Islam: Qur’an

A couple weeks ago, I discussed the importance of sacred texts and intentionally focused on Buddhism and Christianity. This week, coming back to the idea of sacred texts, I explored the religion of Islam and its holy text, the Qur’an.

In my opinion, holy texts offer a reference to answers in life. These answers include how to live life, the purpose of life, and after life. For the Islamic faith, the answers lie in the Qur’an.

Originally written in Arabic text, the Qur’an offers guidance and direction for mankind. The Islamic faith rose to existence as the angel Gabriel spoke to Muhammad while he resided in the mountains. Muhammad soon gathered followers to memorize and recite the word of Gabriel. These teachings did not become documented right away, like many other religions. Instead, Islam continued orally, and eventually, individuals began recording the Qur’an on tablets and other surfaces. Individuals pooled together the tablets and other surfaces with the holy text to produce the completed version of the Qur’an after Muhammad’s death.

The text consists of one hundred fourteen chapters each of varying length. Interestingly, the text does not seem to have a beginning, middle, and end. Also, the Qur’an mentions stories of people and events found in the Jewish and Christian religion, some including Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and John the Baptist.

One of the principles of the Islamic faith consists of prayer. Prayer, typically, involves reciting segments of Qur’an. For this reason, many Muslims end up memorizing much of the Qur’an.

Originally written in Arabic text, printed on large tablets, the Qur’an appeared to be an inconvenience. However, in today’s society, an individual can access the Qur’an in different languages, fonts, and sizes. With improving technology in the past decade, individuals have uploaded the Qur’an to the internet for anyone to access.