Some Information About The Quran
By Syed Akbar Ali
Here is a kedai kopi joke. Most cars had four gears 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears.
Then with more power coming out of the engines and for a smoother ride, car makers made cars with five gears. So there was a joke that if you exerted some force on the gear shift lever, maybe you could go up to Gear No. 6. I think some folks may have even taken this joke seriously.
Too many folks (I am talking about Muslims in particular) seem to think that the Quran is some kind of unfathomable mystery book. There is a simple reason for this. Being Muslims of course they do not know what is inside the Quran. This seems to be a prerequisite to be a Muslim. You don’t know what is inside your own Kitab. If anyone feels hurt I really don’t know what to say.
The Quran is a mystery for them including for the so called experts. And this is also when it starts – they start saying wild things about the Quran. One blast of ignorance I have heard more than a few times is to insist that the Quran says something when it does not. And these are not lay people who say this.
A previous Director General of IKIM once said on live TV that the Quran states that the adulterer must be stoned to death. There is no such thing in the Quran. This is a point of accuracy.
Many years ago, I met a fellow by the name of Syed Mohamed Barakbah the supposedly head of the Shiahs in Indonesia who recited a verse in Arabic which was actually NOT in the Quran. He kept insisting that it was.
Until today there is a Director of a Government ‘Islamic’ institute here who recites a particular “verse” in Arabic and attributes it to the Quran. It is not in the Quran either.
