RENAISSANCE OCTOBER 2021

Qur’ ā n 44 Monthly Renaissance October 2021 Qur’ ā n which again is not possible until the reader is able to understand the surface and deep structures of the Qur’ ā nic dialogue and conversation with Allah. Fourthly, all the attempts at understanding the Qur’ ā n as a whole would be unsuccessful if its coherence is not taken care of, which seeks to bring the attention of the reader to one and only one thing that is to read the Qur’ ā n for seeking guidance towards the straight path and light. Last but not the least, the understanding of all the linguistic tools is to be treated as a means to end which is to listen to what Allah wants from man and how He wants to shape and nurture him through the guidance that is recorded in the Qur’ ā n. Concluding, the prayer to find the straight path that is recorded in the opening chapter of the Qur’ ā n finds its echoes and reverberation through the discourse(s) of the Qur’ ā n in the form of a long and sustained dialogue which polyphonic and multi- contextual and highly illustrative. One hundred and fourteen small and big s ū rahs having more than six thousand ā y ā t are an extraordinary unified whole all directed towards bringing the fallen man back to his Edenic innocence and purity and directing him towards the straight path the features of which have been very clearly shown through the discourse(s) of the Qur’ ā n. It is not Allah alone who speaks in the Qur’ ā n, rather He records and documents the voices of those people also who believe and disbelieve and those of us also who transgress. It is, therefore, a multicultural and polyphonic text which listens to all but directs towards the path which is sublime and suitable to the status of man and the purpose of his creation under the sun. Lest we forget, Allah has even recorded the voices of animals, stars and planets, insects and human self. Such a democratic and open dialogue in the Qur’ ā n points to the fact that guidance from Allah is like the light of sun which we see and never dispute, provided one has the eyes to see, ears to listen and a heart to understand as the ā y ā t of the Qur’ ā n are the signs unto themselves and each sign of the Qur’ ā n is complimented by hunderds and thousands of signs that the microcosm and the macrocosm have in varied forms. Every sign in the Qur’ ā n initiates a dialogue which is echoed by the dialogue within and without us. May Allah help us in understanding His Book and the books within and without us for understanding His signs spread in multi-colour forms all around us! ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