Hi
We continue knowing important information about Quran from the treatise “INTRODUCTION T O THE STUDY OF THE HOLY QURAN” by Mirza Mahmood Ahmad, the son of PromisedMessiahImamMahdi. This he wrote when English translation of Quran was being launched by Ahmadia- a peaceful community in Islam.
alislam.org/books/invitation/arg5.html
Please read my previous post on this thread:
(vii) “Being a revealed Book the Quran contains prophecies.
A discussion of these prophecies is not possible until after they
have been fulfilled. For this reason also we needed a new
commentary which should enumerate prophecies of the Quran
which have been fulfilled so far and which constitute an impor-
tant part of the proof that the Quran is a revealed Book of God.
(viii) The Quran deals with all other religions and ideologies.
It incorporates in itself the best part of their teaching, points
to their wealmesses and supplies their deficiencies. Early
Muslim commentators were ignorant of what these religions and
ideologies taught and stood for. They were, therefore, unable
to appreciate completely what the Quran had to teach about
them. Now all the most obscure teachings have come to light
so that the teaching of the Quran relating to other teachings
has become evident to its devotees. T o compensate for this
shortcoming in the older commentaries, also, we needed a new
commentary of the Quran.
For these reasons we feel that our Translation and Com-
mentary not only does not call for apology but meets a genuine
and important need. In presenting it we discharge a duty.
We hope that those who read our Translation and Com-
mentary with care and without prejudice will feel constrained
to view Islam from a new angle. We hope that they will
become convinced that true Islam is not full of faults, as
Western writers imagine it to be, but that it is rather a well
laid out garden of the spirit where a visitor may dwell with
every kind of fragrance and beauty and which affords a vision
of the Paradise promised by a11 Teachers of religion.
OTHER REVEALED BOOKS
When the Quran was revealed about 1325 years ago there were
in the world many religions and many religious books. In
and near Arabia there were people who believed in the Old and
the New Testaments. Many Arabs had become Christian or
had developed a leaning towards Christianity. Arabs were
being converted to the Jewish religion. Among converts
were Ka’b b. Ashraf, a Medinite chief and a notorious enemy
of Islam, and his father. Ka’b’s father belonged to the Banu
Tai’ tribe. He became so enamoured of the Jewish faith
that the Jew, Abu Rafi’ b. Abi Haqiq, gave his daughter in
marriage to him and Ka’b was born of this marriage (Al-
Khamis, Vol I). I n Mecca itself, apart from Christian slaves,
there were Meccans who leaned towards Christianity. Waraqa
b. Naufal, cousin of Khadija, the first wife of the Holy Prophet,
entertained the Christian belief. He also had some knowledge
of Hebrew and translated the Hebrew Gospels into Arabic.
We have in Bukhari:
Waraqa b. Naufal had accepted Christianity in the period of
darkness ; and used to translate the Gospels from Hebrew into
Arabic (Bukhari, ch. on Bad’al Wahy).
At the other end of Arabia lived the Iranians, and they also
believed in a Prophet and a book. Though the Zend-Avesta
had suffered changes at human hands, it was yet held in rever-
ence by many hundreds of thousands of believers and a powerful
State was at its back. In India the Vedas had been adored for
thousands of years. There was also the Gita of Sri Krishna
and the teaching of the Buddha. Confucianism held sway in
China but the influence of the Buddha was increasing.
NEED OF THE QURAN
In the presence of all these books and teachings, did the
world need another book ? This is the question which should
occur to everyone who starts upon a study of the Quran. Its
answer will take many forms :
First, was not this division between religion and religion
reason enough for the coming of yet another religion to unite
all ? Secondly, was not the human mind to undergo a process
of evolution similar to that which the human body had already
gone through ? And, just as physical evolution had ultimately
become established, were not mental and spiritual evolution
destined towards an ultimate perfection which was the very
end of human existence ? Thirdly, had not earlier books
become so defective that a new book had now become a
universal necessity which was met by the Quran ? Fourthly,
did earlier religions regard their Messages as absolutely final ?
Did they not believe in continued spiritual progress ? Did
they not continuously assure their followers of a coming
Message which would unite mankind and lead them to their
ultimate objective ?"
Unquote
Thanks