Ramzan is the holiest of months according to Islam. It is in this month that the Prophet had the revelation: Allah proclaimed him the messenger and sent down the Quran or Holy Book.

When we were children these were magical days for everyone in the family would prepare for Ramzan weeks ahead as it was a month of piety and devotion. Also, fasting is far more fun when there are many involved. The discussions on food are endless and so are the preparations.

Today, social media is divided on whether it’s Ramzan or Ramadan and whether correct way is to wish anyone Ramzan Mubarak or Ramadan Karim. These are semantics. India was the land where Persian used to be the court language under the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals. Even the British had to learn Persian in order to administer properly.

Scholars knew Arabic and though it was part of the languages whose words were imbibed by Hindavi (modern day Urdu, henceforth called Urdu), it was overshadowed by the number of Persian words in it. Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, Persian has 32 and Urdu written in the Perso-Arabic script has 36 to accommodate the Indian sounds. The Urdu pronunciation naturally was also influenced by the Persian pronunciation and in Persian the Arabic letter “zwad” is pronounced as “z” and not “dw” as in Arabic.

Naturally, Indians also pronounced it as “z”, so we said Ramzan and not Ramadan.

However, with the opening of employment opportunities in the Gulf, Indian Muslims were exposed to Arabic and over the years the Arabic word Ramadan has been used by many.

It really doesn’t matter for we are not speaking in Arabic but Urdu where we call prayers which is “salah” in Arabic as namaz and the fast which is sawm in Arabic becomes roza in Urdu.

Whatever you call this month, the real purpose is to follow the spirit that is inherent in the faith.

“O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard against evil.” (The Holy Quran, 2:183)

Ramzan is not just about fasting or staying hungry and thirsty for one month, but much more. This is the month for piety and devotion.

It’s main purpose is to learn self-control and strengthen will power. Ramzan is the month in which we have to guard against all temptations and evil.

A roza is not for the stomach alone, it’s for the tongue too: one must not utter anything harsh — in anger, malice, spite or cruelty.

Whoever does not give up forged speech and evil actions, Allah is not in need of his leaving his food and drink (that is Allah will not accept his fasting).”

A roza is for the eyes: one must guard oneself from being attracted towards evil and to raise ones voice if one witnesses oppression.

A roza is for the body: one must not indulge in wrongful and illegal acts.

A roza is for the heart and the mind: to remain engrossed in remembrance of God and spirituality, and to increase one’s faith in God and remain steadfast.

Ramzan is the month for charity: for giving zakat and helping those who are needy.

However, Allah does not want the people who are fasting to be inconvenienced either and in case one is sick or travelling, one can make up for it later by fasting.

Allah intends for you ease, and He does not want to make things difficult for you. (He wants that you) must complete the same number (of days), and that you must magnify Allah for having guided you so that you may be grateful to Him”. (2:185)

If, as in my case, one can’t fast because of medical advice, one should offer the less privileged the meals that they would themselves have in the morning and evening, or give them the money to buy those meals with.

There are occasions when one thoughtlessly puts some food into one’s mouth. When it is unintentional, there is no need to curse oneself — just resolve to be more vigilant because as per the Hadith: “If one forgets that he is fasting and eats or drinks he should complete his siyam (fast), for it is Allah who has fed him and given him drink (Bukhari, Muslim).”

In this month, one sees a number of people sending iftar to mosques and calling people to their house for iftar, as the Hadith says:

He who provides for the breaking of the Siyam of another person earns the same merit as the one who was observing Siyam without diminishing in any way the reward of the latter (Tirmidhi).

The roza starts with suhoor or sehri as it’s known in India and that’s an important meal (to be had before dawn prayers). Anas related that Rasulullah said: “Take the Suhoor meal, for there is blessing in it (Bukhari, Muslim).”

This gives one energy to last through the day and it is important to have food which aids the slow release of nutrients throughout the day, such as dates and oats porridge. The fast should be broken with dates because of their nutrient value and natural sugar content. It aids the effect that the sudden intake of food has on an empty stomach.

That is why traditionally, one breaks the fast with dates and a milk-based drink or a light snack and then goes for prayer. The rest of the meal is had after that, when the stomach is again producing digestive juices.

