Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz-e-kalaam aur hai!
(Iqbal)
I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what or where you are. And I have no idea what you do or don’t do. But regardless of all that, I would still like you to read this book – the most amazing and incomparable Al-Qur’an!
For, there is no other book quite like it in the world! There never was, and there never will be. Not to put any other book down. But simply to tell you that this is a book you owe it to yourself to read. It is quite unlike any other book you may have read.
I mean, are you a Christian? Are you a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim or a Buddhist?
Are you an Atheist, an Agnostic, an Animist or a Deist? Or are you, maybe, something entirely different?
Are you male or female? Are you young or old? Are you rich or poor or something in the middle?
Are you white, black, brown, yellow, red or a happy mixture of all of the above?
Are you a student, a university graduate, a holder of what people call a terminal degree, or a high-school dropout? Or are you a physician, engineer, lawyer, government servant, public official, business person or someone looking for a job?
Are you a conservative, liberal or something a bit more exotic? And are you from the East, from the West, from the North, from the South, or from somewhere else?
All the wonderful little bins and boxes human beings have devised to sort and separate themselves from one another! And then to use those same bins and boxes as the basis and rationale for their mutual rivalries, quarrels, fights, depredations, domination and exploitation!
What a way to live! But that is us humans. That is how we live.
All the familiar roles people embrace; all the delectable identities people assume; and all the games people play – as individuals, groups, organizations, nations and societies – for all the various reasons they play them for!
But regardless of who or what you are, and regardless of what you do or don’t do – that is, regardless of your belief or behaviour, and regardless of your race or religion, gender or age, nationality or language, education or occupation, habits or lifestyle, culture or ethnicity, views or ideologies, likes or dislikes, phobias or obsessions, anathemas or penchants and proclivities – you must still read this book.
This most amazing Al-Qur’an!
You must absolutely, positively read this book. For, there is no other book like it. There never was and there never will be.
Not to insult or attack any other book that you may hold in esteem, but purely to share with you the fact that this book may be quite unique and different from any and everything else that you may have read. And to tell you that you owe it to yourself to get a first-hand acquaintance with such a book.
A PLACE TO TURN TO
Did you ever wander through the vistas of life looking for answers? Answers to all sorts of questions, from the most significant to the most trivial? Looking for ways to make sense of your surroundings, your environment and the entire universe – and your own place in it?
Did you ever wish there were some place you could go to, someone you could turn or talk to, something you could look up or read, where you will find the answers you were seeking?
Where you will find the most authentic, true and reliable information – and advice, and help, and comment – on things that mattered most to you? Even beyond that, where you will see, hear and read God himself talk to you: directly and without an intermediary?
Where you will hear God’s own words directed at you personally, individually and often without equivocation and prevarication?
If you thought all this was too good to be true, then all you need to do is read this book. This most amazing Al-Qur’an. For, this book is that book.
That book – Dhaalikal Kitaab!
That is what the Qur’an says. That is exactly how the Qur’an puts it. I am quoting directly from the Qur’an – from that book.
I don’t mean someone or something purporting to speak for or in behalf of God. I don’t mean someone relating to you what God supposedly said to them, but God Almighty himself, addressing you directly, in his own words and voice, speaking to you in First Person and addressing you in Second Person?
And doing so using the direct-address mode of conversation that you are used to all your life. Calling out to you from beyond space and time, saying: “O, You!”
And yet assuring you all the time that he is close – closer than you think; closer than your own jugular vein; and, always, close enough to hear and answer you when you call him.
Have you – has your soul, deep down inside you – ever felt a need, a hankering, a craving, an urge, an aching for something just like that?
If you have, then you must read this book. This most incomparable Al-Qur’an. For, this book is that book. Dhaalikal Kitaab!
THERE IS NO OTHER BOOK QUITE LIKE IT!
That is right. There really is no other book in the world quite like that book. All you need to do is read that book and find out for yourself. Compare it to all the other books you know and come to your own conclusions.
You owe that much to yourself, do you not?
You will find that it is a book that elevates and exalts you beyond anything you ever thought was possible.
That answers the questions that were burning holes in your heart for you can’t even remember how long.
That provides you that ultimate solace and comfort you felt you needed when all human efforts to reach you and sooth the turmoil inside you failed to do their job.
You will find that it is a book that provides you clarity when all attempts on your part and on the part of others to remove the chaos and confusion prevailing in and around you never quite accomplished their goal.
That opens up pathways before you that you never thought existed. And lights up a million candles along those pathways for you to pursue the destination of your choice.
That provides for you a wonderful new direction in which to point your life and channel your efforts and energies. And altogether gives your life a new meaning; and gives your existence and struggle on earth a whole new purpose and perspective; and gives your energies a new lift.
You will find that it is a book whose reading puts a new spring in your step; a new tilt in your chin; a new smile on your lips; a new contentment on your countenance; a new sparkle in your eyes; a new confidence in your demeanour; and a new hope in your heart.
A book the reading of which makes your relationship with the rest of the universe around you one of calm communion, peace, tranquillity and joy. And, at the same time, sets your heart ablaze with the twin emotions of love for and fear of your creator.
And wrings from your eyes, believe it or not, steaming, cascading streams of intense and sublime joy, sorrow, contrition, remorse, shame, love, bliss, felicity and devotion, as God’s word begins to clear the cobwebs in your soul and burn away the darkness in your heart, and as you begin to feel the awesome and indescribable power, majesty, glory and presence of God before you.
If you want, you can call it a book of miracles. For, everything about that book is a miracle. In fact, that book is so full of miracles, cover to cover, that it refers to every one of its own passages as a miracle or a marker.
How else could it be if it is a book in which God Almighty talks to us directly?
That is why I say there is no other book quite like that book.