CHAPTER SIX

Solving Controversy

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The Holy Qur’an is one huge Miracle. It is a Book of Miracles which may be expounded from innumerable points of views. I have tried from some simple aspects to share with you that which I, as a layman was enthralled with. There is no end to this research. I leave this task to my more learned brethren, and the erudite scholars of Islam. May I live to see their efforts. Let me end with this, my final example, for this short publication.

CALL TO SWAZILAND

A few years ago, a controversy arose in Swaziland. King Sobuza lost his Queen elect. The Christian Churches in the country began quibbling on the subject of the period of waiting before a man can remarry. It was not such a serious problem for discussion because the King still had eight more wives. So the topic changed to “How long must a woman wait if her husband dies.” As the debate was raging furiously in the tiny Kingdom, the benevolent King ordered a synod of all the Churches in the country to thrash out the problem.

Mr. Moosa Borman, a Swazi brother who had embraced Islam, sought permission from the King to have his “Church” (Islam) also represented in the debate. With the King’s blessings, I too was honoured to attend the discussion.

One Sunday morning, in the King’s kraal, representatives of the various denominations of Christianity gathered to arrive at some consensus on the period of widowhood.

Speaker after speaker delivered his discourse. God Almighty had gifted the African, each and everyone is a potential Billy Graham or Jimmy Swaggart!

At the end of each sermon the audience applauded enthusiastically. The next speaker came and he brushed off his predecessor with the expression "paalish" (meaning porridge), implying rubbish, garbage! And performed to resounding applause. From morning to evening the performance went on. Around 5 p.m. my turn came. With the volume of the Holy Qur'an you see on the cover of this booklet, in my hands, I began, "From morning till night, we have been fumbling for an answer, as to how long is a woman to wait before remarrying after the demise of her husband: and we have heard what the Old Testament says and what the New Testament says, a-n-d what the New Testament says and what the Old Testament says, but we have not yet got the answer! Because the solution to our problem is in the -

"LAST TESTAMENT"

"The Last Testament" was a bombshell for the Christian priests and preachers. They had never heard the expression THE LAST TETAMENT in their lives. "Quoting OLD and NEW, NEW, and OLD will not help because the answer is in the LAST TESTAMENT of God to mankind!" I brandished the Book above my head, and read only the English of the Holy Qur'an, chapter 2 verse 234. a reference which is very easy to remember – 2:234,  just 2234!

If any of you die

   And leave widows behind,

They shall wait

   Concerning themselves

   Four months and ten days:

When they have

   Fulfilled their term,

   There is no blame on you

If they dispose of themselves

   in a just and reasonable manner,

And God is well acquainted

   With what ye do

(SURA BAQARAH) Holy Qur'an 2:234
[English interpretation by A. Yusuf Ali]

I asked the audience, "FOUR MONTHS AND TEN DAYS, do you need any interpretation!?" They all answered in chorus, "NO!", I explained to the learned clergy the wisdom behind the period of "four months and ten days". In the preceding verses, in this Last and Final Testament of God, we are told about the period of waiting after divorce:

Divorced women shall wait

   concerning themselves

   for three monthly periods …

(SURA BAQARA) Holy Qur'an 2:228
[English interpretation by A. Yusuf Ali]

This is in order to see that the marriage conditionally dissolved was likely to result in an issue. Whereas in the case of widowhood an extra period of one month and ten days are prescribed. Very logical everyone will agree, but what is miraculous about all this? Any wise man could have guessed these 3 months period after divorce and 4 months and ten days after the demise of the husband. Muhammad's (pbuh) guess is as good as anybody else's! This is true, but the proof that all this healthy useful teaching is not Muhammad's (pbuh) handiwork is in the verse following the 4 months and ten days period:

There is no blame on you
         if ye make an offer of betrothal

Or hold it in your hearts.

God knows that ye cherish

   them in your hearts:

But do not enter into
        a secret contract with them

   except in terms honourable,

Nor resolve on the tie of marriage

   till the term prescribed is fulfilled.

(SURA BAQARAH) Holy Qur'an 2:235
[English interpretation by A. Yusuf Ali]

GOD'S FINGERPRINT

  "Do not resolve to the tying of the marriage knot till the fixed period of waiting is over". This is not Muhammad’s (pbuh) cleverness! This is the Wisdom of the All-Wise God. The Omniscient Creator knows the weaknesses of his creatures. Man in his greed and cupidity will take unfair advantage of the poor distraught widow. She has just lost her backbone and support the breadwinner. She has a number of little mouths to feed and she has also perhaps lost her looks, and value in the marriage market has diminished. She is likely to clutch at any straw. In her emotional, unsettled condition when a predator makes the proposal. In her haste and insecurity she might readily accept. The Master Psychologist (not Muhammad (pbuh) ) is fully aware of all the snares laid by men. Hence the warning – "NO CONTRACT until the appointed term is fulfilled!"

       The 'iddah' ['Iddah': period of waiting after divorce or after bereavement.]

after a divorce is three months. Here she is given an extra 40 days to regain her equilibrium and equanimity. In the meantime, if suggestions of marriage had come, she would have the opportunity of discussing the matter dispassionately wit her friends and relatives. She could avoid the pitfalls of a hasty acceptance with a long drawn out and painful development.

       Did Muhammad (pbuh) think and work out all these ramifications in the desert fourteen hundred years ago? Alas, you give him too much credit! He is made to repeat again and again that the Qur'anic Wisdom is not of his making, "It is no less than an inspiration sent down to him”[ Holy Qur'an 53:4] by his Benevolent Creator. If you still doubt his testimony then meet his challenge. He is made to say:

"SAY: IF THE WHOLE OF MANKIND AND JINNS WERE TO GATHER TOGETHER
TO PRODUCE THE LIKE OF THIS QUR’AN,
THEY COULD NOT PRODUCE THE LIKE THEREOF,
EVEN IF THEY BACKED UP EACH OTHER
WITH HELP AND SUPPORT".

(SURA BANI ISARA-IL) Holy Qur'an 17:88
[English interpretation by A. Yusuf Ali]

       The world is challenged to produce a Book like the Holy Qur'an and has not produced one in fourteen centuries. The Arab Christians who boast a population of 15 million today, not to be out done, have produced the Christian gospels in Qur'anic style. They have plagiarized [PlagiariZe: To steal and use (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own.] the Holy Qur'an by stealing words and phrases and even the style, not forgetting the Bismillah! [The formula – "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most merciful", with which each chapter of the Holy Qur'an begins.] Every chapter of their most modern invention begins with the first verse of the Qur'anic Revelation. You have to see it to believe it.

Here is another proof, if proof was needed that the Qur'an is inimitable. Try as you might. the challenge still stands. The Holy Qur'an is God's Word revealed to Muhammad (pbuh) and it is the Miracle of Miracles!

"AND A MIRACLE INDEED IT IS!"

   Rev. Bosworth Smith