn/know it, and in their ears a heavy weight, and if you mentioned/remembered your Lord in the Koran alone, they turned away on their backs/ends hastening away with aversion .

And we place shields over their hearts, that they should not understand it, and a deafness in their ears. And if you mention your Lord in the Quran alone, they run away turning their backs in aversion.

So why then do the majority of translators translate the verse as "Lord alone". It's simply, the majority of Muslims, and the majority of translators, uphold the Hadith, and the simple fact is if the Qur'an were to say "Qur'an alone" it would invalidate the Hadith, and so the majority of translators have falsely translated the verse to say "Lord alone" when it blatantly says "Qur'an alone" to fit their ideology.  In truth, the verse says "Qur'an alone" because Muslims are only supposed to follow the Qur'an and not Hadith. For more information in this please read this article.

All transliterations taken from http://www.islamawakened.com/quran/




 




2 comments:

  1. Interesting...

    I just discovered your blog from a post you did on Free Minds...

    Keep it up.

    Salaam

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, i haven't been active lately but i plan to change that.

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