A Brief Study of the Koran
The Stories in the Koran
The Koran is definitely not a history book that serves just to report events. God has included these stories to show man's various aspects and dimensions and make people realize fixed, stable laws such as actions and reactions, the cause and effect and orderly calculations in life. Thus, people can use these stories to gain experience and insight to establish their intelligible life. In the Koran, some stories have been repeated, like the stories of prophets like Noah and Moses and their conflicts with tyrants. The philosophy behind this repetition is the same as that of the Koran's emphasized education and justification of the facts and truths of life, so that people may understand that human life is no joke, and involves orderly calculation.
If people observe carefully what goes on in the world, what happened to other people and why some fall and deteriorate, their ability to realize and reason facts will improve – this is, in fact, "experimental reason," which leads to new knowledge and increases man's insight.
There are many verses in the Koran that are quite useful for learning experiences and lessons which build up to an intelligible life, especially these verses: The House of Imran 3:137, Women 4:26, The Spoils 6:11, The Battlements 7:74, Joseph 12:109, The Bee 16:36, Haj 22:46, The Ant 27:69, The Greeks 30:9 and 42, The Angels 35:44, The Believers 40:21 and 82, Mohammad 47:10.
There are also other verses about the lives of people in the past, with useful advice on what experience should be learned from them. If one is aware of how valuable life is in this world, what goes on in the universe will undoubtedly be a line of a great book to him. Thus, every event – past or present, large or small, sad or joyous, about friends or enemies – can be a lesson and provide us with experience and advice.
The Koran includes knowledge of what is to come in the future and what has occurred in the past. Some future events, such as the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, have been stated.
The events mentioned in the Koran can be divided into two groups:
1-Although some verses do not seem to include certain events, scholars have been able to extract them.
2-The Koran contains some basic principles that can be regarded as divine ways and methods. These principles can apply both to the history of man and also to the future. Ultimately, comparing them with past and future events – and experience – requires internal enlightening, a taste of divinity.
The Koran states that human life has a goal which is extremely supreme and important. The verses in the Koran show this in a variety of ways:
1-Some verses strongly emphasize that man has not been created aimlessly:
افحسبتم انما خلقناكم عبثا و انكم الينا لا ترجعون
"What, did you think that We created you only for sport, and that you would not be returned to Us?" (The Believers, 23:115)
الذي خلق الموت و الحياة ليبلوكم ايكم احسن عملا
"The God who created life and death, that He might try you which of you is the best in actions…"(The Kingdom, 67:2)
2-Many verses greatly emphasize that everything in the universe has been created "justly and righteously."
Many verses in the Koran call the creatures in the universe "signs." We can categorize these verses as:
a)Some verses directly call the facts in the universe factors leading to faith, monotheism, piety, avoiding blasphemy, belief in the afterlife and fear of God.
b)Some verses order us to observe carefully the signs in the universe and emphasize that thought and reasoning are necessary. As some of these verses say, "Those who observe and realize these signs and the order and harmony are those who have sound common senses and strong intelligence." Many verses in the Koran emphasize this.
c)Some other verses clearly justify the righteous creation of the universe. The word haq has several meanings, but when referring to the creation of the earth and the heavens, it depicts the properness and righteousness of their creation.
The point is that God-given laws preached by the Prophet of Islam account for both the adjustment of man's social life and spreading positive moral and mystic qualities; it is an Islamic principle that all domains like law, economy, moral ethics and culture be in harmony and united – man-made laws, however, have not gone beyond providing man's social life, for they are the result of man's information and desires alone.
Every action arising from original mysticism and knowledge and purity, together with its positive results which show in mystical changes, serve as a brighter light shining the way to the higher level.
