Quranic Verses

Assalamualaikum wa Rahmatullah,

This isn't a game per se, and seeing as I couldn't find a topic befitting the object of this activity I opted for the 'Games' section.

The aim of the activity is to find all the verses in Quran where Allah swears by something. Thereafter the readers/posters should reflect upon that which Allah gives Qasm by as it indeed is worthy of reflection.

Also if anyone can give more information on that thing which is the subject of the oath that would be of interest.

So in essence it isnt really a game however, I hope, it is a means to increase us in our reflection of Allah's signs.

May this thread be of benefit for the one who posts and those who reads it. Allahuma Ameen.

Wasalaam.

السلام عليكم


In the name of Allah, most kind, most merciful


By the Time!


Man is surely in loss,


except those who believed and did good works, and exhorted one another to Truth, and exhorted one another to patience


In this Surah an oath has been sworn by the Time to impress the point that man is in sheer loss and only those people are an exception from the loss who are characterized by four qualities:

(1) Faith,

(2) righteous deeds,

(3) exhorting one another to Truth, and

(4) exhorting one another to patience.

Name

The Surah takes its name from the word al-`asr occurring in the first verse.

Period of Revelation

Although Mujahid, Qatadah and Muqatil regard it as a Madani Surah, yet a great majority of the commentators opine that it is Makki; its subject matter also testifies that it must have been sent down in the earliest stage at Makkah, when the message of Islam was being presented in brief but highly impressive sentences so that the listeners who heard them once could not forget them even if they wanted to, for they were automatically committed to memory.

Theme and Subject Matter

This Surah is a matchless specimen of comprehensiveness and brevity. A whole world of meaning has been compressed into its few brief words, which is too vast in content to be fully expressed even in a book. In it, in a clear and plain way it has been stated what is the way to true success for man and what is the way to ruin and destruction for him. Imam Shafi has very rightly said that if the people only considered this Surah well, it alone would suffice them for their guidance. How important this Surah was in the sight of the Companions can be judged from the tradition cited from Hadrat Abdullah bin Hisn ad-Darimi Abu Madinah, according to which whenever any two of them met they would not part company until they had recited Surah Al-Asr to each other. (Tabarani)

I obtained the following information from:
http://www.englishtafsir.com/Quran/103/index.html

مع السلامة

In my opinion of Surah 103 - the use of Time as an oath of surety is reflective of the fact that Man is indeed in loss as he is NEVER GAINING time but rather losing his chances to enjoin good as the seconds move on without any care as to his circumstances. Those who revel in the goodness of truth and patience, righteousness and good deeds are making use of the time on loan to them. There is nothing more written as a surety than time and change itself...

فَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِمَوَاقِعِ النُّجُومِ
وَإِنَّهُ لَقَسَمٌ لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عَظِيمٌ

No! I swear by the position of the stars
And this is a mighty oath if only you knew

Many people do not realise that the Kaabah is astronomically aligned to the star سهيل also known as Canopus. Canopus is in the southern constellation of Carina.

سهيل is the brightest star in the constellation of Carina and the second most brightest star in the sky. It is said to be 15,000 times more luminous than the sun. However from the earth it is seen as the second brightest star as Sirius (the brightest star) is closer to the earth than سهيل

Considering light travels at the speed of around 300,000km per second, سهيل is 700light years away from us, so in essence, what we see of سهيل today, with our naked eye is the image of the star 700 years ago!

سهيل is one of the main stars used for navigation during the night. Interestingly enough American spacemen today do not use the north star when they go out of the earth’s orbit instead they use سهيل to make sure they are on course when they go out into space.

The people of the past were fixated on the concept on aligning their buildings to the heavenly bodies as they saw harmony in the heavens. The aligning of their buildings to the heavens and the perfect order they saw above was a means of bringing this perfect heavenly order down on earth and into their lives.

Note: some of the information I have posted was taken from a lecture by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf.

In Surah 52: At-Tur الطور‎ The Mount

Verse 1: By the Mount (of Revelation)


Verse 2: By a Decree inscribed


Verse 3: In a scroll unfolded


Verse 4: By the much-frequented Fane (House)


Verse 5: By the Canopy Raised High

Verse 6: And by the ocean filled with swell

(Unfortunately I was unable to upload the last two verses in Arabic - perhaps someone else can help inshAllah, also the translations are the Yusuf Ali version, there are also different translations such as Pickthal, Shakir and Khalifa).

الماس wrote:السلام عليكم


In the name of Allah, most kind, most merciful


By the Time!

Time.

SubhanAllah. Science is stumped by the mystery of time. Those who are familiar with quantum mechanics and the quantum theory of sorts will probably be familiar with many theories on time.

