C.1.-Glory to Allah Most High, full of Grace and Mercy; he created All, including Man. To Man He gave a special place in His Creation. He honored man to be His Agent, and to that end, endued him with understanding, purified his affections, and gave him spiritual insight: So that man should understand Nature, understand himself, and know Allah through His wondrous Signs, and glorify Him in truth, reverence, and unity.
C.2.-For the fulfilment of this great trust Man was further given a Will, so that his acts should reflect Allah's universal Will and Law, and his mind, freely choosing, should experience the sublime joy of being in harmony with the Infinite, and with the great drama of the world around him, and with his own spiritual growth.
C.3.-But, created though he was in the best of molds, Man fell from Unity when his Will was warped, and he chose the crooked path of Discord. And sorrow and pain, selfishness and degradation, ignorance and hatred, despair and unbelief. Poisoned his life, and he saw shapes of evil in the physical, moral, and spiritual world, and in himself.
C.4.-Then did his soul rise against himself, and his self-discord made discord between kith and kin. Men began to fear the strong and oppress the weak, to boast in prosperity, and curse in adversity, and to flee each other, pursuing phantoms, for the truth and reality of Unity was gone from their minds.
C.5.-When men spread themselves over the earth, and became any nations, speaking diverse languages, and observing diverse customs and laws; he evils became multiplied, as one race or nation became alienated from another. The Brotherhood of Man was now doubly forgotten, -- first, between individuals, and secondly, between nations. Arrogance, selfishness, and untruth were sown and reaped in larger fields; and Peace, Faith, Love, and Justice were obscured over masses of men, as large tracts of land are starved of sunshine by clouds floating far on high.
C.6.-But Allah, in His infinite mercy and love, Who forgives and guides individuals and nations, and turns to good even what seems to us evil, never forsakes the struggling soul that turns to Him, nor the groups of men and women who join together to obey His Will and Law and strengthen each other in unity and truth, nor the Nations that dwell in mountain or valley, heat or cold, in regions fertile or arid, in societies that roam over land or seas, or hunt, or tend flocks, or till the soil, or seek the seas for food or oil or fat or gems, or dig out from the bowels of the earth precious stones or metals or stored-up heat and energy, or practice arts and crafts, or produce abundant wealth by machines of ingenious workmanship, or live a frugal life of contemplation: for all are children of One God, and share His loving care and must be brought within the pale of His eternal unity and harmony.
C.7.-And so this light of eternal Unity has shown in all ages and among all nations, through chosen Apostles of Allah, who came as men to dwell among men, to share their joys and sorrows, to suffer for them and with them. Aye, and to suffer more than falls to ordinary mortal lot, -- that so their message and their life might fulfill the eternal and unchanging purpose of the Most High, -- to lead man to his noblest destiny.
C.8.-Ever this eternal light of Unity, this mystic light of Allah's own Will, has shown and shines with undiminished splendor. The names of many Messengers are inscribed in the records of many nations and many tongues, and many were the forms in which their message was delivered, according to the needs of the times and the understanding of the people; and manifold were the lives of the messengers, and manifold also was the response of their people; but they all witnessed to the One Truth: of Allah's unity, might, grace and love.
C.9.-As the records of man are imperfect, and the memory of man unstable: The names of many of these messengers are known in one place and not in another, or among one people and not among others; and some of their names may have perished utterly; but their message stands one and indivisible, even though it may have been forgotten, or twisted by ignorance, error, superstition, or perversity; or misunderstood in the blinding light of time or tortuous circumstance.
C.10.-Many were the faiths in the composite world of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Europe, and many were the fragments of ancient wisdom, saved, transformed, renewed, or mingled; and many new streams of wisdom were poured through the crucibles of noble minds, -- prophets, poets, preachers, philosophers, and thinking men of action; and many were the conflicts, and many the noble attempts reaching out towards Unity, and many were the subtle influences interchanged with the other worlds of further and Eastern Asia, -- Aye, and perchance with the scattered Isles of the Pacific and the world between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
C.11.-At length came the time when the Voice of Unity should speak and declare to the People, without the need of Priests or Priestcraft, without miracles save those that happen now and always in the spiritual world, without mystery, save those mysteries which unfold themselves in the growing inner experience of man and his vision of Allah, -- to declare with unfaltering voice the Unity of Allah, the Brotherhood of Man, and Grace and Mercy, Bounty and Love, poured out in unstinted measure for ever and ever.
