Who Should Or Shouldn’t Read Quran?

The Muslims are in such a state of confusion about their religion that they do not know what is right and what is wrong. Non-Muslims, when they study behaviour of Muslims, how Muslims practise their religion and how honest they are in their dealing, they take a wrong impression.

A wrong impression is taken for two reasons. The first scenario is that someone’s mind is stuffed with prejudice and negativity, so no matter what you do, they will definitely take the wrong impression. The second scenario is that people may take a wrong impression when others are doing wrong things and labelling them as their religion.

When one party just goes on and on and does not listen to what the other party is saying, this is not a conversation, they are just speaking. A conversation involves two parties in bilateral issues. You say something and the other party replies. You see the replies, understand it and then you put up another question. Then the other party will answer the question. This is how the discussion will go on.

Questions and Arguments Put Forth on Twitter

Someone on Twitter said, ‘Muslims claim Arabic is the only language on Earth that cannot be translated. This is said to be to confuse people.’ I never heard anybody saying that. There are millions of Qurans available in English all over the world. So much literature on Islam is available in English. You can hardly find Urdu literature about the the Quran in the world.

Mr Rafaqat, an MFI member, replied to the Twitter user’s statement by saying, ‘Many words in the Quran are not Arabic, but the Semitic language, which God speaks to his angels.’ The reply that came to this was, ‘So Allah is so limited that he can only convey his message in Arabic?’ This is a one track mind. About such people, the Quran says, ‘Say [hello] and pass by.’

The same Twitter user said, ‘Allah should be able to convey his message to all people. Muslims say Arabic cannot be translated.’ Mr Rafaqat said, ‘If you Tweet in Spanish, how would I understand? I can’t read Spanish; similarly, the Arabs couldn’t read English. You can go out and buy an English translation of the Quran, but remember that many translations are messed up, hence why we have Wahhabi terrorism today.’

The man replied, ‘How can millions of Islamist terrorists – Sunnis, Shias, Wahhabis – all mistranslate the Quran in exactly the same way?’ One example is that there are Sunnis, Shias and Wahhabis. If the Quran had not been mistranslated, they would have been one nation. They would not be in different groups.

What I understand from this Twitter user’s style of writing is that he thinks Allah is a different God – not the same God that sent Moses and Abraham. When you are in a conversation with somebody, it is very important that you understand what they are staying. If you don’t understand what the other party is saying to you, you’ll keep going on and on. You won’t listen.

Arabic is not a very special language. It is just a language like any other. Many things have  been said about Arabic. I used to hear in my childhood that Arabic is the language spoken in heaven. However, when I grew up into a young spiritual man and had been in company of my Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi, I realised this was nonsense.

More Muslims are non-Arabic-speaking than Arabic-speaking Muslims. Bengalis from Bangladesh, Pathans from Peshawar, Punjabi from Punjab and others from other parts of the world – they don’t speak Arabic.

The Quran explained it well. The Quran said in 12:2, ‘The only reason Quran is revealed in Arabic is that you may understand it.’

Is there any celestial book which have or had been revealed by God in English? No, not even the Bible. There have been many old languages like Hebrew, Syriac and Latin – but it doesn’t really matter.

Does the Quran Teach Violence?

If the Quran teaches violence, then why was no Sufi a terrorist? Why was no Sufi violent?

There are many modern-day Sufis who are revered and respected equally in the East and in the West, like Pir Inayat Hussain and Pir Idris. They studied the same Quran, but no Sufi promoted violence.

Rumi is more famous in the West than in the East. Rumi is a Sufi poet. A lot of people who either practise spirituality, or claim to practise spirituality, are devotional fans of Rumi all over the West.

Even now, in the United States of America, there are hundreds of books on Rumi. Americans, Canadians, Australians and Britons who are attached to spirituality, they read and study Rumi’s poetry. They love him. If I tell you what Rumi says about his poetry, you’d be confused about your decision that of reading and studying his poetry. Rumi said, in simple words, that the poetry of Rumi is the Persian translation of the Holy Quran. If the Quran taught violence, how come these people who study Rumi’s poetry did not become violent?

The poetry that Rumi has put forward, is factually and actually the translation of the Holy Quran in the Persian language. My argument is: if the Quran taught violence, then the Persian translation of the Holy Quran, which you read as poetry of Rumi, would have definitely made you violent.

The beauty is: the authors of most of the books of Rumi’s poetry are either American or British. If you read those books, you will not find a trace of violence.

It is all about understanding the divine word. If you are a corrupt mind already, you will take the wrong meaning of the divine word. If your heart is pure – the elements of devil and evil have exited your heart and you have become all enlightened and pure – then you will not become violent and you can read the Quran.

Who Can’t Read the Quran?

The Quran is not a very easy and simple book. It is not for everybody to read.

[You could have been practising Islam since your childhood and still be a novice]. When we say, ‘Novice,’ it means if you have recently joined spirituality. Now, you are working on self-reformation and purification of the soul. If you’re entering into cleansing mode, you’re a novice.

