The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page xxx
GENERAL INTRODUCTION was necessary, therefore, to attempt a commentary which should deal more adequately with the practical teaching of the Quran. (vii) Being a revealed Book, the Quran contains prophecies. A discussion of these prophecies is not possible until after they have been fulfilled. For this reason also we needed a new commentary which should enumerate prophecies of the Quran which have been fulfilled so far and which constitute an important part of the proof that the Quran is a revealed Book of God. (viii) The Quran deals with all other religions and ideologies. It incorporates in itself the best part of their teaching, points to their weaknesses and supplies their deficiencies. Early Muslim commentators were ignorant of what these religions and ideologies taught and stood for. They were, therefore, unable to appreciate completely what the Quran had to teach about them. Now all the most obscure teachings have come to light so that the teaching of the Quran relating to other teachings has become evident to its devotees. To compensate for this shortcoming in the older commentaries, we needed a new commentary of the Quran. For these reasons we feel that our translation and commentary not only does not call for apology, but also meets a genuine and important need. In presenting it we discharge a duty. We hope that those who read our translation and commentary with care and without prejudice will feel constrained to view Islam from a new angle. We hope that they will become convinced that true Islam is not full of faults, as Western writers imagine it to be, but that it is rather a well laid out garden of the spirit where a visitor may dwell with every kind of fragrance and beauty and which affords a vision of the Paradise promised by all teachers of religion. Other Revealed Books When the Quran was revealed about 1325 years ago, there were in the world many religions and many religious books. In and near Arabia there were people who believed in the Old and the New Testaments. Many Arabs had become Christian or had developed a leaning towards Christianity. Arabs were being converted to the Jewish religion. Among converts were Ka'b bin Ashraf, a Medinite chief and a notorious enemy of Islam, and his father. Ka'b's father belonged to the Banu Ṭā'i tribe. He became so enamoured of the Jewish faith that the Jew, Abū Rāfi bin Abū Ḥaqiq, gave his daughter in marriage to him and Ka'b was born of this marriage (Al-Khamīs, Vol. 1). In Mecca itself, apart from Christian slaves, there were Meccans who leaned towards Christianity. Waraqah bin Naufal, cousin of Khadijah, the first wife of the Holy Prophet, entertained the Christian belief. He also had some iv