The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
Divine Arrangement
~ 141 ~
book lay in perpetuating the exact wordings of their
scriptures, the real test of the Muslim ummah lies in
the guarding of their scriptures’ meaning. Since the
Muslims’ predecessors failed in their test, God
Himself undertook the responsibility of keeping the
Qur’an intact.
As a matter of divine trial, Muslims have to prove
that they do not deviate from the text in their
explanations and interpretations, and of having
kept everything in the exact place designated by the
Quran. In their commentaries, they must take the
greatest care to make no shift in emphasis, for that
would be tantamount to altering the goals of the
sacred text. When presenting the Qur’an to others,
they should convey exactly what it asserts, no less
and no more.
The failure of Muslims as the people of the Qur’an
lies in their forgetting its spirit and using the Qur’an
simply as a book of blessing rather than a book of
guidance. When Muslims’ degeneration reaches this
stage, their activities become directed away from
the basics of Islam. They refer to their religion, their
holy book, as being matters of national pride.
