Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)

secular. The Qur’ān preaches an order based on justice. There is no injustice in the realm of creation; it is man who engenders injustice by his wrongdoing, by yielding to misdirected motives in violation of the Divine norms: Indeed Allah does not wrong people in the least; rather it is people who wrong themselves (10:44). However, justice remains merely a mirage in a world where inner purity is neglected and where inner spiritual disorder rules unheeded. The call of the Qur’ān is one of constant struggle, purification and jihād, inward and outward, against the inner satanic forces of disoriented desires and their external manifestations in the form of the social and political agents and institutions of corruption. It views human history as a continuous struggle against unfaith and untruth, injustice and corruption, and holds out the promise of the ultimate victory of righteousness: ‘Indeed My righteous servants shall inherit the earth’ (21:105).

If worldly life is short and its enjoyments and sufferings transitory for all mortals, what is a better life than a life spent for the purpose approved by the very Source of life? If death is inevitable for every mortal, tyrant or victim, faithful or faithless, well-provided or deprived, powerful or powerless, what is a better ‘death’ than one which is the threshold of an everlasting life of fulfillment? All religions have a high regard for martyrdom, but no scripture describes so vividly the higher life attained by the martyrs, thus giving martyrdom its true appeal: Do not suppose those who were slain in the way of Allah to be dead; rather they are living and provided for near their Lord, exulting in what Allah has given them out of His grace, and rejoicing for those who have not yet joined them from [those left] behind them that they will have no fear, nor will they grieve. They rejoice in Allah’s blessing and grace, and that Allah does not waste the reward of the faithful (3:169-171).

To a youth languishing on the plane of animal existence, captive of materialistic values and rendered spiritually impotent by sensual pursuits and indifferent to struggle against oppression and injustice, the Qur’ān suggests a spiritual diet and a programme of spiritual rehabilitation, self-purification, and jihād. To a world bewildered by the din of the communication media orchestrated by Satanic forces bent on the deception of thinking minds, the Qur’ān gives a light to walk by, enabling the faithful human being to see facts through the apparently impenetrable curtains of deceit and disinformation: O you who have faith! Be wary of Allah and have faith in His Apostle. He will grant you a double share of His mercy and give you a light to walk by, and forgive you (57:28).

For communities which have lost their moral and spiritual bearings, the Qur’ān holds out the great promise of restoration of their spiritual and moral equilibrium through its high spirituality and ethics.

The Qur’ān is, paradoxically, both untranslatable and ‘translation-friendly.’ It is a celestial symphony with splendid rhythms and rhymes whose melodious grandeur is rarely captured fully even by the best of the grand masters of qirā’ah, the art of Qur’ānic recitation. As such and as a text of matchless literary elegance and eloquence, no translation can ever hope to capture even fleeting