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The prophet's knowledge of past events and histories was deep, his ability to read and perceive the minute invisible traces that connect a place to it's spiritual history was through the connection of his own being to the plane of the unseen....
Read
more (Hud - Messages from the unseen)....
While the Qur'an points out that existence is absolutely transparent
before God, it also points out that God has drawn many veils over his
creation and that some of these veils are veils of privacy placed as a
mercy and as a token of dignity and respect between people. These are
veils which it is an injustice and a violation to remove....
Read
more (Transparency before God)....
Fasting (Sawm) carries a two-fold meaning - two seemingly opposing definitions combined into a single word. And sawm, as described in the Qur'an and the hadith, simultaneously fulfills both of these definitions. The primary meaning is to hold back, to refrain from, to abstain - the further meaning is to rise beyond, to move past former limits....
Read
more (And fast until the onset of night (Fasting in Ramadan)....
A compiled reference list of every Qur'anic and Biblical verse referenced on the Islam from Inside website, as well as links to the specific articles in which those verses appear. The Qur'anic verses are listed in sura and verse order....
Read
more (Index of Qur'anic and Biblical verses)....
....It is not only the thing seen that is of importance but the
vision and the perspicacity of the one doing the seeing. God always has
a relation of nearness to us - "He
is nearer to you than your life- vein" (Qur’an 50:16) But for us
to draw nearer to Him, we have to embark on a journey of knowledge of
what is configured within our own selves.
This becomes possible through the substantive bond we have with God
through our nafs.....
Read
more
(To die/To sleep)....
....We all have inner convictions and determinations, we all have intentions and aims that are beneficial to ourselves and to those around us. For many of us these convictions and determinations and intentions often live and die within us....
....Any turning away from something also involves a turning towards something else. This is the nature of the world. In the hadith describing the creation of aql (intellect) and ignorance, God commands the aql and it responds by turning towards Him, He then commands ignorance and it turns away from Him. So any turning away from His Mercy, or any arrogance towards His guidance indicates the beginnings of ignorance....
Read
more
(Prosperity and Humility)....
"And Who brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living?"
The clay (the earth through which we are created) is a dead thing (but has the capacity to come to life). The spirit is a living thing - the source of life. We are composed out of these two opposites – clay (or earth) and spirit - one low, the other high, one dead, the other alive. They are combined in us so that we contain within ourselves both the properties of life and death, of spirit and matter....
Read
more (The living from the dead)....
The qur'an speaks of two resurrections that take place after death – the first is in the barzakh and the second is at the final judgment. A person’s life is likened to a book – with each thought, word, and action, they are writing on the pages of their soul....
Read
more (On the barzakh)....
The Arabic for the word that is generally translated as "upright" is "hanif". Hanif in general usage refers to those people who, in pre-Islamic times, maintained monotheistic beliefs when the society around them had slipped into polytheism. They followed the true nature and disposition given to mankind, which points to a belief in One God....
Read
more (On being hanif)....
This verse opens with a command - God commands the Prophet to state a truth about himself - to reveal to the people information about his state and condition and his relation to God. This truth can be understood at different levels....
Read
more (Honoring the Prophet)....
The story of the golden calf is a pointer to the importance of making intense and continuous efforts in maintaining, cultivating, developing, and inculcating deep understanding and knowledge of religion and revelation....
Read
more (False religion - the golden calf)....
The verses on the first battle the Muslim's engaged in are very
unique in the manner in which they combine details about the events and
the physical aspects of the battle with a spiritual commentary that
makes it clear that there was far more happening than simply an
encounter between two opposing forces.....
Read
more (Battle of Badr)....
Society is a reflection or projection of the human mind - in other
words, the world as it is and as it has been, is to a great extent
shaped by people's minds and their interactions with one another and
with their environment.....
Read
more (Prisoners of thought)....
These verses describe the spiritual vision and state of certainty
granted to Abraham as a gift from Allah. In a series of revelatory or
intellectual unveilings, the Reality behind existence - it's true
nature - was manifested....
Read
more (seeing beyond forms)....
The blowing of the trumpet in this verse signifies the calling of
everything that is in the heavens and earth to an accounting. It
signifies a transformation of all existence....
Read
more (Blowing of the trumpet)....
These verses (6:151-153) appear in the context of a dialogue between
the
Prophet and the Jews and Christians. As such, the verses are laying the
groundwork or foundation of a type of behaviour and character that
should be commonly acceptable to Muslims, Jews, and Christians.
6:151 Say: Come, I will recite unto you that which your Lord hath made a sacred duty for you: That ye ascribe no thing as partner unto Him and that ye do good to parents....
Verse 116 of the fifth chapter (Sura al-Maidah) in the
qur'an reads as follows:
005.116 And behold! God will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of God'?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden....
The qur'an delineates three levels for the soul (the nafs, the self). In sura 12:53 it mentions the nafs ammara (the commanding soul). This is the level at which most of us exist. Our self consists of a conglomeration of wants, desires, impulses, habits, fears, angers, appetites, tendencies and an ego that constructs a self image that it then seeks to protect and maintain any way it can....
Read more (Nature of the soul)....
The qur'an uses many different modes of address in it's verses.
Some are addressed specifically to the people of the book (Jews and
Christians), others to humankind in its totality, some to the
desert
arabs....
The words "Bismillah alRahman alRahim" (In the name of Allah, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful) are above every sura except the ninth sura (there they occur in the body of the sura) and are a sign that God's mercy presides over everything. His Lordship over all things is not due to domination by violence or subjugation but to the two forms of compassion (Rahman and Rahmin) which manifest, nurture, support, surround, and enter into all things....
Index
Qur'anic contemplations
(Sura 2: verses
1-5 - on belief)
(Sura 2: verse 187 - on fasting)
(Sura 4: verse 1 - on the soul)
(Sura 4: verses 135-136 - on justice)
(Sura 5: verses 116-120 - on Jesus)
(Sura 6: verse 73 - on the blowing of the trumpet)
(Sura 6: verses 74-79 - on seeing beyond forms)
(Sura 6: verses 151-153 - on basic commandments and the straight path)
(Sura 7: verses 94-96 - Prosperity and Humility)
(Sura 7: verse 152 - false religion (the golden calf)
(Sura 8: verses 11-18 - Battle of Badr)
(Sura 9:
verses 102-106 - On Repentance)
(Sura 10: verse 30 - On the barzakh)
(Sura 10: verse 31 - The living from the dead)
(Sura 10: verse 104 - Honoring the Prophet)
(Sura 10:
verse 105 - On being hanif)
(Sura 11:5-6 - Transparency before God)
(Sura
11:49-50 - Hud - Messages from the unseen)
(Sura 33: verses 67 - Prisoners of thought)
(Sura
39:
verse 42 - To die/To sleep)
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