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From One to One Hundred Fourteen
I want them to feed Me—it is God who is the great
Sustainer, the Mighty One, the Invincible. (51: 56-58)
According to the commentators of the Quran, here worship
(ibadat) means marefat. What is marefat? Marefat means realization
of God through contemplation. When one realizes God, he falls
into a great sense of awe, and hamd is only an expression of this
kind of deep feeling towards the Lord of the Universe.
From One to One
Hundred Fourteen
uran is a divine book. It was revealed to Muhammad, the
QProphet, in first quarter of the seventh century. Its language
is Arabic. There are in all one hundred and fourteen chapters in
the Quran. The Quran is a book with a difference.
The Quran deals with almost all the issues related to mankind.
Its language is very simple. Its clarity is par excellence. The first
two verses of the first chapter are like this:
All praise is due to God, the Lord of the Universe, the
Beneficent, the Merciful. (1:1-2)
These two verses represent the gist of the Quranic message. It
means that man should acknowledge God as the Creator, as the
Sustainer, and as compassionate to all His Creatures. This is the
beginning of divine knowledge. This determines the right way of
life for man in this world.
The last two verses of the last chapter are like this:
(I seek divine refuge from) Who whispers into the
hearts of people,—among jinn and among men.
(114:5-6)
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