THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE QURAN

Life After Death

WHILE mentioning the Quran in his book, ’The History of the Arabs‘, Professor Philip Hitti has written: “The most impressive parts of the Quran deal with eschatology.”

Sentiments of this nature are usually expressed by non-Muslims who read the Quran. They tend to be most impressed by verses dealing with life after death. So how strange it is that this is the very thing that Muslims derive least, from the Quran. Muslims see everything in the Quran, but they miss the Quran’s main theme, a theme that recurs on every page.

The reason for this is that non-Muslims generally read the Quran with an open mind; they read it in order to find out what it contains. So they do not add or subtract from what they find within its pages. But this is not the case with Muslims. For the most part, Muslims seek either one of two things—grace or pride—when they read the Quran.

Some, seeing the Quran as the most holy scripture, just recite it in order to receive the grace of God. Then there are others who take pride in the Quran. They see it as the great book of the Muslim people, and read it out of this feeling of pride. It is only natural that such people should begin to see the Quran in the light of the times. They are sure that their glorious book must be a collection of the important issues of the day. Those who see Socialism as the major force of the age then read Socialism into the Quran. Those who deem science to be of overriding importance see the greatness of the Quran in the form of science. For those obsessed with law and politics, the most important discovery to be made in the Quran are statements dealing with these topics.

The truth is that the Quran is a book of eternity. It came to the world to warn man of the coming of the Last Day. It is a verbal Trumpet, blown before the actual Trumpet which will herald the arrival of that day. Successful are those who are awoken by this verbal Trumpet. When the real-life Trumpet is blown, it will profit no one to awake.