The Message of the Qur'an Quotes

“Western critics of the Qur’ān frequently point to the allegedly “incoherent” references to God – often in one and the same phrase – as “He,” “God,” “We,” or “I,” with the corresponding changes of the pronoun from “His” to “Ours” or “My,” or from “Him” to “Us” or “Me.” They seem to be unaware of the fact that these changes are not accidental, and not even what one might describe as “poetic licence,” but are obviously deliberate: a linguistic device meant to stress the idea that God is not a “person” and cannot, therefore, be really circumscribed by the pronouns applicable to finite beings.”
― Anonymous, The Message of the Qur'an

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE: (1) CONSIDER the bright morning hours, (2) and the night when it grows still and dark.5242 (3) Thy Sustainer has not forsaken thee, nor does He scorn thee:5243 (4) for, indeed, the life to come will be better for thee than this earlier part [of thy life]! (5) And, indeed, in time will thy Sustainer grant thee [what thy heart desires], and thou shalt be well-pleased. (6) Has He not found thee an orphan, and given thee shelter?5244 (7) And found thee lost on thy way, and guided thee? (8) And found thee in want, and given thee sufficiency? (9) Therefore, the orphan shalt thou never wrong, (10) and him that seeks [thy] help shalt thou never chide,5245 (11) and of thy Sustainer’s blessings shalt thou [ever] speak.5246”
― Anonymous, The Message of the Qur'an

“The parable of the life of this world is but that of rain which We send down from the sky, and which is absorbed by the plants of the earth1391 whereof men and animals draw nourishment, until – when the earth has assumed its artful adornment and has been embellished, and they who dwell on it believe that they have gained mastery over it1392 – there comes down upon it Our judgment, by night or by day, and We cause it to become [like] a field mown down, as if there had been no yesterday.1393”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE: (1) NAY! I call to witness this land – (2) this land in which thou art free to dwell5215 – (3) and [I call to witness] parent and offspring:5216 (4) Verily, We have created man into [a life of] pain, toil, and trial.5217 (5) Does he, then, think that no one has power over him? (6) He boasts, “I have spent wealth abundant!”5218 (7) Does he, then, think that no one sees him?5219 (8) Have We not given him two eyes, (9) and a tongue, and a pair of lips,5220 (10) and shown him the two highways [of good and evil]? (11) But he would not try to ascend the steep uphill road.... (12) And what could make thee conceive what it is, that steep uphill road? (13) [It is] the freeing of one’s neck [from the burden of sin],5221 (14) or the feeding, upon a day of [one’s own] hunger, (15) of an orphan near of kin, (16) or of a needy [stranger] lying in the dust – (17) and being, withal, of those who have attained to faith, and who enjoin upon one another patience in adversity, and enjoin upon one another compassion. (18) Such are they that have attained to righteousness;5222 (19) whereas those who are bent on denying the truth of Our messages – they are such as have lost themselves in evil, (20) [with] fire closing in upon them.5223”
― Anonymous, The Message of the Qur'an

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE: (1) HAVE WE NOT opened up thy heart,5247 (2) and lifted from thee the burden (3) that had weighed so heavily on thy back?5248 (4) And [have We not] raised thee high in dignity?5249 (5) And, behold, with every hardship comes ease: (6) verily, with every hardship comes ease! (7) Hence, when thou art freed [from distress], remain steadfast, (8) and unto thy Sustainer turn with love.”
― Anonymous, The Message of the Qur'an

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE: (1) IT IS NOT [conceivable] that such as are bent on denying the truth – [be they] from among the followers of earlier revelation or from among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God5268 – should ever be abandoned [by Him] ere there comes unto them the [full] evidence of the truth: (2) an apostle from God, conveying [unto them] revelations blest with purity, (3) wherein there are ordinances of ever-true soundness and clarity.5269 (4) Now those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime5270 did break up their unity [of faith] after such an evidence of the truth had come to them.5271 (5) And withal, they were not enjoined aught but that they should worship God, sincere in their faith in Him alone, turning away from all that is false;5272 and that they should be constant in prayer; and that they should spend in charity:5273 for this is a moral law endowed with ever-true soundness and clarity.5274 (6) Verily, those who [despite all evidence] are bent on denying the truth5275 – [be they] from among the followers of earlier revelation or from among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God – will find themselves in the fire of hell, therein to abide: they are the worst of all creatures. (7) [And,] verily, those who have attained to faith and do righteous deeds – it is they, they who are the best of all creatures. (8) Their reward [awaits them] with God: gardens of perpetual bliss, through which running waters flow, therein to abide beyond the count of time; well-pleased is God with them, and well-pleased are they with Him: all this awaits him who of his Sustainer stands in awe!”
― Anonymous, The Message of the Qur'an

