RAMADAN the Month in which the Qur’an was Revealed, a Guidance to Humanity

By Imam Sultan Rahman-Guest Columnist- | Last updated: May 6, 2020 - 9:14:00 AM

Imam Sultan Rahman Muhammad

Blessed Holy Month of Ramadan—Ramadan Mubarak to all! May we have a blessed Holy Month of devotion that will serve to heal us spiritually, mentally and physically. We pray that Allah ease the pain of our struggles and strengthen our Will to be renewed during this time of trial.

Allah (God) Reveals in Chapter 2 Verse 185 of the Holy Qur’an: “The month of Ramadan is that in which the Qur’an was revealed, a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance and the Criterion. So whoever of you is present in the month, he shall fast therein.”

The Holy Qur’an was revealed in 609 A.D. to Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (PBUH) beginning at the age of 40 over a 23 year period in Mecca, Arabia, among a people entrenched in social decadence, oppression of women and the poor under the tyranny of the rich and powerful. The Holy Qur’an was revealed on the Night of Power, Majesty, or Decree (Qadr). “Surely We revealed it on the Night of Majesty (Layla-tul-Qadr). And what will make thee comprehend what the Night of Majesty is? The Night of Majesty is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend in it by the permission of their Lord for every affair. Peace! It is till the rising of the morning.”— Chapter 97, Al-Qadr (The Majesty), Verses 1-5.

Fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan is a celebratory act in commemoration of the Revelation of the Holy Qur’an. It is during the month of Ramadan on the Night of Power the Holy Qur’an was revealed upon the heart of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through the Angel Gabriel (Jabril), beginning with the first five verses of Chapter 96, Al-Alaq (The Clot): “Read in the name of thy Lord Who creates— creates man from a clot. Read and thy Lord is most Generous, Who taught by the pen, taught man what he knew not”.

These first verses were revealed in the cave of Hira, at the Mountain of Light (Jabl-an-Noor), where the Prophet (PBUH) would regularly retreat in prayer to reflect in seclusion upon problems of the society in which he lived. At various times, passages and verses were revealed in the context of circumstances the Prophet confronted over the remainder of his life, with earlier portions revealed during his life in Mecca and later portions in Madinah.

“Beneficent God! By the Book that makes mani fest! We revealed it On a blessed night truly We are ever warning. Therein is made clear every affair full of wisdom,—A command from Us— truly We are ever sending messengers.”—Holy Qur’an, Chapter 44, Verses 1-5.

The word “Qur’an” is an Arabic word which means the “Recitation” or ‘that which is recited.’ Muhammad (PBUH) did not write the Holy Qur’an and it is not read like a chapter or textbook. The recitations of the Qur’an are poetic in nature, mathematical in language, scientifically revelatory, prophetic in narrative, and deeply profound in its impact upon the reader or listener. It is the revealed Word of Allah (Kalaamul-Allah) through a stream of Arabic prose that expresses the Thinking of God which addresses the ills and injustices of humanity during a time of ignorance in Arabia. The Qur’an also warns of a Time of Judgement and the establishment of Allah (God’s) Promise under His rule of Freedom, Justice, and Equality in a Universal Government established upon Peace.

“We are not an organization; we are a world. I use the same Holy Qur’an that all Muslims use; the book that is universally recognized as being 100 percent true,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad writes in “Message to the Blackman,” pg. 322. The Holy Qur’an is organized by sections and parts according to recommended methods of completion of its reading over a desired period. Parts and sections are correlated with daily readings of sections that allow the reader to complete the voluntary reading of the entire Holy Qur’an by the conclusion of the month of Ramadan.

Why did Allah (God) reveal the Qur’an in Arabic? The English language, according to linguistic science, does not have the vocabulary necessary to uphold the nuance of meanings expressed in the Arabic Qur’an. Allah (God) states in the Holy Qur’an Chapter 12 Verse 2, “Surely We have revealed it—an Arabic Qur’an—that you may understand.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad informs us in “Message to the Blackman” pg. 93, “The Holy Qur’an’s readings are not the kind that will lull one to sleep, but to get a real Qur’an one should know the Arabic language in which it is written.”