I once read how scientists were contemplating the essence of time and how to overcome it, there was a theory posed on going back in time. The theory went that there is nothing faster than the speed of light, which is around 300,000km/s. And anything faster than the speed of light would in fact go back in time, this is where all the thoerys of back in time space travel came from.

Its amazing how most of the things which Allah swears by in Quran are the greatest mysteries of today.

Chaco Canyon in Arizona is a lesson for us all in the greatness of time and the heavenly order. The Chacoans were studied by anthropologists for several decades. The ancient site had no trace of human activity, no bones were found as evidence of people living there, the area had several buildings with rooms seemingly empty.

One day an anthropologist was up in the sight studying some hieroglyphs in carved into the stones and suddenly she saw a lightningt flash which cut right down the middle of a rock structure with three concentric circles, slicing down almost the centre of a cliff. This was an alarming and a very mysterious phenomenon, too great to ignore and too precise to be classed as a fluke. Was this an astronomical symbol?

Further research in to the event showed the very same day was the equinox, where the day consisted 12 hours of daylight and 12hours of night. This only occurs twice a year in places 24.3º north of the equator and 24.3 º south of equator. Anthropologists began to reassess their understanding of the ancient site and its purpose.

It was slowly discovered that the entire place was lined up astronomically, to the lunar body; moon rise and moon set and the solar body sun rise and sun set. All the rooms were designed in order to tell the people what time of day it was. SubhanAllah. The TIME of DAY.

In surah Furqan Ayah 45 Allah says:

اَلَمۡ تَرَ اِلٰى رَبِّكَ كَيۡفَ مَدَّ الظِّلَّ‌ ۚ وَلَوۡ شَآءَ لَجَـعَلَهٗ سَاكِنًا‌ ۚ ثُمَّ جَعَلۡنَا الشَّمۡسَ عَلَيۡهِ دَلِيۡلًا

‘Have you not looked at your lord how he moves the shadow, and had He wanted he would have made it stationary instead, We have made the sun its pilot.’

Ancients were concerned by the movement of shadows. As I mentioned before the Ancient people looked at the heavens and saw a perfect order and wanted to bring the order down to the earth so they aligned their life’s to be in harmony with the heavens. And in this case, so to know the time!

وَالسَّمَاءِ وَالطَّارِقِ
وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الطَّارِقُ
النَّجْمُ الثَّاقِبُ

By the Heaven and the night visitor! And do you know what the night visitor is? The Star Piercing [the darkness]! (Quran, 86:1-3)

PULSARS: PULSATING STARS

The word طَّارِق, comes from the root "tarq," whose basic meaning is that of striking hard enough to produce a sound, or hitting. Bearing in mind the word's possible meaning as "beating," "striking hard," our attention may be being drawn in this sura to an important scientific fact. Before analysing this information, let us look at the other words employed in the verse to describe these stars. The term مَا الطَّارِقُ in the above verse means a star that pierces the night, that pierces the darkness, born at night, piercing and moving on, beating, striking, or sharp star. Furthermore, the term "wa" draws attention to the things being sworn on-the heaven and the Tariq.

Through research carried out by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, at Cambridge University in 1967, a regular radio signal was identified. Until that time, however, it was not known that that there was a heavenly body that could be the source of regular pulse or beating rather like that of the heart. In 1967, however, astronomers stated that, as matter grows denser in the core as it revolves around its own axis, the star's magnetic field also grows stronger, and thus gives rise to a magnetic field at its poles 1 trillion times stronger than that of Earth. They realised that a body revolving so fast and with such a powerful magnetic field emits rays consisting of very powerful radio waves in a conic form at every revolution. Shortly afterwards, it was also realised that the source of these signals is the rapid revolution of neutron stars. These newly discovered neutron stars are known as "pulsars." These stars, which turn into pulsars through supernova explosions, are of the greatest mass, and are the brightest and fastest moving bodies in the universe. Some pulsars revolve 600 times a second.

The word "pulsar" comes from the verb to pulse. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word means to pulsate, to beat. Encarta Dictionary defines it as to beat rhythmically, to move or throb with a strong regular rhythm. Again, according to the Encarta Dictionary, the word "pulsate," which comes from the same root, means to expand and contract with a strong regular beat.
Following that discovery, it was realised that the phenomenon described in the Quran as "tariq," beating, bore a great similarity to the neutron stars known as pulsars.

Neutron stars form as the nuclei of super giant stars collapse. The highly compressed and dense matter, in the form of a rapidly revolving sphere, entraps and squeezes most of the star's weight and magnetic field. The powerful magnetic field created by these rapidly revolving neutron stars has been shown to cause the emission of powerful radio waves observable on Earth.

