THE QUR’AN: A BIG DEAL FOREVER

Mahdi read the Graduation Address in English; Halima in Arabic; and Abdullahi in Hausa. Mahdi said: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet, the best of mankind, our leader Muhammad, son of Abdullah, and his family and companions. All praises be to […]

Mahdi read the Graduation Address in English; Halima in Arabic; and Abdullahi in Hausa. Mahdi said:

“In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet, the best of mankind, our leader Muhammad, son of Abdullah, and his family and companions. All praises be to Allah, who revealed to His servant the book that has no mistake, because Allah has said: ‘We revealed the book, and it is We that will protect it. Al-Qur’an is the Word of Allah, and it is the most precious wisdom that was sent to the Prophet of Allah through the hand of the trusted messenger, Jibril alaihis salam, without changing anything.

“My parents, my teachers, my friends, let me start with the greetings of Islam, the greetings of the inhabitants of paradise, Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.

“I stand before you today to show my happiness and delight because of the arrival of this blessed day, the day of the Walima to celebrate the favour of Allah upon me and my siblings of concluding the recitation of the whole of the Holy Qur’an. As you all know, reciting the Qur’an is an act of worship, however little of it you can recite. Allah has said: ‘Read what you are able from the Qur’an.’ And the Prophet of Allah has said: ‘The constant reciter of the Qur’an shall be protected by the shade of Allah on the day when there is no other shade but His.’

“Therefore today we must thank our parents and our teachers because of their effort to make it possible that we conclude the recitation of the whole of the Holy Qur’an. We pray that Allah may reward them with the best of rewards. And to you, my fellow pupils, remember that knowledge is more important than wealth. Knowledge will protect you, whereas it is you who will protect wealth.

“All the developments we are witnessing in the world today in science and technology are as a result of knowledge, and the origin of all knowledge is from Allah.

“Finally, I must again thank Allah subhanaHu wa Ta’ala, and then our parents and teachers, and all who have found time to attend this walima. May Allah reward you abundantly, and may He return you home safely, amin.

“Wassalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.”

Because, to us, the Qur’an is such a big deal.

To illustrate further how the Qur’an is such a big deal to us, Dr. Gary Miller (Dr. Abdul-Ahad Omar) a mathematician, theologian and former missionary, author of THE AMAZING QUR’AN, (excerpted here from www.quran.org.uk) shows how the Qur’an can help us establish true faith by setting standards of truth. He illustrates a simple but effective method of finding out the right direction in our search for truth:

“It must be stressed that the Qur’an is accurate, but accuracy does not necessarily mean that a book is a divine revelation. In fact, accuracy is only one of the criteria for divine revelations. For instance, the telephone book may be accurate, but that does not mean that it is divinely revealed. The real problem lies in that one must establish some proof of the source of the Qur’an’s information. The emphasis is in the other direction, in that the burden of proof is on the reader. One cannot simply deny the Qur’an’s authenticity without sufficient proof. If, indeed, one finds a mistake, then one has the right to disqualify it. This is exactly what the Qur’an encourages.

“Once a man came up to me after a lecture I delivered in South Africa. He was very angry about what I had said, and so he claimed, ‘I am going to go home tonight and find a mistake in the Qur’an.’ Of course, I said, ‘Congratulations. That is the most intelligent thing that you have said.’ Certainly, this is the approach Muslims need to take with those who doubt the Qur’an’s authenticity, because the Qur’an itself offers the same challenge. And inevitably, after accepting its challenge and discovering that it is true, these people will come to believe it because they could not disqualify it. In essence, the Qur’an earns their respect because they themselves have had to verify its authenticity.”

Because, to us, the Qur’an is such a big deal.

“The real certainty about the truthfulness of the Qur’an,” continues Dr. Miller, “is evident in the confidence that is prevalent throughout it, and this confidence comes from a different approach: exhausting the alternatives. In essence, the Qur’an states, ‘This book is a divine revelation; if you do not believe that, then what is it?’ The interesting fact is that no one has yet come up with an explanation that works.

“The following scenario is a good example of the kind of circle that those who do not believe in the Qur’an go around in constantly. If you ask one of them, ‘What is the origin of the Qur’an?’ He tells you that it originated from the mind of a man who was crazy. Then you ask him, ‘If it came from his head, then where did he get the information contained in it? Certainly the Qur’an mentions many things with which the Arabs were not familiar.’ So in order to explain the fact that you bring him, he changes his position and says, ‘Well, maybe he was not crazy. Maybe some foreigner brought him the information. So he lied and told people that he was a prophet.’

At this point then you have to ask him, ‘If Muhammad was a liar, then where did he get his confidence? Why did he behave as though he really thought he was a prophet?’ Finally backed into a corner, like a cat he quickly lashes out with the first response that comes to his mind. Forgetting that he has already exhausted that possibility, he claims, ‘Well, maybe he wasn’t a liar. He was probably crazy and really thought that he was a prophet.’ And thus he begins the futile cycle again.

Because, to us, the Qur’an is such a big deal.

So, on behalf of Abdullahi, Halima and Mahdi, and the many children whose parents give more importance to a Qur’an Graduation Walima than a Birthday Party, we thank the hundreds who attended the memorable event this Monday in Kano. Thanks also to the hundreds who sent felicitations by email and text. May Allah reward you all. After the 2009 Graduation, a good friend, a barrister, had written to say: “Because of what I have seen today, such small kids reciting the Qur’an so marvellously and so deliciously, my friends and I have decided to return to Qur’anic school. We have just picked our application forms. May Allah bless those children and us all.”

Because, to us, the Qur’an is still such a big deal. Barka da Sallah once again.