Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
and play: The life of this world is nothing but diversion and play, while the abode of the Hereafter is indeed Life, had they known! (29:64). There is no death for the pupils of the Qur’ān; for them every ‘death’ is a birth into a higher realm of existence and entry into a world more vast and expansive than the earlier one: Take the lead towards forgiveness from your Lord and a paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for those who have faith in Allah and His apostles. That is Allah’s grace, which He grants to whomever He wishes, and Allah is dispenser of a great grace (57:21).
This call to a higher life is a summons to a higher knowledge and a higher effort: Allah will raise those of you who have faith and those who have been given knowledge in rank, and Allah is well aware of what you do (58:11). Say, ‘Are those who know equal to those who do not know?’ (39:9). It preaches that one’s higher efforts and endeavours are the ultimate fruits of one’s life: Nothing belongs to man except what he strives for (53:39). The life of the Hereafter is only a ‘celestial’ counterpart of the terrestrial life we live here.
Nothing is more important for man than the knowledge of the very Source of reality. Any knowledge that is not informed with this awareness is just a kind of ignorance. All effort and endeavour that does not derive from this knowledge is ultimately fruitless and fated to end in failure.1 The Qur’ān is the most reliable source of this knowledge and the best guide for human effort and endeavour. It teaches that the Source of being is also the Source of guidance.
To a humanity wailing under the burden of injustice, the Qur’ān offers a creed of deliverance: Certainly We sent Our apostles with manifest signs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that mankind may maintain justice; and We sent down iron, in which there is a great might and uses for mankind, and so that Allah may know those who help Him and His apostles in [their] absence (57:25).
To human beings lacking a sense of divinely ordained purpose and direction in life, like seafarers on an uncharted sea without compass or guidance, the Qur’ān offers a delivering vision of life and human destiny, helping them rediscover their destiny and dignity as human beings and recover their true orientation as wayfarers on the Godward path of infinite perfection: Certainly We have honoured the Children of Adam, and carried them over land and sea, and provided them with all the good things, and given them advantage over many of those We have created with a complete preference (17:70).
From the viewpoint of the Qur’ān, establishment and maintenance of justice is one of the chief purposes of all religions and revealed scriptures. This is a mission that has always been neglected by mankind, a neglect that has allowed injustice to assume almost cosmic proportions in the present-day world. Being the last of God-sent scriptures, there is no wonder then that it should lay so much stress upon justice, an emphasis unequalled by any other book, sacred or
1 Say, ‘Shall we inform you about the biggest losers in regard to works? Those whose endeavour goes awry in the life of the world, while they suppose they are doing good.’ They are the ones who deny the signs of their Lord and the encounter with Him. So their works have failed. On the Day of Resurrection We will not set for them any weight. (18:103-105)
