It was several decades ago when the late Maherul Qadri wrote his beautiful and evocative poem he called Qur’ān ki Faryaad. Paraphrase: “Complaint of the Qur’ān.” The basic theme of the poem was something like this:
They love me and they kiss me; / They honour me and they revere me; / And in silken mantles do they bundle me; / But they wait for death to strike them, / Before they ever read me.
Oh, how long on the shelf do they forget me, / To gather dust, as if they never ever see me; / But here is what really breaks my heart; / They don’t do a thing I tell them; / That is how they forsake me.
To me, it was one of the most gut-wrenching pieces of poetry in all of Urdu literature.
Muslims read and sang this poem, over and over, and they shed copious tears. And, as usual, they did not a thing to address the abuse and abandonment of the Qur’ān by the Muslims – and others.
The question what to do about the dire situation – how Muslims were subjecting the Qur’ān to abuse – never really became a serious subject of discussion. It never mobilised and energised the Muslims to concerted and focused action.
Life went on, as it always does.
Most Muslims continued to keep a safe distance from the Qur’ān. In their life that is.
For, when death descended, it also brought the Qur’ān with it willy-nilly. In Muslim culture, no Muslim is allowed to die, or be buried, without recourse to Qur’ān in some form or fashion – and to some degree or measure.
This is particularly true in a place like India, where Muslims are yet to get into the culture of reading the Qur’ān in a big and serious way.
You have to hand it to the Arabs though – Arabs of all descriptions. For, they have by and large held on to the tradition of reading and reciting the Qur’ān in one way or another and to some degree or another.
You can see any number of them – these Arab people I mean – sitting in the mosques before Jum’ah Salaah (compulsory weekly congregational worship) – or even before any regular Fard Salaah (compulsory daily congregational worship) – with a copy of the Qur’ān open in their hand and reading away.
I would say, to some extent at least, that is what keeps the world going. I mean it is the blessings of this reading of the Qur’ān by these people that make rains come and quench the thirst of a parched earth and at the same time keep the earth from opening up and swallowing the rest of us.
Not that non-Arab Muslims don’t do it, but more of them need to get into the habit of picking up a copy of the Qur’ān in the mosque and sitting down and reading it just before the Iqaamat (second call for prayer) for the Fard Salaah (compulsory daily congregational worship).
The fact is more and more people need to get into the habit of reading and reciting the Qur’ān on a regular basis – whenever, wherever and however.
And then there are those, Arab and non-Arab, at the other end of the spectrum, who just have somehow fallen in love with the Qur’ān.
These are people who have been blessed to taste the Qur’ān – holding it in their hands; reading it; looking at a translation of it – and they can never be without it again.
What a blessing it is to be in the company of those who love the Qur’ān that way, and read and discuss it among themselves, and try to promote it among others in every way they can.
I cannot think of an activity that could be more exciting, rewarding or fun than that.
And then you look around, and see how rare it is for people to spend their time in this manner.
If only the world knew the joys of the Qur’ān: of reading it; of studying it; and of sharing it with those you love.
And then there are those who seem to prefer to read the Qur’ān in English. I don’t mean an English translation of it, but reading the original Arabic text in English “Transliteration.”
I can understand some people may not have achieved the required proficiency to be able to read the original Arabic of the Qur’ān. But the question is did they even try? How hard did they try?
And how much of an effort are they making right now?
And the Qur’ān – there is only one Qur’ān and it is in its original revealed Arabic form – is easy to read; easy to comprehend; easy to memorse; and easy to put into practice.
That is God’s promise in multiple places in the Qur’ān and that also is our experience.
Wa laqad yassarnal Qur’ān lidh-dhikr, says the Qur’ān. Paraphrase: We have indeed made the Qur’ān easy.
So, where are those who will turn to it and come forward to learn it: Fa-hal min muddakir?
But the Devil, why would he want to let you learn to read the Qur’ān in the original if he can help it?
And that is what is going on in the world today – as always. The Devil is busy doing all kinds of tricks to keep the faithful – those who have any degree of faith in God, a faith that will drag them bound hand and foot to the doorsteps of the Qur’ān – from connecting with the Qur’ān in any shape or form.
The Devil is a master of negotiation and compromise. He is a king of substitutes and equivalencies. His policy is to offer you a replacement for the real thing whenever he could.
So, when the Devil finds that you are bent on reading the Qur’ān, and nothing will stop you, he offers you Plan B. He offers you a replacement for the Qur’ān – in some other language.
So, the Devil sells Muslims “Transliteration,” and in multiple languages – anything to keep them from the divine text of the Qur’ān in original resplendent Arabic.
And from reaping the infinite blessings and boon of that blessed divine text.
But the point is this: You cannot – repeat you cannot; no one can – read the Qur’ān in English “Transliteration” – or in “Transliteration” in any other language.
It is simply not humanly possible. Got that? Let me repeat: It is simply not humanly possible.
The Qur’ān was sent by God in Arabic. And it is in that same original Arabic text that the Qur’ān stays on earth till the Day of Judgment.
Not only that: so does the pure and glorious Arabic language of the Qur’ān, as part of the divine package of the Qur’ān.
God Almighty has undertaken to protect the Qur’ān – and everything connected with the Qur’ān – forever and ever.
Innaa nahnu nazzalnadh dhikr wa innaa lahu la-haafizwoon is how the Qur’ān itself puts it.
Paraphrase: Surely, it was we who sent down the Dhikr and most assuredly we are the one who shall protect it forever and in every way.
As a result, when you read a so-called “Transliteration” of the Qur’ān, what you read will not be Qur’ān, but something else.
Not only that, it will also get you, at the same time, to commit follies of word and meaning that will take you completely outside the fold of Islam and throw you in a cesspool of Kufr and Shirk and all kinds of gobbledygook.
Recently, I came across a booklet that touted itself “Tamil Yaseen” with translation. Meaning “Qur’ān” supposed to be in “Transliteration” form in the Tamil language – the dominant and forceful language of the land of Tamil Nadu in South India.
It is just like saying: “Fish that live on trees”; or “Elephants that drive cars.”
“Qur’ān in Tamil” or “Qur’ān in English ‘Transliteration’” is no different.
None of these contradictions in terms is more likely than the other.
But Muslims, while they cannot make an elephant drive a car or make a fish live on a tree, they can certainly render the divine Arabic text of the Qur’ān into totally mangled and impossible-to-read English or Tamil “Transliteration.”
Muslims perpetrate the most egregious and preposterous things like this and then they run around complaining how come nobody likes them! And how come everybody is beating up on them?
This then is what Muslims have done to the Qur’ān. They now have a “Tamil” and an “English” Qur’ān.
What will they have next?
I am italicising these words, for the resultant “Qur’ān” is neither Qur’ān; nor is it really “Tamil” nor English.
It is just Muslims playing Russian roulette with their maker and master, God Almighty, and his blessed book, the Qur’ān.
Aren’t there some Mowlanas, Shaikhs, Ulama and other qualified folks who will issue a fairly strong Fatwa outlawing this kind of abuse of the Qur’ān?
And telling the Muslims everywhere that they must learn to read the Qur’ān in its original Arabic language?