The sound, spirit, rhyme, and rhythm of the audible recitation of the Holy Qur’an displays an aspect of its revelation that cannot be interpreted or translated from the context in which it was revealed among a culture of master linguists and influential poets. Muhammad, (PBUH), said, “Arabic is by the tongue,” meaning the language in which Allah (God) revealed His Message is for all people and is not the language of the Arab people by way of their ethnicity but is the language of Islam—the language of the Original Man.

“The Qur’an teaches that they must have the Qur’an in their own language and they must not have a foreigner but someone from among themselves who could speak their language. He could not be one who could speak Arabic until Allah taught him Arabic. Therefore the Messenger is not an Arab or an Arabic speaker in the resurrection of the dead, not the people who must be resurrected, according to the Qur’an. But later Allah taught him Arabic,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches in “Message to the Blackman”, pg. 189.

The Qur’an is an estimated 600 pages, revealed in the Arabic language, consists of 114 chapters, contains 6,236 verses, 99,464 words that are made up of 330,113 letters. It is memorized cover-to-cover in Arabic by millions, whether they know Arabic or not. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) once stated: “The best of those amongst you is the one who learns the Qur’an and then teaches it to others.” Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) also said: “The superiority of the Qur’an over the rest of words, is like the superiority of Allah over His creations.”

Reading the Holy Qur’an during Ramadan is an essential voluntary part of the devotional process, for as we fast from food and water, through reading the Holy Qur’an, we feed our spirit, mind, and heart with the Word of God. Therefore, our reading of the Holy Qur’an becomes our food. Our reading of the Holy Qur’an during this Month becomes a means by which we nourish the mind with Allah’s Thought to cultivate His Will within us. Allah has revealed His very Thinking and given the reader through repetition of central themes as reminders to humanity to be mindful of the spiritual Truths of cause and effect, the Reality of Allah (God), the knowledge of self and insight into the nature of being.

We impose self-discipline and beautify our character with righteous virtues taught by Allah in His scripture to seek nearness to Him in our journey of self-improvement and self-renewal. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan stated in The Time and What Must be Done Lecture Series Part 28: “Prophet Muhammad, and this great Book, The Holy Qur’an, which brings clarity to the Torah and the Injil. This Book, Qur’an, is a ‘womb.’ So when you’re born out of ‘the water’ of this revelation, The Holy Qur’an, I submit to you: You will be made anew. I submit to you that the deeper Wisdom of this Qur’an has not yet been revealed … But this Book is called Al-Shifa, ‘The Healing’—but who will be ‘the doctor’ to prescribe the medicine, and apply it? By Prophet Muhammad’s Example, you too can escape The Wrath of God—but The Holy Qur’an is your means to escape it! It is in this Book, following the Example, the Sunnah, of Prophet Muhammad, that everyone who has been afflicted by ‘Satan’—a Black ‘devil,’Brown, Red, Yellow, White ‘devil’—all devils can be healed in The Womb of this Book, with The Medicine of this Book, and with The Sunnah of The Prophet through whom this Book came! This Book, Qur’an, is called ‘The Medicine.’ This Book is called ‘The Cure.’ It is The Medicine for a sin-sick soul.”

We have been given a Holy Book with Guidance that Teaches us a Path of return to our original nature, purpose and true success. We must be of humble spirit that we may seek the forgiveness of Allah (God) for all that we have done to offend Him and ourselves. We know that Allah (God) has established rights between brother and sister, man and woman, nation and nation, and over ‘self’ by which we demand mutual dignity between one another. If our actions are in offense of the rights of our brother or sister we have offended Allah (God).

Let us not be self-righteous Muslims, practicing a religion that is dead, but let us bring into life the principles that Allah has given us in the activity of fasting and reading the Holy Qur’an so that we may deepen our relationships and love among one another to produce a healthy and just society. The value of any deeds in the Holy Month of Ramadan is greater in value than the same deed on a day outside of this month as an encouragement to build righteous habits that will be instilled in our character. Let us in this month of Ramadan instill the habit of reading the Holy Qur’an in order to feed from Allah’s Word revealed in this Holy Month.

Imam Sultan Rahman Muhammad is Student National Imam of the Nation of Islam and great-grandson of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. For more information on Ramadan, the Arabic language and Muslim Daily Prayers, visit NOI.org/ramadan.

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