Counting the Letter waw as a Word When Used to Mean “and” Confirmed in Birmingham MS + “wild cards” in the Quran

This may seem like a small point, but when counting words and letters and extrapolating meanings and possible miraculous connections, it makes a difference because waw can be a word when used by itself to mean “and” (a one-letter “word” like “a” as an article in English), but waw is also a letter when used only to form a word. This makes a great difference, for example, in the usage of waw regarding the Balance Scales, as well as the connection to the genetic code found in Surat Al-Ikhlas. My understanding of this usage is thanks to the work of the Quran researcher (and engineer) Abduldaem Al-Kaheel. But comparing waw as used in the Birmingham manuscript with its use in the same page in a modern typeset mus’haf (written Quran), the difference is clear.

Light and Darknesses in the Quran

This is a huge and meaningful subject, so we will touch on some basic ideas as well the locations of these mentions in the Quran, whose binary theme it graphically illustrates.

LIGHT نور is associated with: day, illumination, truth, eternity, wholeness, healing, goodness, the Quran, guidance, opening, peace, straight path (note that light rays follow a straight path), love, hope, trust, faith, sincerity, guarding the sacred, eternal values vision بصير (inner light which is a separate word).

DARKNESSES ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ is associated with ignorance, concealment, hiding, closure, sickness of the soul, evil, tearing apart, falsehood, crooked path, crime, loss and misleading, oppression and injustice, misery, hopelessness, despair, hate, hypocrisy, betrayal, violence, violating what is sacred, worldly values.

Why is light mentioned as singular but darknesses plural? Because light, as used in the Quran, is One and Whole, but darknesses are scattered and plural, dispersing and separating.

Palestinians Represent All Humanity

We are currently forced to watch the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, an open-air concentration camp of 2.2 million people, half of whom are children. By now almost everyone on the planet knows this, knows Israel is doing this, everyone knows they bomb civilians, cut off their food, water, medicine, and electricity. The death toll for Palestinians has already exceeded 4,000 and counting. The U.S. vetoed a UN resolution for an immediate ceasefire to stop the killing. The U.S. government is complicit in these murders and in Israeli oppression, refusing to even stand for human life. Some think this conflict could ignite World War III. But what’s really happening is the world is now separating into groups, those who side with justice and truth, and those on the side of oppression and evil. What could be more evil than a deliberate genocide of children and families? Clearly Allah the All-Knowing is showing all of us in stark reality what America’s leaders and Israel stand for now. We must bravely speak truth to this blatant evil and the powers behind it, including the groveling “superpower,” who aids and funds Israel’s use of terror, intimidation and the power of atrocity, lies, and false scenarios to promote their agenda, knowing Allah brings the truth to light, no matter how much the deniers and falsifiers hate it. It’s becoming glaringly clear that the Quran’s words are coming to pass at this very moment. But don’t forget All people of conscience are allies of people of faith, in Arabic allatheena aamanu.

The Quran’s Words for Thinking and States of Mind

In Surah 55 (Al-Rahman), Allah the Exalted refers to both humans and jinn (a species of creature created from fire) as thaqalān, which means “heavy/weighty” in the dual form used when addressing two. The “heavyweight” here refers to that both humans and jinn have free will plus intellect. Humans identify themselves as thinking creatures, and that faculty is indeed “heavy,” especially when combined with free will, as intellect must have autonomy, hence choice, in order to develop higher/heavier powers. And with weightier powers comes heavier responsibility.

These powers of intellect are described in the Quran as different ways of thinking and gaining knowledge, and the way in which one uses these ways of thinking results in different states of mind/heart. In the Quran, what we call “the mind” is in the heart, as described in a previous post. So what we call a state of mind is really a state of heart, with all the qualitative meanings associated with it. But studying the Quran more closely, we find that there are many ways of thinking, and these produce different states of mind.