It is also a month of detox, something we otherwise spend a lot of money on. But we must be careful not to indulge in very heavy, fried items when breaking the fast as they can have an adverse effect on the digestive system.

My favourite iftar item and a very popular one is ghughni or black gram salad:

Recipe (serves two)

Soak one cup of black gram, overnight

Ingredients:

½ an onion- sliced finely1-2 whole red chillies as per taste½ tsp of zeera (cumin seeds)salt to taste1 tbsp of oilwater

Method:

In a pressure cooker fry the onion slices, zeera and chilli till onion is golden brown.

Add the soaked gram and salt.

Add 1 cup of water. Pressure cook for 10 minutes

If there is excess water then dry it.

It is healthy, nutritious and tasty. For me, Ramzan is incomplete without it.

Published on DailyO.in

Note: Mohammed is mentioned only 4 times as Mohammed and once as Ahmed.

Moses has been mentioned the most number of times.

Mary is the only woman mentioned by name in the Quran and a chapter of the Quran is named after her.

No other woman has that honor. It’s reserved for Mary.

Jesus is often called Ibn e Mariyam

We were advised to read Sura Mariyam during pregnancy

#MerryChristmasEveryone

“Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clot. Read, for your Lord is most Generous, Who teaches by means of the pen, teaches man what he does not know.” (96: 1-5)

The revelations were made over a period of 22 years and the last revelation was sent down to the Prophet in 632 AD: “Today I perfected your religion for you and completed my favor to you and have chosen for you Al-Islam as your religion.” (5:3)

The word Quran is derived form the Arabic verb qaraʼa which means “he read” or “he recited”.

The Prophet himself was not literate and so instead of writing it down he would memorize it and come and recite it in front of his Companions who would then recite it continuously in his presence till they committed it to memory perfectly. Men who memorized the Quran were caleed Hafiz and that tradition continues even today. The other way of preserving the Quran was to write it down at once on tablets, palm branches, shorn of leaves, or animal skin. There were 43 scribes during the lifetime of the Prophet chief of whom was Zayd ibn Thabit. They were known as kuttab up wahy – scribes of the revelation. It is reported that among the Companions of the Prophet (S) at least 4 people,- ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib ,Said ibn ‘Ubayd ibn al-Numan, Abu al-Darda’, Mu’adh ibn Jabal, ‘Thabit ibn Zayd and ‘Ubayd ibn Mu’awiyah ibn Zayd had compiled the Qur’an during the Prophet’s lifetime.

Shia and Sunni traditions mention the compilation of the full Qur’an by ‘Ali ibn Ali Talib after the Prophet’s demise.

Hazrat Ali (a.s.) had said,

“The Holy Prophet (s.a. w.a.) instructed me that after his shrouding, I should not come out of the house till the time I have collected the Quran. This was because at that time the Quran was on the date-skins and on the hack of the camels. ”

(quoted in Sunni-Shia sources)

This Quran written in the order of revelation of the surahs was never part of the codex, or seen by anyone apart from Ali or his sons, as Ali himself withdrew it once the Uthmanic codex was established so that there is only one Holy Book of the Muslims.

In 632 after the passing away of the Prophet and in the Caliphate of the first Caliph Abu Bakr a battle was fought against a tribe and their self proclaimed prophet. This is called the Battle of Yamama. In this battle 450 qurra or reciters of the Quran were killed leading to a fear that the Quran as an oral tradition may be lost in its original condition. The present compilation is the one made by Zayd ibn Thabit at the order of Abu Bakr, the first caliph from original recordings and memories, corroborated by witnesses.

This compiled text was deposited as a source of reference first with the first caliph Abu Bakr, then the second Caliph Umar and remained in the possession of the latter’s daughter Hafsah until 642 AD. Hafsah was also married to the Prophet.

When Uthman bin Affan became the third Caliph and he felt that there were differences creeping in the second compilation was ordered and the copy of the Quran with Hafsah was recalled and used as a reference point to remove all differences.

