“Forgot A Good Part Of The Message”

“From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a Covenant, but they forgot a good part of the Message that was sent them: so We estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other, to the Day of Judgment. And soon will Allah show them what it is they have done.”  (Sûrah al-Mā’idah, 5: 14)

It applies to Muslims as well. And it is likely that the hatred, enmity and divisiveness witnessed among Muslims these days are a result of their neglecting a “good part of the Message” by ignoring the cumulative spirit of Qur’ān – because of an overall atomistic approach. If it continues it will be difficult to subdue the fitnah (a great trying situation) that we are in now.

Why focus on the entire Qur’an? ‘Because the whole has a value which the parts do not.’ The whole has an additional property. How? The letters and words were already there. Being put in the form of verses, chapters and the entire Book the same words acquired an additional property. Take an English word. Break it into letters and it ceases to mean anything.

The words have to be looked at in the context of a whole verse. A verse has to be looked at in the context of a whole group of verses. The groups of verses have to be looked at in the context of the whole chapter. The chapters have to be looked at in the context of the whole Book. The Book has to be looked at in the context of the overall scheme of things.