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<Qur'anic commentary index>

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Hud - Messages from the unseen

(Sura 11: verse 49-50) - Hud - messages from the unseen

Added November 25, 2007

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)....


Transparency before God

(Sura 11:5-6) Transparency before God

Added January 12, 2007

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)....


And Fast unitl night (Fasting in Ramadan)

And fast until the onset of night (Fasting in Ramdan)

Added October 17, 2006

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)....


Index of Qur'anic an Biblical verses

Index of Qur'anic and Biblical verses referenced on this site

Added August 08, 2006

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)....




Tafsir (Sura 39:42) - To die/to sleep

(Sura 39: verse 42) To die/To sleep

Added April 15, 2006

....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)....


Tafsir 9: 102-106 On Repentance

(Sura 9: 102 to 106) On Repentance

Added Feb 17, 2006

....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....

Read more (On Repentance)....


Prosperity and Humility

(Sura 7: 94 to 96) Prosperity and Humility

Added Jan 27, 2006

....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)....


Living from the dead

(Sura 10: verse 31) - The living from the dead

 Added Nov 09, 2005


"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)....


On the barzakh

(Sura 10: verse 30) - on the barzakh

Added Aug 30, 2005

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)....



Lonely Tree

(Sura 10: verse 105) - on being hanif

Added Aug 29, 2005

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)....


Honoring the Prophet

(Sura 10: verse 104) - honoring the Prophet

Added May 15, 2005

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)....


False religion - The golden calf

(Sura 7: verse 152) - false religion (the golden calf)

Added March 15, 2005

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)....





(Sura 8: verse 11 to 18) - Battle of Badr

 Added September 30, 2004
 

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)....



Tafsir 33:67

(Sura 33: verse 67) - Prisoners of thought

 Added May 19, 2004
 

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)....



Tafsir 6:74-79

(Sura 6: verse 74 to 79) - On seeing beyond forms

 Added March 23, 2004
 

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)....



Transformation of earth by blowing of the trumpet

(Sura 6: verse 73) - On the blowing of the trumpet

 Added March 17, 2004
 

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)....


(Sura 6: verse 151 to 153 - Basic Commandments and the straight path)

Added Jan 14, 2004

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....

Read more (Straight path)....



(Sura 5: verse 116 to 120 - On Jesus)

Added Dec 28, 2003

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....

Read more (On Jesus)....


(Sura 4: verse 1 - on the nature of the soul)

Added Nov 22, 2003

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)....


(Sura 4: verses 135 - 136) - on justice

Added Oct 24, 2003

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....

Read more (On justice)....


(Sura 2: verses 1 - 5) - on belief

Added Oct 14, 2003

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....

Read more (On belief)....

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