447. Was the Quran revealed in a single night. 

Verse 97:1 of the Quran says, the Quran was revealed on the night of Laylat-al-Qadr.

And verses 17:106, 20:114, 25:32, 76:23 of the Quran say the Quran was revealed gradually, this should not be viewed as a contradiction.

The declaration in verse 97:1 of the Quran has to be understood as the start of the revelation of the Quran.

The verse (96:1) of the Quran saying ‘Read in the name of thy Lord wo created you’ is the first verse revealed to Prophet Muhammad. And it was revealed to him in the night of Laylat-al-Qadr, is the message conveyed by this verse.

Later as per the need of the circumstances the Quran was revealed gradually stretching a period of twenty-three years. 

For more details please refer to point 341 of this compilation.

446. The trust shouldered by man. 

In this verse (33:72) of the Quran, it says only man has been entrusted with shouldering a trust that has to be returned by him in due course.

The trust that has been mentioned in this verse has not been disclosed either in other parts of the Quran or in the hadiths of Prophet Muhammad. But the only difference between man and other creatures is the presence of rationalism by man, which can be realized from this verse.

The claim by some scholars the trust that has been entrusted with man in the Quran is not acceptable, because it is mentioned that the trust that is shouldered is by the entire mankind. If according to these scholars it is the Quran that is being shouldered by man, it alludes also to the entire mankind even before Prophet Muhammad.

But this is not the reality and hence this claim does not stand good.

People who claim that the Quran is the trust that is being shouldered by man cite the following verse of the Quran as evidence.

‘If we (had) sent down this Quran on a mountain surely you (would) have humbled it, breaking asunder from the fear of Allah. And these examples we present to them that they may give thought.

The Quran 59:21 

Taking into consideration this verse and one quoted above we cannot come to a conclusion to accept the trust that has been shouldered by man is the Quran, because Allah cites an incident that did not take place. The Quran did not descend on the mountain.

‘But verse (33:72) of the Quran says we offered the ‘trust’ to be shouldered by the heavens and earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it and they feared from it; but bore it the man. Indeed, he was unjust and arrogant’. The verse conveys when the heavens, the earth and mountains were offered to shoulder the ‘trust’ they refused to accept the offer, but man accepted the same, thus narrating an incident that took place at the time of creation.

Everyone understands that rationalism was the ‘trust’ that was sent down upon only man. Maybe this is the reason we do not find any other explanations either in the Quran or in the hadiths.

445. Treating scripture as a commodity. 

Verses (2:41, 2:174, 2:187, 3:199, 5:44, 9:9) of the Quran say the Almighty's words are not to be bargained for pittance.

This does not refer to the printing and selling of the Quran or its translated versions. 

Allah reprimanded the jews for bargaining His verses for a modicum. This does not refer to the printing and selling of their scripture, can be well comprehended.

This does not refer to printing and selling of books those days, because the technology to so was not available those days. 

The phrase ‘Do not sell verses of the Almighty’ can be seen used not in the direct sense, rather it implies, the use of Almighty’s words in the midst of people in the true sense would bring in good returns for them in the hereafter. And hiding the true meaning of His words because of worldly gains is what is referred to as bargaining the words for a pittance, when compared to the huge gains in the hereafter.

Verse 3:187 of the Quran talks clearly about bargaining the words of God for paltry worldly gains.

Not delivering justice on the basis of scriptures and concealing the truth due to fear of people is referred to here as using the scripture as a commodity for selling.

This can be understood from the above cited verses of the Quran.

 Printing of the holy Quran or its translated version or its teachings and selling it for a monetary value does come under ambit of the term ‘treating the scripture as a commodity’ because, in printing business, and in selling of books, investments are made in the form of salaries to printers, type setters, binders of books, ad in addition money has to be spent in safeguarding the printed books, and various other tasks involving a lot of financial activities

Hence it needs to be treated as a matter of financial activity and does not come under the term ‘Quran being treated as a trade commodity.

And moreover this is one of the ways the message of God reaches people. If there is a ban on printing, selling, and distribution of scriptures, they would never reach people these days.

444. Supporting with the help of the Pure Spirit. 

Verses (2:87, 2:253, 5:110) of the Quran say ‘ We supported Prophet Esa with the Pure Spirit. 

