Quran Garden

Session 270

Chapter 2

Verse 252

These are the revelations of God which We recite to you with the truth, and you indeed are one of the messengers.  (Chapter 2: Verse 252)

Allah –the All-Merciful- addresses Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.  The words: ‘these are’ are referring to the preceding verses that highlighted God’s power and majesty.  God says earlier in the chapter:

Didn’t you see those who abandoned their homes, though they were in the thousands, for fear of death? Allah said to them: "Die." Then He restored them to life. Truly, God shows real favor to people, but most of them are ungrateful. (02:243)

Allah controls life and death, and that is a sign of His power and majesty.  When the Israelites asked for a leader to fight with, God appointed for them a king and sent with him the lost chest containing the relics of Moses and Aaron.  Were these not great signs of God? Allah gave David –a young man- the power to kill the great warrior Goliath.  Isn’t that another sign of God’s majesty?

Moreover, with God’s help, a group of few believing men who were ill-equipped and exhausted won a battle over a much larger and far superior enemy.  Isn’t that another great sign of God’s power? God says: ‘How many a small force has triumphed over a much greater one by God’s permission! God is with the steadfast.’ 

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was not aware of any of these stories before.  He was an illiterate man, a fact well known to everyone, especially his disbelieving enemies.  They knew him since he was a young boy.  He never sat down to learn from a teacher or a friend.  No one took the time to teach him history.  Even on his trading trips, where he was accompanied by many merchants, he never sat down to learn.  Had any man of Quraysh saw him learn or sit with a teacher, he would have loudly announced it to others to discredit the prophet. 

But isn’t illiteracy a shame, you may ask? We answer that yes, for you and me illiteracy is an embarrassment.  But for our beloved prophet Muhammad, it was an honor.  Why? Because it was a sign that all the knowledge that he brought us, all the revelations of the Quran and the wisdom he speaks are taught to him directly by God.  He was not taught by any great teacher; he did not sit down with any philosopher of the east or west.  He, peace be upon him, could not even read a book.  So everything he brought to us is from God alone.  Listen to the very first verses revealed from the Quran to Prophet Muhammad:

Read! In the name of your Lord who created: He created man from a clinging clot.  Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One.  Who taught by the pen, who taught man what he did not know. (96:1-5)

Likewise, when it came to the Israelites, God informed our beloved prophet of their stories.  If Muhammad had learned from a teacher, people would have used that against him.  Thus, every fact and every story the Prophet brought us is, in of itself, a miracle. 

Some of the enemies of the prophet conspired to make up a story that he used to sit down with a teacher in the town of al-Marwa to learn.  God revealed the following verse to prove their fabrications.  He says:

We know very well that they say, ‘It is a man who teaches him,’ but the language of the person they allude to is foreign, while this revelation is in a clear Arabic tongue. (16:103)

The Almighty answered that the man they claimed to have taught Muhammad was not even an Arab.  

God says: ‘These are the revelations of God which We recite to you with the truth, and you indeed are one of the messengers.’  (2:252) "We recite to you” means we teach you word after word; and ‘the truth’ refers to facts that took place and would not ever change.  Suppose a car accident occurred right in front of you.  No matter how many times you are asked about the accident, your answer would be the same because you are telling the truth.  But if the accident was a lie, or if the accident was something you heard about but did not witness, then your story would change with time.  You would forget the details you told a month ago.  When you tell the story the third time, it would be different again.  Isn’t that the same technique investigators use to catch crooks and criminals? They ask a suspect on several occasions about the details of a crime or event.  A person with an ever-changing story is a liar.  The truth never changes. 

God says: ‘These are the revelations of God which We recite to you with the truth.’  Allah is the one who is narrating the verses. Thus, they are the ultimate truth.  God says:

This is an account of things beyond your knowledge that We reveal to you: you were not present among them when they drew lots to see which of them should take care of Mary, you were not present with them when they argued. (28:44)

And in another chapter

Accordingly, We have revealed a spirit to you by Our command: you knew neither the Scripture nor the faith, but We made it a light, guiding with it whoever We will of Our servants. You give guidance to the straight path (42:52)

The Quran is God’s revelation and the light that guides the believers to their Lord.  Our beloved prophet Muhammad calls to the straight path.  Every event in the Quran that starts with "you were not present" is a reminder that whatever is revealed to you is from God through the angel Gabriel.  We teach you O Muhammad in the most exceptional way, even though you did not ever read a book or learn from a teacher.  And when your enemies hear a story that matches what they already know –and hide in their books-, they realize that the one who taught you is God Almighty. 

The words of the Quran are primarily divided by chapter (sura) and verse (aya). The chapters vary in length and are generally arranged from longest to shortest.  To make the reading process easy, the Quran is additionally divided into 30 equal sections; each called a Juz.  These divisions make it easier for you to pace the reading of the entire Quran over a one month period: reading a fairly equal amount of one Juz each day.  It is particularly helpful during the month of Ramadan when it is recommended to complete one full reading of the Quran from cover to cover. 

Verse 252 of ‘The Cow’ marks the end of the second Juz of the Nobel Quran.  For all of you who have been with Quran Garden from the beginning, we want to say: Thank you.  God willing we will continue our journey through the Quran together.