Once this was compiled ‘master copy’ (al-mushaf al-imam), numbering from four to nine were made and sent to major Islamic centre of Kufa, Basra, Makkah, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt and Madinah. These masahif, which became famous as “‘Uthmani Codices,” remained intact for a long time

Thereafter, the handwritten compilations of the Qur’an were destroyed on the Caliph’s order for the sake of eliminating differences among Muslims. Even the copy with Hafsah was burnt after her demise.

There was a Uthmani codex existing in Damascus Grand Mosque and Ibn Battuta (d. 778/1376) has recorded its presence in the eastern side of the hall of worship, facing the mihrib and that this repository was opened to the public after the congregational prayer and the people throng to embrace it.

According to Kurd ‘Ali, (Khutat al-Sham) this Qur’an existed in the mosque of Damascus until the year 1310/1892, but that year it was destroyed in a fire at the mosque.

Dr. Ramyar’s Ta’rikh ‘al Qur’an,without mentioning any source, writes: “It appears that fragments of the verses of the Qur’an attributed to the ‘Uthmani script were taken by Amir Taymur Gorkani with him from Syria to Samarqand with the intention of having them placed at his tomb. This manuscript was later transferred to the library of the Imperial Institute of Archeology at Leningrad and in 1905 C.E. fifty copies of it were lithographed, of which twenty-five were gifted eminent figures from Islamic countries.”

There are copies existing in many parts some of which are handwritten by Ali in Kufic script and by Uthman.

There is a copy of the Quran written by Hazrat Ali in Maulana Azad Library, AMU, Aligarh, Raza Library Rampur, Khuda Baksh Libray, Patna. There are others in other parts of the world. These would definitely be part of the second compilation.

There are two copies of the Quran in Kufic script in India Office, Library which have the inscriptions, Katabahu ‘Ali bin Abi Talib, and Katabahu Usman ibn Affan.

Sana’a in Yemen has a Grand Mosque founded by the Companion of the Prophet. A room was discovered in 1965, which had copies of the Quran. http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Mss/soth.html

A German team brought to study them and the oldest ones were in Hijazi script a name given to the early Arabian script which developed in the Hejaz region of the Arabian peninsular. These have a 95% probability of belonging to the period between 578 CE and 669 CE.”

The latest Quran discovered in Birmingham http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2015/07/quran-manuscript-22-07-15.aspx

which has the world in raptures “Birmingham Qur’an manuscript dated among the oldest in the world” in Hijazi script will definitely be one of the oldest but not the oldest and also it can’t offer anything new as far as the content are concerned, considering that many copies from that period already exist in the world. So resolving enigmatic history of holy text http://scroll.in/article/743087/discovery-of-oldest-quran-fragments-could-resolve-enigmatic-history-of-holy-text

is something which is still an ongoing task and not one which ends here in Birmingham.

It is clear without the slightest need of any comparison between the oldest manuscripts, that what we recite as the verses of the Holy Qur’an, are exactly the same words presented before the world by Muhammad pbuh.

The ambiguity arises from interpretations of the Quran by various scholars not from the written text.

The oldest library of India came into existence in 1774 with the personal collection of books of Nawab Faizullah Khan, founder of the Rampur State.
His successors kept adding to it.
The library is housed on the magnificent Hamid Manzil inside the Qila.it was shifted to Hamid Manzil in 1957.

After the merger of Rampur to the Union of India the library was taken ovrr by Givt of India and is managed by a board set up under the Ministry of Culture.

One of the priceless books in the library is the unique parchment manuscript of Quran attributed to Hazrat Ali (d 661) of the 7th century AD.
I was overwhelmed.
All I could do was pray to Maula Ali for all my loved ones.

The cover added later

All these are additions

The parchment in the middle is original. The borders and mounting are done later

By Hazrat Ali

There are two more Quran Sharif one attributed to Imam Jafar Sadiq which is given below:

The cover added later

The size of the folios are small and writing very small

There is another ornately decorated Quran Sharif attributed to Imam Raza a.s.
Remember the parchments are original and the mounting and decoration are latter day embellishments


Something g which didn’t meet approval has been blacked out


The parchment with Kufic writing only is Imam Raza ‘ s. Rest is added later



Slightly fading letters