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