 |
Qur’an | Article View | |
||
|
On the File menu, click Print to print the information. | ||||
| II. | |
The Teachings of the Qur’an |
The main topic of the Qur’an is God’s relationship with humanity. The Qur’an summons humans to acknowledge God's sovereignty over their lives and invites them to submit to his will. The chief doctrines laid down in the Qur’an are that only one God and one true religion exist; that all people will undergo a final judgment, with the just being rewarded with eternal bliss and the sinners being punished; and that when humankind turned from truth, God sent prophets to lead the way back. The greatest of these prophets were Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Muhammad.
According to this sacred scripture, humankind’s fundamental role in this world is one of moral struggle. Each person will be held accountable for this struggle at the end of time. God sent the prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an to instruct humanity in how to lead a moral life. The teachings of the Qur’an are dispersed and repeated throughout the holy book rather than being organized as topics. The subjects of these teachings include God and creation, prophets and messengers from Adam to Jesus, Muhammad as a preacher and as a ruler, Islam as a faith and as a code of life, disbelief, human responsibility and judgment, and society and law. On many specific questions the Qur’an is silent, and so the life and sayings of Muhammad collected in the hadiths were necessary for the development of Islamic laws and most religious practices.
While the Qur’an itself does not instruct about the nature of humanity’s moral struggle in detail, the significance of this responsibility is emphasized by the portrayal of the Day of Judgment in some of the most powerful passages of the Qur’an. Muslims believe that on that day the world will come to an end, the dead will be resurrected, and a judgment will be pronounced on every person in accordance with his or her acts. The Qur’an vividly depicts the torment of Hell and the bliss of Paradise, the two realms to which people will be sent once judgment has been pronounced. In chapter 100, the Day of Judgment is described:
The Clatterer! What is the Clatterer?
And what shall teach thee what is the Clatterer?
The day that men shall be like scattered moths,
And the mountains shall be like plucked wool-tufts.
Then he whose deeds weigh heavy in the Balance
Shall inherit a pleasing life,
But he whose deeds weigh light in the Balance
Shall plunge in the womb of the Pit.
And what shall teach thee what is the Pit?
A blazing Fire!
Although the Qur’an accepts the miracles of earlier prophets, including the prophets of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles (Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others), it declares their teachings outdated. The central miracle of Muhammad's life is the receiving of the Qur’an itself, the like of which no human can produce.