Verse 16:102 says ‘the Pure Spirit brought it down into your heart’.

In verse 26:193 of the Quran it is mentioned as the Trustworthy Spirit and in other verses 19:17, 58:22, 70:4, 78:38, 97:4 as merely Spirit.

All these references are made to the Archangel Jibril.

When the enemies of Prophet Muhammad fabricated a poem to denigrate him, the prophet asked his comrade to counter it with a poem from his side. (Bukhari 453, 3212, 6152) The comrade to encourage him prayed to God by saying ‘Oh! God supports him with the Trustworthy Spirit’. (Bukhari 453, 3212, 6152) 

At another instance Prophet Muhammad said ‘Hassan counter him with your poem Jibril is with ou’, (Bukhari:3213, 4124, 6153). 

When we consider both these hadiths connectedly, we can easily come to a conclusion, the word ‘Pure Spirit’ refers to Archangel Jibril.

We also come to understand the meaning of the phrase ‘supporting with the help of the Pure Spirit’. 

The meaning of the phrase is in fact supporting to convey the message correctly and clearly by using one’s tongue.

Hence it needs to be understood as the Almighty had strengthened Hassan’s tongue through Jibril, to refute claims against Islam and Prophet Muhammad.

Hassan Bin Saabith did not receive the support of Jibril at all times. As can be seen in the case, when though he could refute those who slandered against the prophet, the same help was not available at the time when Aisha (RA) was subjected to slander.

(Book Bukhari 4141, 4146, 4755, 4758).

Had Jibril supported Hassan Bin Saabith in the case of the incident involving Ayisha, he would not have received whip lashes from Prophet Muhammad.

Though the task of reaching the messages by Jibril to all messengers, is over with the end of Prophet Muhammad, but the guidance by him to all people with the right ideology is a blessing to them is the message conveyed by verse 58:22 of the Quran.

You will not be able to witness people who are believers in the great God and day of judgment being affectionate towards those who antagonized the great God and his messenger, be it their parents, their offspring, their siblings, their family members, Allah has planted in them the belief. And He has supported them with the help of His Spirit Jibril. He will make them enter the gardens of paradise under which rivers flow. This will be their abode for ever, and Allah is contended with them and they are also contended with the Almighty, they are the ones who belong to Allah, and one’s wh will turn out to be victorious.

The Quran 58:22 

This verse confirms that, whoever believes in Allah and the day of judgment, and makes an enemy of those who transgress the limits set by God be it their family members or relatives, Allah will support them through Jibril. 

Nobody can overcome arguments, because the Almighty supports them with the Pure Spirit Jibril.

Those who have accepted only the Quran and the guidance of Prophet Muhammad as their ideology for life, can be seen today possessing the strength even today to surpass many scholars in explaining the messages of the Quran, because the reason being they are supported by Jibril.

443. The Sabians. 

Verses (2:62, 5:69, 22:17) of the Quran talk of a group of people known as Sabians.

Some say they followed the Zabur as their scripture. But no evidence is found to support this claim.

Whereas still others claim they belonged to a group who worshipped fire. This is totally wrong, because in the above verses it is being mentioned the Sabians will be rewarded for their good deeds. And the statement ‘good deeds of those who worship fire will not be accepted by God’ goes against those who claim Sabians are fire worshippers.

While analyzing the hadiths it is found the Sabians are those who, on their accord chose to follow the path of the true God before the advent of any messenger of God amidst them. And there is evidence in the hadiths to prove Sabians are those who understood the great God and worshiped Him without creating an equal to Him. 

When Prophet Muhammad spread the message of monotheism, he people who did not accept him named him a Sabie, the plural of which is Sabian.

When Prophet Muhammad sent his comrades to fetch water to drink, they came across a woman carrying water a took her to the prophet who asked the comrades whether they are taking her to the person known as Sabie. The comrades replied ‘yes’ this is a part of a long hadith.

(Book: Bukhari 344.) 

Had this word referred to people with wrong ideology the comrades would have refuted the women, but accepted her calling the prophet by that name.

