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SORAT YUNES (Jonah)

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IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST MERCIFUL THE MOST COMPASSIONATE

1. ALEF, LAM, RAA; THESE ARE THE AYAHS OF THE WISE BOOK.

2. ARE PEOPLE AMAZED THAT WE SENT REVELATIONS TO A MAN FROM AMONGST THEM, TO WARN PEOPLE AND GIVE THE BELIEVERS GLAD TIDINGS THAT THEY HAVE A RIGHTEOUS FOOTSTEP TO THEIR LORD, BUT THE DISBELIEVERS SAID: CLEARLY THIS IS A MAGICIAN.

Alef, Lam and Raa are three letters of the Arabic Alphabet, and there are similar ones at the beginning of some of the other Sorahs; we do not totally understand their meaning.

Allah the Highest calls the Quran here “The Wise Book”.  Allah the Highest also called the Quran “The Wise Zekr”.  All words of the Quran are wise words, as well as all the commands, which direct every aspect of our path in life, in the most wise of ways.

Allah the Highest says to us; why are people surprised that the revelations of the Quran were sent down to a man from amongst them?  

The reasons are that:- 

1. People knew the man who received the revelations of the Quran, knew his family, and his character to be truthful and honest.

2. He was a man who spoke his people’s tongue; he could understand them and feel and empathises with them. 

3. People can identify with and follow the example of a human being, which is not the case with an angel.  Allah the Highest said: “SAY: IF THERE WAS ON EARTH ANGELS WALKING PEACEFULLY, THEN WE WOULD HAVE SENT DOWN UPON THEM FROM HEAVENS AN ANGEL FOR A MESSENGER”.  (S:17 A:95)

Of the purposes of the Quran Allah the Highest mentions, there are two here, one for the disbelievers, and the second for the believers; they are:-

1. Warning people of the serious consequences of not believing and of transgressing Allah’s limits and disobeying His commands.

2. To give the believers glad tidings that they have a righteous footstep to their Lord.  This is an Arabic expression which means that they have moved closer to Allah the Highest and that their good deeds will be generously rewarded.

The disbelievers used to say that Mohamed, prayer and peace upon him, was a magician, and that he cast a spell on those who believed and followed him.  They said that he controlled them with him magic.  In the mean time, they admitted that they could not compose any Sorah like that of the Quran, not even the Smallest Sorah of three Ayahs.  They admitted that the Quran was written in a format that is not poetry, or verse in a form known to them.

Al-Waleed Ibn El-Mogerah, one of the nobles of Makah who did not believe, went to speak to Mohamed, prayer and peace upon him, who recited some of the Quran for him.  He returned to his companions and said to them: “It is but sweet words, and has eloquence; it is not poetry for we know poetry, and it is not of the words of man, its top is fruitful, and its root is firm, and it is superior and nothing is superior to it”.

The only explanation they could explain how the Quran is was that it was words or magic for its effect on the believers was like magic.  

Indeed, the Quran is not like anything written by man, for it was written by the creator of man and the Universe, Allah the Highest.  It is full of beauty, eloquence as well as wisdom, for the Almighty is He who wrote it.