You are a novice in Islam until your inner is completely purified.

According to Prophet Mohammad, ‘When a human being (man or woman) is born, an evil is born with that person.’ That evil is named as Nafs. As long as your Nafs is impure, you are a novice – no matter how old you are or [how long you’ve been practising Islam]. Anecdote: nobody is a Muslim by birth. When Prophet Mohammad was asked, he said, ‘When a baby is born, the baby is neither a Muslim, Christian nor Jew. It is his parents that turn him into a Christian, Muslim or Jew.’

Mujaddid Alif Sani said, ‘If you are a novice, do not go near the Quran. You are not worthy of reading the Quran.’

Mujaddid Alif Sani is not just a Sufi. He is a cleric and scholar as well. It means he knows the religious laws, but also the importance of spirituality. When he combines the both, he becomes a good cleric and a discerning leader. According to him, if your inside is impure, do not go near the Quran. You would be surprised to know that even the Quran says the same thing.

The Quran said, ‘If you are impure, do not touch the Quran.’

It is very unfortunate that the Muslim scholars and commentators on the Quran have derived misleading conception of this verse of the Quran. They thought that if a person is physically unclean, he should not touch the book of the Quran. I totally dismiss this idea. I can give you a reason: the Quran did not exist in bookish form when this verse was revealed!

Mujaddid Alif Sani said that if you’re impure, you cannot go near the Quran because you’re not the right person to read the Quran. In order to understand the Quran, you need to purify yourself otherwise you’ll derive the wrong meaning. The Quran is a very dangerous book. If you’re really concerned that you should be rightly guided, you’d appreciate the fact that the Quran itself says it.

The wrong translation and misinterpretation of the Quran will take the responsibility of misguiding hundreds of thousands of people.

However, if the Quran is not misinterpreted – if no wrong meaning is taught to people about the Quran and it is in its original form – even then the Quran will guide some and misguide others.

The Quran is a strange book. It is only one book of its kind from God which is so delicate and it has conditions. It is not like every Tom, Dick and Harry will buy an English version of the Quran, read it, understand it and become a scholar on the Quran. Even people who have spent their life in religious seminaries in the Muslim world, they are unable to grasp the meaning of God’s words. God has been playing with words in the Holy Quran.

Don’t try to learn to understand the Quran. The Quran is a very difficult book It is not an allegation from me. This is what the Quran is saying. The Quran says, ‘Allah will misguide many through this book.’

The Quran has both negative and positive potential. You can go wrong by reading the Quran and you can go right by reading the Quran.

How will you make sure that when you read the Quran, you may not go wrong? Muslims who practised Islam for 40-50 years, they read the Quran they don’t understand it. Even Arabs who speak the language of the Quran don’t understand it. 

The Quran in Book Form

God and his messenger, Prophet Mohammad, never ever intended for the holy verses of the Quran to have been given a form of a book. The importance was given to a spiritual guide by Prophet Mohammad.

It was the early Companions of Prophet Mohammad. After Prophet Mohammad’s demise, they feared that if they did not collect the Quran, one day, there would no trace of the revelation of God. Having this understanding, they started to collect the Quran. Many verses of the Quran had already been abolished and abrogated.

God would have informed the Prophet of the verses that had been abrogated only, because he was the recipient of the Quran. God would definitely not inform Abu Bakr Sadiq or Umar bin Khattab.

So when they collected the Quran on their own accord, it was never supported or advised by Prophet Mohammad. When they collected the Quran, who knows if the verses of the Quran which were abrogated and abolished by God became part of this Quran which is now creating chaos?

Some people say, ‘Islam is a religion of peace.’ Some others are now saying, ‘Islam is a religion of violence.’ Nobody is able to take the meaning of the Quran correctly, because the Quran is a very difficult book.

The most common problem you will come across when reading the Quran is that you will get the impression that God is contradicting himself. You will think, ‘What he said two verses away is different from what he is saying now.’ It is like saying, ‘Don’t drink alcohol,’ and after a few verses, it is said, ‘Why didn’t you drink alcohol?’ Then what will you understand – should you drink it or not?

For example, there is a Tradition of the Prophet Mohammad which says, ‘A true Muslim is never impure.’ When we study Sharia Law, if a small drop of water from outside falls on our clothes, we are dirty and we have to remake ablution.

Who Can Read the Quran?

According to Quran 2:1-2, ‘This Quran will guide the pure ones.’

To become pure, you have to do a lot.

There is no doubt that Islam does not promote terrorism or violence, but how do we give an example of this? There is nobody who practises Islam truly. People today take their impression of Islam by looking at the actions of Muslims.

When it comes to terrorism, people are not getting to the root cause. They are not going after the ideology that is spreading terrorism: Wahhabism.

Further comments from Younus AlGohar:

Watch part two of this speech: Spiritual Rehabilitation: A Step Against Terrorism.