The Quran as a Book | The Sunday Guardian | December 4th, 2011 | Page 15

The Quran appears to be a book just like any other book. But the Quran is a book with a difference. Scholars maintain that it requires almost 80 disciplines to understand the Quran, but most important than all these disciplines is sincerity. Without great sincerity, no one can understand the Quran, no one can penetrate its wisdom. No one can understand its deeper meaning.

What is sincerity? Sincerity is only another name for objectivity, without which one cannot understand the deeper meaning of the Quran. Most people are obsessed with different kinds of prejudices. And prejudices are the greatest hindrance in understanding the Quran. It is only if you rid your mind of them that you will be able to understand its meaning.

The Quran, relatively speaking, is a modest book with a simple language. To appreciate the Quran, you don't need to understand it from A to Z. Although there is a comprehensive theme that covers all the chapters of the Quran, at the same time every single verse of has an independent meaning. One can learn some very important lessons from pondering over just a single verse. One scholar has rightly said, "One verse a day keeps the devil away."

The verses of the Quran are approximately about 6,300. These are arranged in the form of 114 chapters, some long, some very short. Every chapter, except one, begins with the sentence, "In the name of God the most merciful the most compassionate." The exception is the twentieth: Al Tauba. All the statements of the Quran relate to God Almighty, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. In the Quran, God Almighty directly addresses man saying, "O man! This is your God addressing you. Listen to Me and follow it."