Abu-Dar (RA) on hearing prophet Muhammad and Islam come to Makkah, meets Prophet secretly an accepts Islam. Later he goes to the idol worshippers and declares ‘There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of God’. Immediately the idol worshippers of Makkah gathered around him and attacked saying ‘attack this Sabie’. Bukhari:3522. 

It can be understood, the name given to a person those days who accepts Islam is ‘Sabie’.

Similarly, when a group lost the battle with Muslims, they came forward to accept Islam and surrendered by saying ‘ We have now become Sabians’ and not as required by them by saying ‘We have embraced Islam’     But Khaled Ibn Waleed who led the war refused to accept that kind of a surrender and continued the war. Prophet Muhammad later, on coming to know of this reprimanded Khalid Bin Waleed. (Bukhari:4339, 7189) 

From this incident it can be understood Prophet Muhammad did not dislike being called as a Sabie and those were steadfast in the idealogy of monotheism were called as ‘Sabians’. 

These people refused to worship idols even before the advent of Prophet Muhammad as the messenger of God. Though they worshipped the true God, they were unaware of the ways to do it until the arrival of the messengers of God. These people known as Sabians led a life of morality, and discipline. 

Even today there may be some communities where the messages by prophets have not reached, for these people, the knowledge granted by the Almighty is sufficient enough to guide them to life as Sabians.

442. Mannu, Salwa. 

In verses (2:57, 7:160, 20:80) of the Quran, it talks about the two varieties of food known as Mannu Salwa that were sent down by God to the children of Israel.

These two names of the two foods are not Arabic and neither are these foods familiar with Arabs. And many scholars have expressed their opinions, mostly imaginary.

The Almighty and his prophet have not explained about these foods. As far as we could find it is said by Prophet Muhammad there is a type of mushroom known as Mannu that is eaten by men.

Prophet Muhammad said an edible mushroom known as Kum-Ath belongs to Mannu category and water from it serves as a cure to eye diseases.

Book: Bukhari 4478, 4639, 5708 

It is sufficient enough for us to understand a food belonging to a type of mushroom and Salwa, another type was sent down by the Almighty to the children of Israel.

441. Living organisms created from the lifeless objects. 

These verses of the Quran (2:28, 3:27, 6:95) of the Quran say the Almighty created the living from the lifeless. 

We are aware that lifeless things are created from lifeless objects.

We believe living organisms like man are begotten from other identical living organisms, as we have witnessed the same happening. But which organism is the original beginning (mother and father) of each of these organisms. Science answers this question by saying it started from lifeless objects. But it did not find an answer as to how it occurred.

Lifeless objects represent a collection or a mixture of various other ones. All lifeless objects can be sorted out, and each one of them can be categorized as an original one. All lifeless objects in this universe are made up of their contents , and nothing more could be found in them.

Similar to categorizing lifeless objects can the living organisms be classified. When such work is carried out, it is found the living organisms also have in them the same original sources.

There are no indications in the source to show they are from either the lifeless or living organisms. (For example, the source found is calcium only and it does not reveal it is either from human bone or mineral limestone). The fact that life was created from lifeless sources was declared by the Quran, many centuries before being discovered by the twentieth century scientists, proving the Quran to be the word of God.

Verse (2:28) of the Quran says ‘Allah gave you life when you were lifeless.

Each man was nothing before he could be created, and neither was he in some form or the other. This is what is referred to as lifeless in this verse, and means man was given life while he was nothing and without life.

And moreover sources were discovered only after life came into existence, and this was revealed from Allah for men to ponder over their existence. 

Please refer to explanation point no; 347 of this compilation to know more on this subject. 

440. Life on other planets. 

Man cannot live on planets other than earth is explained in point no; 175 of this compilation. But scientists are of the opinion that organisms other than humans can survive on other planets. Though it has not been proved beyond doubt the existence of life in other planets, traces of water in some has been evidenced in them, prompting the idea that life may have existed in them.

The Quran does not refute this possibility, and conveys the message life may be present in other planets. Verse (42:29) of the Quran talks of having spread life on heaven and earth. Though the presence of life has not been proved in other planets and natural satellites of the earth, the presence of celestial bodies with life in them can be taken as corroborating the message in these verses of the Quran. And in case the presence of life is detected in future, it can be taken as these verses have foretold the same as well.