We Are Worshipers by Nature

Previously I asked the question “What Is Worship of Allah?” But because people worship many things, it’s important to define worship itself, a word which in English is given rather vague and circular meanings. According to the Quran, we are all worshipers, in the sense that Allah did not create humankind except to worship Him. The whole point of our existence is supposed to be worship, which in Arabic is ‘abud. Of course there are many people who do not worship God at all, and thus are not fulfilling their actual purpose, but they may not realize they are worshiping something. So what then does “worship” actually mean or entail? Interestingly, a novelist raised as an atheist who as a child used to secretly pray to God, gave a famously popular commencement speech which makes the very same point we find in the Quran, that we are all created to worship. We can choose what or whom to worship, but cannot choose to not worship – to think so is to be deluded.

Who are the Ma Malikat Ayman in the Quran? What about Slaves, Captives, and Polygamy?

There are many misconceptions regarding these ideas and terms that very much need clarification. Those misconceptions in fact resulted in later generations of Muslims forming harems, a practice that varied from place to place (or palace to palace), but mostly was not in conformance with what the Quran stipulated at all. Some of this derives from interpretations of the words ma malikat ayman. Many interpreters and translators say ma malikat ayman refers to slaves or captives. It’s often translated “those your right hand possesses” which itself needs further explanation, as this in itself means nothing particular in English. So we start with the word used in the verses requiring freeing slaves in compensation for crimes and infractions, raqaba, which is not really in dispute, but its literal and understood meaning gives us insights into what ma malikat ayman does and does not refer to.

Du’a of Facing Allah – Du’a At-Tawajhu

This is a du’a combining 3 Quranic ayat, to be recited at the beginning of the salat prayer before Al-Fatiha. It is called du’a at-tawajhu, which means “du’a of facing Allah.” Surprisingly, I found nothing about it online except some “study notes” for the Bayyinah Institute on a separate website that appears to keep such things online, but it gave no explanation of how it is used, just the du’a and a translation with some notes. It’s basically the du’a of prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), connected to a completion of that du’a given to prophet Mohammad at the end of the same sura (Al-An’am), and a powerful expression of faith in Allah alone (monotheism). 

Rabb Al-‘Alameen in Quran

As the 7th and 8th words in the Quran, and arguably the 4th name of Allah in Al-Fatiha, the name Rabb Al-‘Alameen is significant and appears in the Quran 42 times in 42 verses in 21 suras. Thus it is not repeated in any verse, but is frequently repeated among the suras. Of these 42 ayat/verses, 7 are ayat of praise like the second verse of Al-Fatiha 1:2.  As both 42 (6×7) and 21 (3×7) are multiples of 7, this is an interesting correlation. Much interpretation has been given by scholars to this name over time, most interpreting the word al-alameen to refer to all that exists except Allah, or in the words of Ibn Abbas, “all the heavens and what they contain, all the earths and what they contain, and all that is between them, be it known or unknown.” Or, as Ibn ‘Arabi put it, “all through which God can be known.” He also thought of the term rabb as referring to the level where existence and the Divine are related. But for me, I think of Rabb in itself as simply the relationship name for Allah, because unlike other names of Allah, it easily and unequivocally accepts possessive usage, such as “my Lord” (using “lord” as the English expression for rabb), “their Lord,” “your Lord,” etc. Adding the expression al’alameen signifies that this name only can possibly refer to Allah the Exalted.

The 40 Tawheed Statements in the Quran, their Placement and Meaning

The basic statement of tawheed, Allah’s singularity or “oneness,” is  لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ or lā ilāha illā Allāh, explained here. This Basic Tawheed Statement is also the form of the Shahada or Islamic creed declaring there is no god but Allah – the name Allah being a form of the word “god” in Arabic that can only be One God. Since tawheed is the central tenet of Islam – monotheism – this statement is of course central to the Quran’s message. 