C.12-And this great healing light shown among a people steeped in ignorance, brave and free, but without cohesion or union, simple and rude, but with an easy familiarity with Nature, accustomed to Nature's hardships and her rugged resistance to man, but dreaming of the delights of gardens and fruitful fields, cruel, yet with a rough sense of equality, and wielding a tongue, flexible, beautiful, and able to respond, with brevity and eloquence, to the sublimest thoughts which man could conceive.
C.13.-Who were fit to be vehicles of this light? -- Not men intoxicated with words and mysteries, Men whom politics had debauched or tyranny had subdued, Men whose refinements had ended in vices, who saw Nature only through books or artificial conceits, or in moods which bred softness, indolence, or luxury, who spoke of love and justice, but practiced gross selfishness between class and class, sex and sex, condition and condition; and had perverted their language, once beautiful, into jargons of empty elegance and unmeaning futility.
C.14.-For the glory of Hellas, and her freedom and wisdom had departed; Rome's great systems of law, organization, and universal citizenship had sunk into the mire of ecclesiastical formalism, and dogmatism, and exclusive arrogance; the living fire of Persia's Prophet scarce smouldered in her votaries of luxury; in India, countless castes and kingdoms cancelled the unity of Buddha's teaching; the wounds of China had not yet been healed by T'ang culture; and Japan was still a disciple of China.
C.15.-Then, in the sacred city of pagan Arabia, shown a light that spread in all directions. It was centrally placed for the bounds of the world of man's habitations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It made the Arabs the leading nation of culture and science, of organized enterprise, law, and arts, with a zeal for the conquest of Nature and her mysteries.
C.16.-Behold! There was born into the world of sense the unlettered Apostle, the comely child, noble of birth, but nobler still in the grace and wisdom of human love and human understanding; dowered with the key which opened to him the enchanted palace of Nature; marked out to receive -- to receive and preach in burning words the spiritual truth and message of the Most High.
C.17.-Others before him had been born in darkness, beyond the reach of history; others again it pleased Allah to send as Messengers, preaching, working in the dim twilight of history, wherein men fashion legends after their own hearts and dimly seek a light afar, remote from the lives mean and sordid, such as they knew.
C.18.-But Muhammad came in the fullest blaze of history; with no learning he put to shame the wisdom of the learned; with pasture folk he lived and worked, and won their love; in hills and valleys, caves and deserts, he wandered, but never lost his way to truth and righteousness; from his pure and spotless heart the Angels washed off the dust that flew around him; through the ways of crooked city folk, he walked upright and straight, and won from them the ungrudging name of the Man of Faith who never broke his word.
C.19.-To the Praiseworthy indeed be praise: born in the Sacred City he destroyed its superstition; loyal to his people to the core, he stood for all humanity; orphan-born and poor, he envied not the rich, and made his special care all those whom the world neglected or oppressed, orphans, women, slaves, and those in need of food or comforts, mental solace, spiritual strength, or virtues downtrodden in the haunts of men.
C.20.-His mother and his foster mother loved and wondered at the child; his grandfather, 'Abdul Muttalib, of all his twice-eight children and their offspring, loved him best and all his sweet and gentle ways; his uncle Abu Talib, loth though he was to give up the cult of his fathers, knew well the purity of Muhammad's mind and soul, and was his stoutest champion when the other chiefs of Mecca sought to kill the man who challenged in his person their narrow Pagan selfish lives.
C.21-To his cousin 'Ali, the well-beloved, born when he was thirty, he appeared as the very pattern of a perfect man, as gentle as he was wise and true and strong, the one in whose defense and aid he spent his utmost strength and skill, holding life cheap in support of a cause so high, and placing without reserve his chivalry, his prowess, his wit and learning, and his sword at the service of this mighty Messenger of Allah.
C.22.-Not till the age of forty did he receive the Commission to stand forth and proclaim the Bounty of Allah, and His gift, to lowly Man, of knowledge by Word and Pen; but all through his years of preparation he did search the Truth: he sought it in Nature's forms and laws, her beauty and her stern unflinching ways; he sought it in the inner world of human lives, men's joys and sorrows, their kindly virtues and their sins of pride, injustice, cruel wrong, and greed of gain, scarce checked by the inner voice that spoke of duty, moral law, and higher still, the Will Supreme of Allah, to which the will of man must tune itself to find its highest bliss.
