The Beauty of the Qur'an

 The Qur'an is so beautiful! That is my reaction everytime I study any concept in this amazing book. I always find so many things that are insightful, but not only that, I find things that help me live life in a mature way. These two things (amazement with the Qur'an itself and the way that it helps me live life) are the two things that made the jinn declare "we have believed in it". Allah relates that they said: "... we have heard an amazing Qur'an, it guides to rushd, so we have believed in it..." 72:1-2

Various definitions have been given for the word rushd (often translated as "guidance"), however one interesting point that was made in the book Al-Kulliyyaat: Mu'jam Fee Al-Mustalahaat Wa Al-Furooq Al-Lughawiyyah is that rushd "... is mostly used for living upright by means of the intellect." This makes sense because Allah describes the Qur'an by saying: "We have sent it down as an 'arabi Qur'an so that you can use your intellect." 12:2 The word 'arabi is more than just the Arabic language, it has to do with the clarity and completeness of the Qur'an. The important point here is that, in one ayah Allah tells us the Qur'an guides to rushd (a mature way of living based on the intellect), and this meaning is supported by another ayah that tells us the Qur'an was sent down for us to use our intellect.

What further supports this meaning of rushd is the ayah that tells us that we turn over the orphan's money that we have been taking care of when we see rushd from them (4:6). What would rushd be in this ayah? That they have reached a level of maturity where that enables them to manage their finances. Perhaps for these reasons some of the translations of rushd include: "integrity of (one's) actions, proper, sensible conduct; reason, good sense, senses; consciousness; maturity (of the mind)..." (The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic)

All this shows the beauty of the ayah I started with, which is relating that the jinn said: "...we have heard an amazing Qur'an, it guides to rushd, so we have believed in it..." That is what I would like to share with you in these posts, the amazing beauty I find in the Qur'an, and how it helps us live in a mature, sensible, intellectual way.