Gems from the Holy Qur’an From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)
About the translator:
Muhammad Asad, Leopold Weiss, was born of Jewish parents in Livow, Austria (later Poland) in 1900, and at the age of 22 made his first visit to the Middle East. He later became an outstanding foreign correspondent for the Franfurter Zeitung, and after years of devoted study became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. His translation of the Holy Qur'an is one of the most lucid and well-referenced works in this category, dedicated to “li-qawmin yatafakkaroon” (people who think). Forwarded by Dr Ismat Kamal.
Chapter 96, Al-Alaq (The Germ Cell), Verses 1-5
[ 1 ] Read in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created – created man out of a germ-cell.
Read – for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One who has taught [man] the use of the pen – taught man what he did not know!
Chapter 96, Al-Alaq (The Germ Cell), Verses 6-8
Nay, verily, man becomes grossly overweening whenever he believes himself to be self-sufficient: for, behold, unto thy Sustainer all must return.
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Translator’s Notes
[ 1 ] There is no doubt that these first five verses of this surah represent the very beginning of the revelation of the Qur’an. Although the exact date cannot be established with certainty, all authorities agree in that these five verses were revealed in the last third of the month of Ramadan, thirteen years before the hijrah (corresponding to July or August 610, of the Christian era). The Prophet was then forty years old. At that period of his life “solitude became dear to him, and he used to withdraw into seclusion in a cave of Mount Hira [near Mecca] and there apply himself to ardent devotions” consisting of long vigils and prayers (BuKhaarii). One night, the Angel of revelation suddenly appeared to him and said, “Read!” The Prophet at first thought he was expected to read actual script, which, being unlettered, he was unable to do: and so he answered, “I cannot read…..” – whereupon, in his own words, the angel “seized me and pressed me to himself until all strength went out of me: then he released me and said, “Read!”. I answered, ‘I cannot read……’ Then he seized me again and pressed me to himself until all strength went out of me; then he released me and said, “Read!”- to which I [again] answered, ‘I cannot read……’ Then he seized me and pressed me to himself a third time; then he released me and said, “Read in the name of the Sustainer, who has created – created man out of a germ-cell! Read – for thy Sustainer is the most Bountiful One….”: and so the Prophet understood, in sudden illumination, that he was called upon to “read”, that is, to receive and understand, God’s message to man.
The above excerpts are quoted from the third Tradition of the section Bad’ al-Wahy, which forms the introductory chapter of BuKhari’s Sahiih; almost identical versions of this Tradition are found in two other places in BuKhari as well in Muslim, Nasaaii and Tirmidhii.
