The revelation continued for a period of twenty three years up to the death of the Prophet in the year 632. The Prophet being unable to read or write quoted upon his literate companions and dictated to them. So he supervised the transcription and proper recording of the revelations. These recordings were later assembled as the Quran. Altogether they are one hundred and fourteen sourats or chapters composed of more than six thousand verses. Within fifteen years of the Prophet’s death a final Qur’an had been compiled and authenticated by the Prophet’s companions who had been present throughout the revelations. This was achieved during the Caliphate of Ottoman (Usman) of town of Medina where the Prophet is buried.
When Muhammad (pbuh) brought his message to Mecca many of its people turned against him and he was forced to flee with his followers. He was given refuge in Medina and it was here that first Muslim community was founded and Islam developed its social form. From that time the Qur’an has been never changed. The original meanings of the words have been preserved. The same Qur’an word for word and in its original language Arabic is used today across the Muslim world from Morocco to Malaysia.
The Muslims believe that Qur’an is the book of wisdom which guides every aspect of man’s existence. It deals not only with the individual’s inner spiritual development but also his output behavior and social life in the community. The form which governs all Islamic life is apparent in both the complex urban society, like a city of Lahore in Pakistan, and in the traditional village community. The foundation stone of any community, no matter how large or small, is the individual. It is the behavior of the individual which determines the social pattern and its strength or weakness. There are many verses in the Qur’an which guide the individual’s behavior and which deals with his responsibility towards others. In any Muslim community, whether urban or rural, this is learned at understood from a very early age. The Qur’an describes this individual responsibility as a trust that God has given to man. Implicit in this trust is a three form responsibility that is to one self, to others and to the natural world. In this way the individual sees himself as belonging as a part of whole rather than separate.
Through the reading of the Qur’an, even the most routine aspects of daily life are given meaning. The Qur’an was revealed six hundred years before a Muslim scientist Ibn An-Nafees discovered the circulation of blood and William Harvey brought this understanding to western science after one thousand years of revelation of the Qur’an. Yet the process of digestion and distribution of nutrients to different organs and glands through blood is described in this verse.
“Truly, in the cattle there is a lesson for yon. We give you to drink from what is inside their bodies, coming from a conjunction between the digested contents (of the intestines) and the blood, milk pure and pleasant for those who drink it.” Qur’an, chapter An-Nahl Verse: 66.
The individual becomes strong by accepting the responsibility for life. From his sense of identity and belonging grows the strength of the village community and from this the strength of larger community of the world. The Qur’an is of course far more than a guide to social and moral behavior. The acceptance of the revelation essentially means believing in the God the creator. It also means believing in his prophets. The Qur’an is quite literally regarded as the word of God. It is well known that a Muslim prays five times a day but less often understood that his prayer should not end as he leaves the mosque. But it should be carried with him coloring the awareness with which he undertakes all of his daily activities. In this way he attempts to maintain a prospective on his mortality and to live the world but not be of it.
Today there are more than one billion Muslims in the world living in many different countries and divided by language, culture and politics. But joined together through their common believe in God and teachings of the Qur’an. And this in an age when many people, particularly in the west, feel that scientific progress has cast irrefutable doubt on the value of spiritual teachings, Islam itself never considered that there is any real contradiction between science and religion. The late professor Ismail Faruqi was a highly respected authority on Islamic studies.