In the third verse of Surat at-Tariq the term النَّجْمُ الثَّاقِبُ meaning piercing, moving on, or opening holes, indicates that Tariq is a bright star that pierces a hole in the darkness and moves on. The concept of the term أَدْرَاكَ in the expression "And what will convey to you what the Tariq is?" refers to comprehension. Pulsars, formed through the compression of stars several times the size of the Sun, are among those celestial bodies that are hard to comprehend. The question in the verse emphasizes how hard it is to comprehend this beating star. (Allah knows best.)

As discussed, the stars described as Tariq in the Quran bear a close similarity to the pulsars described in the 20th century.

Source:http://www.ediscoverislam.com/What-is-Holy-Quran/Understanding-Holy-Quran/scientific-miracle-quran-universe-black-hole

ما شاء الله This is a very interesting read جزاك الله خيراً...

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Surah 95 - The Fig التِّينِ

95:1 By the Fig and the Olive, وَالتِّينِ وَالزَّيْتُونِ

95:2 And the Mount of Sinai, وَطُورِ سِينِينَ

95:3 And this City of security, وَهَذَا الْبَلَدِ الْأَمِينِ

95:4 We have indeed created man in the finest of moulds, لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ

95:5 Then We reversed him to the lowest of the low, ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَاهُ أَسْفَلَ سَافِلِينَ

95:6 Except those who believed and did good works. For them there is a reward unending, إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فَلَهُمْ أَجْرٌ غَيْرُ مَمْنُونٍ

لَاۤ اُقۡسِمُ بِيَوۡمِ الۡقِيٰمَةِۙ‏
وَلَاۤ اُقۡسِمُ بِالنَّفۡسِ اللَّوَّامَةِؕ‏

The nafs al-lawwamah is man's active conscience which is afflicted with guilt, regret and self reproach when Allah is disobeyed.

The best of moments is the one wherein you witness the existence of your indigence and through it arrive at the existence of your lowliness.

A man came to Aisha (Ra) and asked 'When will I know that I am pious?' She said 'When you realise that you are a sinner.' He said 'When will I know I am a sinner?' She replied 'When you think you are pious.'

For a servant to blame himself and look at himself with disgust for the faults and defects that he knows he possesses is something that is sought from him because it helps him avoid having delusions about himself which in turn allows him to improve his good deeds and his spiritual states. If he does not look at himself in this manner, perhaps praise will cause his deeds and status to wither away.

Ambia wrote:

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Surah 95 - The Fig التِّينِ

95:1 By the Fig and the Olive, وَالتِّينِ وَالزَّيْتُونِ

Fig
Ficus carica
Family: Moraceae

Remnants of figs have been found in excavations of sites traced to at least 5,000 B.C.

Fig plants killed to the ground will often resprout from the roots.

Figs are originally from small Asia and are one of the first fruits cultivated ever. The Greek mention them and around 60 A.C. and Plato promoted the fig as being the nutrition for athletes. A story is known of the Greek government that had forbidden all export of figs once to assure themselves a good outcome at The Olympic Games. The Greek knew about twenty nine fig sorts. Officially figs were imported to Europe around 1600. Today there are more than 600 different fig types.

Other peculiar characteristics
# A lot of fig plant races are used decoratively: like the rubberplant and the ficus benjamina;
# Dried figs contain a lot of sugar, about 60%. It is thought that that was the reason why Plato advised Greek athletes to eat many figs.
# The white juice that drips out of the fruit if the the stalk has been broken off is called latex. It was supposed to represent the universal energy and was used as a remedy against infertility and to incite the breast feeding process.
# Each fig cultivar has different shaped leafs;
# Dried figs consist for about 60% of sugar, contain a lot of vitamins and it is said that humans could live on figs alone. It is a very healthy fruit and you can consume as much of them as you like.

The prophet (SAWS) mentioned figs and then stated, "If I had to mention a fruit that descended from paradise I would say this is it because the paradisiacal fruits do not have pits...eat from these fruits for they prevent hemorrhoids, prevent piles and help gout." (Bukhari)


Missing Fruit (Bible)

'Fig trees are unique in that both mature leaves and ripe fruit appear at the same time. The tree Jesus cursed had all the outward signs of bearing fruit, yet the tree was a hypocrite. It was a fitting symbol of the Jewish nation. With its temple, priesthood, and sacrifices, Israel had all the trappings of true religion, but the genuine fruits — justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23) — were missing. Remember that withered fig leaves are a reminder of man’s failed attempts to cover his own sins.'

Olive

Hazrath Abu Hurairah (t) narrates that the Prophet (Pbuh) stated, “ Eat the olive oil and apply it (locally), since there is cure for seventy diseases in it, one of them is Leprosy.” (Abu Naim)