Page 68 - Those Who Do Not Heed The Qur'an

66 THOSE WHO DO NOT HEED THE QUR'AN

engage skilfully with their ideas.
In addition, recognising the idolatrous religions, of which Allah
speaks in a number of verses of the Qur'an, is important to realise
the extent to which true religions have suffered degeneration
through perversions. In this way it is possible to see how those
pagan religions that existed in the past have also emerged in our
time. In fact when the Qur'an speaks of other religions, Magians,
polytheists and societies which worshipped al-Lat, al-'Uzza and
Manat, it is drawing the attention of the faithful to the need to be in-
formed on these matters. Hence a Muslim needs to know about
other faiths and ideologies, to read their books and to be informed
about each one of them.
In fact the Qur'an indicates a wide array of subjects on which a
Muslim needs to be informed, such as biology, astronomy, botany,
geography, history, chemistry, psychology and the arts. There are
verses that show that a knowledgeable person with faith will learn
about Allah's flawless creation in all its details and, by carefully ex-
amining the wonders he sees, may come to possess an even deeper
faith in Allah, the One Who created everything. Moreover staying
up to date with developments in these branches of science will help
a person understand more deeply the wonders of the Qur'an. The
verse "… only those of His servants with knowledge have fear of
Allah..." (Surah Fatir: 28) draws attention to the importance of being
knowledgeable and informed.

An Important Duty of Muslims

A significant proportion of people say that they believe in Allah
and the Qur'an. However, many of them have likely never read the
Qur'an, and have not put into practice the morality, worship and in-
structions which it contains. Passing one's entire life in ignorance of