“Ṭabaqāt see Ibn Sa`d. Ṭabarī Abū Ja`far Muḥammad ibn Jarīr at-Ṭabarī (d. 310 H.), Jāmi` al-Bayān `an Ta’wīl al-Qur’ān. Tāj al-`Arūs Murtaḍā az-Zabīdī (d. 1205 H.), Tāj al-`Arūs. Tirmidhī Muḥammad ibn `Isā at-Tirmidhī (d. 275 or 279 H.), Al-Jāmi` as-Saḥīḥ. Wāqidī Muḥammad ibn `Umar al-Wāqidī (d. 207 H.), Kitāb al-Maghāzī. Zamakhsharī Maḥmūd ibn `Umar az-Zamakhsharī (d. 538 H.), Al-Kashshāf `an Ḥaqā’iq Ghawāmiḍ at-Tanzīl. (For the same author’s lexicographic works, see Asās and Fā’iq.)”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“Nihāyah `Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Athīr (d. 630 H.), An-Nihāyah fī Gharīb al-Ḥadīth. Qāmūs Abu ’Ṭ-Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Ya`qūb al-Fīrūzābādī (d.817 H.), Al-Qāmūs. Rāghib Abu ’l-Qāsim Ḥusayn ar-Rāghib (d. 503 H.), Al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qur’ān. Rāzī Abu ’l-Faḍl Muḥammad Fakhr ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī (d. 606 H.), At-Tafsīr al-Kabīr. Shawkānī see Nayl al-Awṭār. State and Muḥammad Asad, The Principles of State and Government in Government Islam, University of California Press, 1961. Suyūṭī see Itqān.”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“Muḥallā Abū Muḥammad `Alī ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 H.), Al-Muḥallā, Cairo 1347-52 H. Muslim Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj an-Nīsābūrī (d. 261 H.), Kitāb as-Saḥīḥ. Mustadrak Muḥammad ibn `Abd Allāh al-Ḥākim (d. 405 H.), Al-Mustadrak `ala ’S-Saḥīḥayn fi ’l-Ḥadīth, Hyderabad 1334-41 H. Muwaṭṭa’ Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 H.), Al-Muwaṭṭa’. Nasā’ī Aḥmad ibn Shu`ayb an-Nasā’ī (d. 303 H.), Kitāb as-Sunan. Nayl al-Awṭār Muḥammad ibn `Alī ash-Shawkānī (d. 1255 H.), Nayl al-Awṭār Sharḥ Muntaqā al-Akhbār, Cairo 1344 H.”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“Jawharī Abū Nasr Ismā`īl ibn Ḥammād al-Jawharī (d. about 400 H.), Tāj al-Lughah wa-Siḥāḥ al-`Arabiyyah, Būlāq 1292 H. Kashshāf see Zamakhsharī. Lane William Edward Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, London 1863-93. Lisān al-`Arab Abu ’l-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Mukarram al-Ifrīqī (d. 711 H.), Lisān al-`Arab. Manār Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā’, Tafsīr al-Qur’ān (known as Tafsīr al-Manār), Cairo 1367-72 H. Mufradāt see Rāghib. Mughnī Jamāl ad-Dīn `Abd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-AnSārī (d. 761 H.), Mughnī ’l-Labīb `an Kutub al-A`ārīb.”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“al-A`yān wa-Anbā’ Abnā’ az-Zamān, Cairo 1310 H. Ibn Mājah Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Mājah al-Qazwīnī (d. 273 or 275 H.), Kitāb as-Sunan. Ibn Qayyim Abū `Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 751 H.), Zād al-Ma`ād fī Ḥajj Khayr al-`Ibād, Cairo 1347 H. Ibn Sa`d Muḥammad ibn Sa`d (d. 230 H.), Kitāb aṬ-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr, Leyden 1904-28. Ibn Taymiyyah Taqī ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Taymiyyah al-Ḥarrānī (d. 728 H.), Tafsīr Sitt Suwar, Bombay 1954. Itqān `Abd ar-Raḥmān Jalāl ad-Dīn as-Suyūṭī (d. 911 H.), Al-Itqān fī `Ulūm al-Qur’ān.”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“Fatḥ al-Bārī Aḥmad ibn `Alī ibn Ḥajar al-`Asqalānī (d. 852 H.), Fatḥ al-Bārī bi-Sharḥ Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Cairo 1348 H. Ḥākim see Mustadrak. Ibn Ḥanbal Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 H.), Al-Musnad. Ibn Ḥazm see Muḥallā. Ibn Ḥibbān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354 H.), Kitāb at-Taqāsīm wa’l-Anwā`. Ibn Ḥishām `Abd al-Malik ibn Ḥishām (d. 243 H.), Sīrat an-Nabī. Ibn Kathīr Abu ’l-Fidā’ Ismā`īl ibn Kathīr (d. 774 H.), Tafsīr al-Qur’ān, Cairo 1343-47 H. Ibn Khallikān Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Khallikān (d. 681 H.), Wafāyāt”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“Bayhaqī Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī (d. 458 H.), Kitāb as-Sunan al-Kubrā. Bidāyat Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (d. 595 H.), Bidāyat al- al-Mujtahid Mujtahid wa-Nihāyat al-Muqtasid, Cairo n.d. Bukhārī Muḥammad ibn Ismā`īl al-Bukhārī (d. 256 H.), Al-Jāmi` as-Saḥīḥ. Dārimī Abū Muḥammad `Abd Allāh ad-Dārimī (d. 255 H.), Kitāb as-Sunan. DārquṬnī `Ali ibn `Umar ad-DārquṬnī (d. 385 H.), Kitāb as-Sunan. Encyclopaedia (1st ed.) Leyden 1913-38. of Islam Fā’iq Maḥmūd ibn `Umar az-Zamakhsharī (d. 538 H.), Kitāb al-Fā’iq fī Gharīb al-Ḥadīth, Hyderabad 1324 H.”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“Abū Dā’ūd Abū Dā’ūd Sulaymān al-Ash`ath (d. 275 H.), Kitāb as-Sunan. Asās Maḥmūd ibn `Umar az-Zamakhsharī (d. 538 H.), Asās al-Balāghah. Baghawī Al-Ḥusayn ibn Mas`ūd al-Farrā’ al-Baghawī (d. 516 H.), Ma`ālim at-Tanzīl. Bayḍāwī `Abd Allāh ibn `Umar al-Bayḍāwī (d. 685 or 691 H.), Anwār at-Tanzīl wa-Asrār at-Ta’wīl.”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an

“ḤafS ibn Sulaymān al-Asadī,”
― Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an