It has been more than fourteen years since The Authority of Al-Qur’an was first published. Since then I have received tremendous encouragement from readers. The work has also been translated into Turkish and Indonesian, and is in wide circulation. Al Humdolilah.
As the Qur’an is the word of Allah, accepting its authority in our lives is in fact accepting the authority of Allah, and the crux of the matter in Islam.
As I write this, Muslim societies are in the process of incredible change. The Arab spring has resulted in a massive public revolt against authoritarian rule that had jeopardised Muslim lands for many decades. On the other hand, the information revolution and social media of the Internet has made religious claims increasingly accountable and within scrutiny of the masses. Just look around you, change is everywhere. Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Middle East, South Asia, Russia. Even Europe and the once powerful United States are facing economic turmoil and dissent. People are fed up of tried and tested ideas and are looking for alternatives. What this says is that the time for a return to the true Islam of the Qur’an is ripe. Now is the time for Muslims to appreciate that true authority vests only with Allah and by implementing Qur’anic directives in their private and public lives will they truly achieve their destiny. The duty is therefore on the shoulder of the Muslims to not only implement the Qur’an in their lives but also to share the message of Allah with non Muslims, to demonstrate the principles of peace, social justice and creativity that it espouses.
In view of this, what you are going to read is a call to revert to the Qur’an, and my reader is the Muslim – whether he is born into an Islamic home, or is a revert to the faith.
Sadly many Muslims tend to take what is fed to them by religious leaders as true without verifying at first hand whether the faith they have inherited or been conditioned to follow has in fact been sanctioned by the Book of Allah.
The Qur’an is given ceremonial status and kept for mere parrot-fashion recitation instead of making for serious inquiry into its meaning or an everyday lifestyle based on its judgments. Any study or discussion about the contents of the Qur’an is considered the domain of ‘experts’ rather than the layman. As a result, Muslims have become distanced from the Book and are denied the benefits that could normally derive from it.
The consequences have been far-reaching and serious. Accepted by the majority and patronized by vested interests, this flawed thinking has become the norm. The vigorous spiritual activity originally generated by Qura’anic teachings has been replaced by a mechanical passivity or an accidie. So inevitably the Muslim outlook has undergone a radical change. The religion of today is a far cry from the dynamic creed presented by the Qur’an.
Belief in one God has been replaced by belief in what is effectively a number of gods or a plurality of ideals. The concept of the sovereignty of Allah in the context of human affairs has given way to the concept of the sovereignty of people or individuals
The only hope of escape from their present plight lies in their reunification into a stable and well knit Ummah. This objective cannot be achieved without a consensus that the Qur’an should have final authority in all matters relating to Islam and is the complete, immutable and sole message of Allah.
It is my belief that the day when the Muslim world recognizes the authority of the Book of Allah and becomes conscious of the need to act on its teachings will also witness the onset of an Islamic Renaissance.
This work is aimed, to some extent, at bringing about the recognition of that authority.
The second edition has some improvements of grammar and diction from the previous edition. Arabic words have been translated where possible. Translations are from Abdullah Yusuf Ali, M. H. Shakir and Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall’s translations of the Qur’an. A concluding chapter and a bibliography has also been added. As always, readers are encouraged to send me their questions, comments and even criticisms.
Kashif Shahzada
Karachi,
28th of Muharram, 1433
24th December, 2011
