Mysteries of the Ancient Scripture

the cold egyptian winters were becoming more bearable. i was on my way to ramses on a Tremco. Tremco is a van, normally worn down and driven by the gangsters of the street. Its a mode of public transport here in Cairo. Egyptians who drive their own cars complaint about the uncivilized driving, but to people like me, its fast, easy and cheap to help me get around. convenient to help me get around in the super crowded streets of Cairo. The drivers are sometimes gangsters and mostly illiterate, using their 'killer' driving skills and no regard for the law, helping people get around the city with a small sum of money. at least they are doing some good.

The driver turned on Surah Al Baqarah. Here in Egypt, the Quran is heard in the most unexpected places. Like in the mobile phone shop, the funky salesmen were listening to the Quran! Or at a fast food restaurant. Even at stores selling funky, up-to-date women fashion.

Alif Lam Mim. (2:1) Meaningless to us, only Allah knows the meaning. The 3 words that was so perfectly placed together, astoundingly beautiful when recited, causing commotion when it was first recited by the prophet (s.a.w). Never in the history of Arab literature something like it. and never, after the Quran, that anybody can ever put meaningless alphabets together to create such beauty.

the recitation reached to ayaah 43 of the Surah.

(وَأَقِيمُواْ الصَّلاَةَ وَآتُواْ الزَّكَاةَ وَارْكَعُواْ مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ (2:43

this similar command will be repeated unto Maryam (a.s), Jesus's (a.s) mother in the next surah, with exactly the same ayaah number: 43

(3:43) يَا مَرْيَمُ اقْنُتِي لِرَبِّكِ وَاسْجُدِي وَارْكَعِي مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ

The message in both ayaah is clear. but surely, scholars will continue to wonder the "coincidence", try to unravel another mystery of the beautiful Quran. Tremco stopped. We have reached Ramses.

ustazah huda always pause when we read the Quran together. i understand her pause. the ayats are too beautiful, you have to stop for a while to devour it. and she asks me: "you read the Quran but u don't understand?" i shamefully nod. she still can't comprehend how Quran is read without being understood. i can't blame her.i came here to learn arabic anyway. hearing the egyptian speak arabic, with their deep, beautiful voices make me jealous. i want to be able to converse like that one day.

ustazah huda, in one of our lesson, said one of the beauty of the Quran, other that it being a beautiful piece of literature is because of the repititions in the Quran. What? repetitions make it special? why? why?? i can repeat. i stammer and repeat myself. that do not make me special!but now, after 9 mths, i understand. trying to understand the Quran from the two weeks of arabic and Quran lessons, i understand why repetitions are so special. first, because of course, men always forget. how many times i have to repeat to my little sister to read books!!! and she still do not read, not even a single chapter!but, learning one chapter of the Quran, and familiarizing myself with the words, i find that its quite easy to master. becuase the words in the Quran are always repeated in every chapter.so if i am familiar with the words of one chapter, i can understand another. of course not all words are repeated and there are additions, but basically, similar words are used.

sarah laughed while slapping her face when she was told by the guests that she was going to have a child. "how is it possible? i am old and infertile!" the word infertile is in arabic 'aQiim, and in the same surah, the word 'aQiim is used again the decribe the DESTROYING winds (ri7al 'aQiim).i am not fluent in arabic. i think as an ajam trying to understand the Quran, me, (i am very observant by the way) i view it differently. i pay attention to small things that might seem simple for an arab speaker. the repeating words. or the different words used to describe the same thing. (ikhwanu lut and Qoumu tubba' - ikhwan and Qoumu is the same meaning). i pay attention and ask questions. sooner or later, i always find out the answer. whether i read it, or accidentally happen to be in the masjid when the imam is explaining the ayat or even on the radio.

yeah, the tafsir sometime don't translate the Quran exactly. but that's the best i have. like why is 7adiid means clear while in surah al-7adiid, it means iron? maybe the reason why i think the way i think its because of the inaccurate terjemahan that i use. maybe its not a such a big question to ask. maybe the best thing to do is to not ask too much and just continue reading with the wrong tajweed and ignorance. its what 75% of the muslims in malaysia does anyway. nauzubillah.

History of Islamic Civilization in Europe

i watched this from youtube.com. its a very interesting documentary. what i learnt (indirectly) from the documentary:

1. the rulers of the west during the dark ages, went all out to ensure the poor remain poor and he rich remain rich. to the extent the poor were not even allowed to learn to read and write, to ensure that they cannot question any authority.
when they learnt that the everyone in the muslim community can read and write, its something unthinkable. to them its not possible to rule an intelligent community that can question authority.

2. during the western dark ages, the rich who has land, will make the poor work in their land, paying very small sums of money. this way, the poor will never be rich. the Muslims are the one who introduced the mudharabah concept, a much fair and non-oppresing concept. the rich lends their land to the poor, and they share the profit from the land according to an agreement.

3. the muslims learnt how to make paper from the chinese, yeah but Muslims were the one who invented ways to mass produce paper. and being an engineer, i know that its easier to invent something, but a lot of knowledge and intelligence are needed to put up a factory and mass produce the invention.

there are a lot more of things i learnt from the documentary, but as always, being biased towards islam, being the usual fundamentalist me, i came to a conclusion:
1. the western civilization is superior NOW, yeah i admit that.
2. the western become more civilized becuase they learnt from the muslim spain.
3. if the muslims hadn't conquered spain, then the western wouldn't have come out of the dark ages.
4. if there were no muslims, then we would all still be in the dark ages.

thus, everything that rasulullah did (with Allah's guidance, of course) to defend islam was for the greater good, was to save and revive the human civilization as a whole.

and without Rasulullah s.a.w's and his companions patience and sacrifice, we would all still be in the dark ages.

imagine, no TV, no mobile phone, no computers...


Masya Allah.