What is special about the Qur'an? With Gai Eaton (2022-08-14) ​

0:00:03 In this video I just wanted to share with you some words of someone who has been called the 0:00:08 grandfather of British Islam his name is Gai Eaton and he sadly passed away just a few years ago he 0:00:17 was a Muslim for over 50 years at the time of his death and he had a very distinguished career 0:00:22 he was a British diplomat he was a consultant at regent's park mosque here in London 0:00:28 and he was above all for me and a superb writer of the English language and he wrote some 0:00:35 celebrated works which have had a profound effect 0:00:38 on countless people particularly uh English-speaking people who are not 0:00:42 Muslims and has led many of them to embrace Islam and perhaps his crowning work is this 0:00:50 book called Islam and the destiny of man it was one of the first books I ever read actually 0:00:56 before I became a Muslim and it had a profound impact on me and I do highly recommend it still.
0:01:11 I just want to read to you a short extract from this book where he discusses the significance 0:01:17 of the Quran why is it such a special book and he gives his interpretation his views 0:01:23 on this and I think what he has to say is very very interesting so I want just to share with you 0:01:28 some words from his book and he begins this particular section on page 90 with some words 0:01:35 in English from the Quran and he says and if all the trees on earth were pens and the sea with 0:01:44 seven seas added were ink yet the words of Allah could not be exhausted that's the Quran 31 27 0:01:54 and he continues for the Quran to contain more than a thimble full of the message it must rely 0:02:02 upon images symbols and parables which are wind open windows onto a vast landscape of meaning 0:02:12 but which are inevitably liable to misinterpretation the Prophet's wives once 0:02:19 asked him which of them would be the first to die the one with the longest arm he said 0:02:26 they set about measuring each other's arms with great seriousness and not until long afterwards 0:02:33 did they understand that he meant the one who extended her arm furthest in acts of 0:02:39 charity there have always been Muslims who like the prophet's wives have taken figures of speech 0:02:47 literally and others who have maintained that the inner meaning of the text will be revealed to us 0:02:53 only on the last day when the secrets of hearts are exposed together with the secrets of the book 0:03:03 others again have regarded the literal meaning as a veil covering the majesty of the content 0:03:09 and protecting it from profane eyes the disputes which have arisen on this subject lead nowhere 0:03:18 and are therefore of no consequence each man must follow his way according to his nature 0:03:27 but in whatever sense it may be understood superficially or in depth a scripture 0:03:34 such as the Quran provides a rope of salvation for people of every kind 0:03:41 the stupid as well as the intelligent and limited interpretations do not diminish its efficacy 0:03:48 provided they satisfy the needs of particular souls 0:03:54 no book of human authorship can be for everyone but this is precisely the function of a revealed 0:04:02 scripture and for this reason it cannot be read in the way that works of human origin are read 0:04:10 the sun and the moon are for everyone the rain too but their action in relation to 0:04:17 each individual is different and ultimately to some they bring life and to some death 0:04:27 it could be said that the quran is like these natural phenomena 0:04:32 but it would be more exact to say that they are like the Quran they have one and the same author 0:04:39 and are as it were illustrations inserted between the pages of the book.
0:04:47 It is an article of faith in Islam that the Quran is inimitable try as he 0:04:54 may no man can write a paragraph which is comparable with a verse of the revealed 0:05:00 book this has little to do with the literary merit of the text in fact a perfect work of literature 0:05:10 could never be sacred precisely on account of the adequacy of its language to its content 0:05:18 no conjunction of words however excellent could ever be adequate to a revealed content 0:05:26 it is the efficacy of the words they're transforming and saving power that is inevitable 0:05:35 since no human being can provide others with a rope of salvation made from strands of his 0:05:43 own person and his own thoughts the quran set on a shelf with other books has a function entirely 0:05:52 different to theirs and exists in a different dimension it moves an illiterate shepherd to tears 0:06:01 when recited to him and it has shaped the lives of millions of simple people over the course of 14 0:06:10 centuries it has nourished some of the most powerful intellects known to the human record 0:06:17 it has stopped sophisticates in their tracks and made saints of them and it has been the 0:06:24 source of the most subtle philosophy and of an art which expresses its deepest meaning 0:06:32 in visual terms it has brought the wandering tribes of mankind together in communities and 0:06:40 civilizations upon which its imprint is is apparent even to the most casual observer 0:06:49 the Muslims regardless of race and national identity the Muslim is unlike anyone 0:06:56 else because he has undergone the impact of the Quran and has been formed by it
0:07:06 other books are passive the reader taking the initiative but revelation 0:07:12 is an act a command from on high comparable to a lightning flash which obeys no man's whim 0:07:23 as such it acts upon those who are responsive to it reminding them of their true function as 0:07:31 vice regents of god on earth restoring to them the use of faculties which have become atrophied like 0:07:40 unused muscles and showing them not least by the example of the prophet what they are meant to be 0:07:50 to say this is to say that revelation within the limits of what is possible in our fallen condition 0:07:58 restores to us the condition of fitra it gives back to the intelligence 0:08:06 its lost capacity to perceive and to comprehend supernatural truths gives back 0:08:14 to the world its lost capacity to command the warring factions of the soul and it gives back 0:08:23 to sentiment its lost capacity to love God and to love everything that reminds us of him
0:08:34 very powerful staring words there from this book by Gai Eaton and the book is 0:08:39 like this from beginning to end it's the most extraordinary tour de force a 0:08:43 one of the most beautiful books in the English language about any religion I would argue 0:08:50 there is again Islam and the destiny of man, until next time.