C.23.-But he grew steadfastly in virtue and purity; untaught by men, he learnt from them, and learned to teach them; even as a boy of nine, when he went in a trade caravan with Abu Tabib to Syria, his tender soul marked inwardly how Allah did speak in the wide expanse of deserts, in the stern grandeur of rocks, in the refreshing flow of streams, in the smiling bloom of gardens, in the art and skill with which men and birds and all life sought for light from the Life of Lives, even as every plant seeks through devious ways the light of the Sun.
C.24.-Nor less was he grieved at Man's ingratitude when he rebelled and held as naught the Signs of Allah, and turned His gifts to baser uses, driving rarer souls to hermit life, clouding the heavenly mirror of pure affections with selfish passions, mad unseemly wrangles, and hard unhallowed loathsome tortures of themselves.
C.25.-He worked, and joyed in honest labor; he traded with integrity to himself and to others; he joined the throngs of cities and their busy life, but saw its good and evil as types of an inner and more lasting life hereafter; people gladly sought his help as umpire and peacemaker because they knew his soul was just and righteous: He loved the society of old and young, but oft withdrew to solitude for Prayer and inward spiritual strength; he despised not wealth but used it for others; he was happy in poverty and used it as his badge and his pride when wealth was in his reach but not within his grasp, as a man among men.
C.26.-At twenty five he was united in the holy bonds of wedlock with Khadija the Great, the noble lady who befriended him when he had no worldly resources, trusted him when his worth was little known, encouraged and understood him in his spiritual struggles, believed in him when with trembling steps he took up the Call and withstood obloquy, persecution, insults, threats, and tortures, and was a lifelong helpmate until she was gathered to the saints in his fifty first year, -- a perfect woman, the mother of those that believe.
C.27.-There is a cave in the side of Mount Hiraa some three miles north of the City of Mecca, in a valley which turns left from the road to 'Arafat. to which Muhammad used to retire for peaceful contemplation: often alone but sometimes with Khadija. Days and nights he spent there with his Lord. Hard were the problems he resolved in his mind, -- harder and more cross-grained then the red granite of the rock around him, -- problems not his own, but his people's, yea, and of human destiny, of the mercy of Allah, and the agelong conflict of evil and righteousness, sin and abounding Grace.
C.28.-Not till forty years of earthly life had passed that the veil was lifted from the Preserved Tablet and its contents began to be transferred to the tablet of his mind, to be proclaimed to the world, and read and studied for all time, -- a fountain of mercy and wisdom, a warning to the heedless, a guide to the erring, an assurance to those in doubt, a solace to the suffering, a hope to those in despair, -- to complete the chain of Revelation through the mouths of divinely inspired Apostles.
C.29.-The Chosen One was in the Cave of Hiraa. For two years and more he had prayed there and adored his Creator and wondered at the mystery of man with his corruptible flesh, just growing out of a clot, and the soul in him reaching out to knowledge sublime, new and ever new, taught by the bounty of Allah, and leading to that which man himself knows not. And now, behold! A dazzling vision of beauty and light overpowered his senses, and he heard the word "Iqraa!"
C.30.-"Iqraa!" -- Which being interpreted may mean "Read!" or "Proclaim!" or "Recite!" The unlettered Apostle was puzzled; he could not read. The Angel seemed to press him to his breast in a close embrace, and the cry rang clear "Iqraa!" and so it happened three times; until the first overpowering sensation yielded to a collected grasp of the words which made clear his mission; its Author, Allah the Creator, its subject, Man, Allah's wondrous handiwork, capable, by Grace, of rising to the heights sublime; and the instrument of that mission, the sanctified Pen, and the sanctified Book, the Gift of Allah, which men might read, or write, or study, or treasure in their souls.
