Here are 15 selections from an English rendering of The Qur’an, the sacred scripture of Islam. Muslims believe that is that there is only one God (“Allah” is Arabic for “God”), Muhammad was his prophet, and the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel.
1
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgment.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
Show us the straight way;
The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace,
those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.
(Surah 1: The Opening, 1-7)
2
Let there be no compulsion in religion: …whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. … And Allah careth for all and He knoweth all things.
(Surah 2, The Heifer, 256 and 261)
3
Allah! There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal. … If Allah helps you, none can overcome you: If He forsakes you, who is there, after that, that can help you? in Allah, then, let believers put their trust.
(Surah 3, The Family of Imran, 2 and 160)
4
Praise be Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the light.
It is He Who maketh the stars (as beacons) for you, that ye may guide yourselves, with their help, through the dark spaces of land and sea.
To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth… He created all things, and He hath full knowledge of all things.
No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision.
(Surah 6, Cattle, Livestock, 1, 97, 101, and 103)
5
If the enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in Allah: for He is One that heareth and knoweth (all things).
(Surah 8, The Spoils of War, 61)
6
To Allah belongeth the Mystery of the heavens and the earth.
What is with you must vanish: what is with Allah will endure.
(Surah 96)
7
Nor say of anything, “I shall be sure to do so and so tomorrow”-
Without adding, “So please Allah!”
(Surah 18, The Cave, 23 and 24)
8
“If the ocean were ink (wherewith to write out) the words of my Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my Lord, even if we added another ocean like it, for its aid.”
(Surah 18, The Cave, 109)
9
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star… Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light.
(Surah 24, Light, 35)
10
Whoever submits his whole self to Allah, and is a doer of good, has grasped indeed the most trustworthy hand-hold.
(Surah 31, The Wise – Luqman, 22)
11
The destination (of all) is to Allah.
(Surah 35, The Originator of Creation, or The Angels, 18)
12
O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other, not that ye may despise (each other).
(Surah 49, The Inner Apartments, 13)
13
It was We Who created man…
We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein.
(Surah 50, Qaf, 16)
14
It is We Who create the vastness of space.
And We have spread out the (spacious) earth.
(Surah 51, The Winds That Scatter, 47-48)
15
Truly Allah is one that blots out (sins), and forgives (again and again).
(Surah 58, The Woman Who Pleads, 2)
NOTES
These passages are excerpted are from The Holy Qur-an, tr. Mushaf Al-Madinah An Nabawiyah, English Translation of the Meanings and Commentary, Revised and Edited by the Presidency of Islamic Researchers. (The preceding citation is incomplete, as the copy from which the selections are drawn does not list a publication year; 2005 is a best guess.)
The picture is from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.
Jan Thomas - SoulandMeaning.com 