The Message

In the Spirit of the Gracious and Compassionate
Creator of the Heavens and the Earth

The Qur’an is a message to all human beings. There were no Muslims in Arabia fourteen centuries ago. The people who accepted the message from the man with a lifelong reputation for decency and honesty, and who embraced the message — almost all of them Arabs, but also some who were originally from Abyssinia, Iran, and Europe — began calling themselves “Muslims”. In contrast to the Bible, which was created by the Jews and Christians who hold it sacred, the Qur’an created the Muslims.

There is a program called “SETI” (“Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence”) which has not yet produced any evidence of messages being received from outer space. But, they keep looking. A message from outer space falls into the realm of what many people are willing to believe.

Because there is a history of people writing books and then claiming that those books come from the Creator, when someone such as myself claims that the Qur’an is a message from the Creator, most non-Muslim people of faith, as well as people who claim to have no faith, are not willing to believe this — or even to seriously investigate it. I suggest you give it another thought. (The Muslims are not reading the Qur’an and have not been following the Prophet since 29 years after his passing. I have studied this history. Do not take what you see people doing in the world as evidence for or against the Qur’an. Study the history for yourself.)

Having said this, I have something to say to Muslims — The Qur’an was sent down on our hearts. The word “qur’aan” refers to the process of reciting, which is what Allah is commanding us to do. (“Iqra’” and “qur’aan” are different forms of the same word.) We get the benefit of the Qur’an by reciting it.

As one who has mastered the analysis of European symphonic music (which actually came from the Moors, as Elijah Muhammad said) and also studied African and African American music, I am sensitive to the complex rhythms, rhymes, and other patterns in the Qur’an and to its overall symphonic structure. All of this brings messages to our being. Not just the meanings of the words.

But analyzing the subtle meanings and complex structures of the Qur’an is no substitute for reciting, as best we can (Allah is grateful and patient), day after day, month after month, year after year. We are commanded to recite.

The Qur’an (recited) is above and beyond intellectual analysis. While reciting the Qur’an, I have seen it touch the heart of a white Christian businessman who had no idea what it was (“Ooh! What is that? It’s beautiful!”), transform the tears of a toddler (who had awakened to find his mother absent) into laughter, and instantly cure a sick man of constant spasms that had plagued and exhausted him for weeks. Analysis cannot do that.

“Iqra’!” Recite.

Lester A. Knibbs
22 Jumada al-thani 1438
March 21, 2017