C.31.-The veil was lifted from the Chosen One's eyes, and his soul for a moment was filled with divine ecstasy...When this passed, and he returned to the world of Time and Circumstance and this world of Sense, he felt like one whose eyes had seen a light of dazzling beauty, and felt dazed on his return to common sights. The darkness now seemed tenfold dark; the solitude seemed tenfold empty; the mount of Hiraa, henceforth known as the Mountain of Light, the mere shell of an intense memory. Was it a dream? Terror seized his limbs and he straightway sought her who shared his inmost life, and told her of his sense of exaltation, and the awful void when the curtain closed.
C.32.-She understood, rejoiced, and comforted him; gave strength to his shaken senses; wrapped up in warmth his shivering body, unused as yet to bear the strain and stress of an experience rare to mortal men. She knew it was no dream or delusion. She went and consulted her cousin Waraqa, a devout worshipper of Allah in the Faith of Christ, learned in spiritual lore. He listened and with her rejoiced that he, Muhammad, was Allah's Chosen One to renew the Faith.
C.33.-She said: Blessed be thou, Chosen One! Do we not see thy inner life, -- true and pure? Do not all see thy outer life, -- kind and gentle? -- loyal to kin, hospitable to strangers? No thought of harm or mischief ever stained thy mind nor word ever passed thy lips that was not true or stilled not the passions of narrower men. Ever ready in the service of Allah, thou art he of whom I bear witness: There is no God but He, and thou art His chosen Apostle.
C.34-Khadija believed, exalted in faith above all women; 'Ali, the well-beloved, then a child of ten, but lionhearted, plighted his faith, and became from that moment the right hand of Islam; Abu Bakr, the Sincere, the Truehearted, the man of wealth and influence, who used both without stint for the Cause, the sober counsellor, the inseparable friend, never hesitated to declare his faith; and Zaid, the freedman of Muhammad, counted his freedom as naught compared with the service of Muhammad and Islam. These were the first fruits of the mission: A woman, a child, a man of affairs, and a freedman, all banded together in the equality of Islam.
C.35.-The revelation had come, the mission and the inspiration. But what was it leading to? It was a miracle, but not in the sense of a reversing of Nature; Mustafa's vision was linked with Eternity, but he was no soothsayer foretelling passing events; the mysteries of knowledge were being opened out, but his message was no mere esoteric doctrine, to be grasped by a few in contemplation, fleeing from action; nor was it the practice of single or social monasticism, undisturbed by the whims or passions of life. He was asked to stand forth, to preach, to declare the One Universal God, the Gracious, the Merciful, and to lead men to the Right and forbid the Wrong
C.36.-The wrong? -- The selfish pride of birth, the massing of power and wealth in the hands of a few, the slaughter of female infants, the orgies of gambling and drunkenness, the frauds of temples and idols and priests, the feuds and arrogance of tribes and races, The separation of Sacred and Profane, as if the unity of All Life and All Truth did not flow from the unity of Allah Most High.
C.37.-He was loyal to his family, but could he support their monopoly of power? -- To his tribe, but were the Quraish the only creatures of Allah? -- To the temple of Mecca, but could he wink at Lat and 'Uzza, and the other monsters, whose worship killed the spiritual growth of Man? -- To the earlier Revelations, but could he hold with the superstitions and falsehoods, the dogmas and creeds which went against reason and nature, and the inner light which was now fanned into flame by the Will of Allah?
C.38.-And so his very virtues and loyalties pointed to offense and conflict, mockery and misrepresentation, hatred and persecution, threats, tortures, and exile for him and his, and martyrdoms, wars, revolutions, and the shaking of the foundations of history and the social order. But Islam meant the willing submission of his will to Allah, the active attainment of Peace through Conflict.
C.39.-And he gave that submission, not without effort, even as Moses did before him, and Jesus in the agony of the garden of Gethsemane.
C.40.-For three and twenty years, in patience, conflict, hope, and final triumph, did this man of Allah receive and teach the Message of the Most High. It came, like the fruit of the soul's own yearning, to teach profound spiritual truths, answer questions, appeal to men in their doubts and fears, help and put heart in them in moments of trial, and ordain for them laws by which they could live in society lives of purity, goodness and peace.
C.41.-These messages came as inspiration to Muhammad as the need arose, on different occasions and in different places: He recited them, and they were recorded by the Pen: They were imprinted on his heart and mind, and on the memory of his loving disciples: as the body of sacred Scripture grew, it was arranged for purposes of public prayer and reading: This is the Book, or the Reading, or the Koran.