There are six main variations of it, the most frequent being lā ilāha illā hua or لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ, which means “no god except Him,” mentioned in the Quran 30 times (with 4 variations in how this expression is framed). The total mentions of all forms of Tawheed Statement are 40, itself a significant Quranic number. Thus, there are 30 Tawheed Statements containing the words lā ilāha illā hua out of 40 total mentions in the Quran of all variations of Tawheed Statement, a significant {3,4} pairing, a structural pattern in the Quran based on the Arabic name Allah (the Most High). The contexts of these statements give us a range of insight into the meaning of tawheed (oneness/ singularity) itself. 

The Profound Meaning of Light in the Quran

Nouman Ali Khan on the meaning, power, and guidance of light, in our hearts and more

Do not miss this beautiful video which explains insightfully what the parables and ayat of light in the Quran mean in very applicable and clear terms. Not just Surat Al-Nur (the sura named “Light”) and its famous “verse of Light” but other examples in the Quran and in our lives. Especially regarding light in our hearts vs external light. Very illuminating.

Fascinating Connections between Worldly Pursuit and the Hereafter in Surah 100 Al-‘Adiyat

The color-coding connects these lines, not in the mirror pattern of a ring composition, but rather connects the upper and lower halves in order as shown by matching the colors: the upper referring to this world from the our human point of view, and the lower being from Allah the Exalted’s point of view. Here almost every element lends to an intense convergence of two very different worlds.

Seven Floating Letters: Meaning in the Quran’s Details

Here is an aya/verse in the Quran regarding “celestial objects” orbiting around a center:

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلَّيۡلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَ وَٱلشَّمۡسَ وَٱلۡقَمَرَۖ كُلٌّ فِى فَلَكٍ يَسۡبَحُونَ

And it is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; all [heavenly bodies] are swimming in an orbit. (Al-Anbiya 21:33) 

The Arabic original letters in bold above (both the Arabic and English) form a mirror pattern that graphically illustrates the verse itself as shown in this screenshot from the TikTok video below the image regarding how this fits a general scientific observation about how celestial objects orbit around other celestial objects in specific orbits. 

7 letters form orbital system graphic in words describing same meaning

This image shows how the letters graphically illustrate the concept being conveyed, very much a “signature” Quranic detail. Allah the Exalted is far more communicative on many levels than we realize. 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR6HeWT2/?k=1

And as we shall show, these are not any ordinary or randomly-chosen letters, and this same 3-word, 4-unique-letter phrase (7 letters total) phrase also appears (in bold) in one other aya below. 

Surat Al-Qari’a 101: the Ultimate Warning

Surat Al-Qari’a 101, analyzed in details below, has a close relationship with Surat Al-Zalzala 99. Both tell us something about the Day of Resurrection, and both feature descriptions of the Balance Scale, showing the weighing of good and bad deeds. What’s especially impressive is the close relationship between the word and letter counts in the two “scale” sections, despite their differences. In fact, the two suras’ “scale pairs” have identical features relating to how they are precisely equitable. 

Mistranslation Alert: The Quran Does Not Condone or Advise Wife-Beating

One of the most controversial ayat of the Quran that does not have anything to do with war/fighting but rather marital relations and recommendations for resolving disputes is Al-Nisa’ 4:34. A specific word daraba is used to refer to a “last resort” action to be taken when a husband is dealing with a situation where he feels an attitude of nushooz (ill-conduct/rebellion) from his wife. Most translations as well as tafseer have interpreted it to mean that as a last resort a man can or should “strike/beat” his wife. The Monotheist Group’s Quran translation (4th version, 2020) gives the best explanation in its preface (cited below) for why this interpretation is not the best or most reasonable/applicable one, but rather is entirely mistaken, from both a linguistic standpoint and in the context in which it is used. All the following quotes are from this source. 

Quran Interpretation and the Meanings of the Word “Ayat”

Ancient ammonite fossil resembling the chambered nautilus

What is the Meaning of the word ayat? How one interprets this word can make a huge difference in how one understands major issues in the Quran, because although it is a short word, relatively confined in meaning, it is used extensively used in the Quran. It has two basic meanings, two major purposes, and four distinct applications interpreted according to context.