The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity - Independent Media Center

today. (For a history of its written compilation see: Some Old Manuscripts of the Holy Qur'an [5] )
As divisive as Muslims are, and in as many sects as we are divided in, and in as many
languages we speak on all five continents that we live, one thing we agree upon is the text of
the Qur'an – that it remains unchanged. There is nothing which unites us more than the text of
the Holy Qur'an. This is why there is so much emphasis among Muslims of all nations and
cultures to learn the memorization of the Qur'an as a utilitarian virtue. It protects the Holy
Qur'an from tampering by those who own the printing presses. And it protected the Holy
Qur'an in antiquity from malicious scribes working for kings, and from copying errors.
There is also something undeniable about the uncanny calmness which comes over one when
reciting a Surah from the Holy Qur'an as an act of worship. Such calmness does indeed
benefit us temporally – in the here and the now. Our psychiatric bills are almost negligible
(unless we are physically being bombed to bits on a daily basis) and Prozac sales never took
off among the Muslim nations as it did in the West.
Nevertheless, commonsense tells us that something has terribly gone wrong here.
We have kept the shell and thrown away its fruit!
The Muslims have come to believe, or been led to believe, collectively, that making the Arabic
offering of the Qur'an to Allah with its attendant rituals will take one to Heaven!
More recitation offerings to Allah will bring more Heaven in the Hereafter by compensating for
our failings in the here, of both commissions and omissions.
Personal elevation of the spirit not withstanding – the Shaman priest too derives much
elevation of the soul in reciting his mantras as does the Hindu swami reciting the Vedas – often
times the words being recited are in a foreign tongue (Arabic) which the vast majority of
Muslims on earth don't even speak or understand!
Of the 1.6 Billion Muslims, just about 10% are native speakers of Arabic. A few others speak it
as a second language.
But most Muslims mouth the words of the Holy Qur'an formulaically in its original Arabic, or in
its transliteration into their local language script, for some vague notion of reaping rewards in
the Hereafter.
The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity 177 / 334 Zahir Ebrahim