ONLY FOUR SHORT VERSES, BUT THE IMPACT IS ATOMIC!!!
بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the Name of Allah — the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.
“LOVE ALLAH. LOVE THE HOLY PROPHET, LOVE THE QURAN. LOVE YOUR PARENTS, LOVE AL IKHLAS”.
“WE WILL BE LOVED BY ALLAH”
ONLY FOUR SHORT VERSES, BUT THE IMPACT IS ATOMIC!!!
SURAH AL IKHLAS
(CHAPTER NUMBER 112)
By
Abdul Wahap Bin Abdul Hamid
INTRODUCTION
This Surah is simply unique! Why unique? Have we ever given a thought to the title of this Surah.? This Surah is named Surah Al Ikhlas, but strangely, we cannot find the word ‘Ikhlas’ in this Surah or chapter.! So why is this Surah named Surah Al Ikhlas. For a start, this Surah is one of the very few Surah’s in the Holy Quran that was personally named by our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW. Normally, a Surah will be named by the Prophet Muhammad SAW’s companions based on the function or reason a Surah was revealed to Prophet Muhammad SAW.
Some Islamic scholars say that this Surah has 20 names, but the most popular name is Surah Al Ikhlas, the name given by Prophet Muhammad SAW. This goes to prove how important this Surah is. The mere fact that this Surah was personally named by the Prophet Muhammad SAW is proof enough that there must be something special in this Surah.
Returning to the question as to why this Surah was named Surah Al Ikhlas, when in fact the word ‘Ikhlas’ does not appear in the Surah at all! According to view of Ustadz Nouman Ali Khan, a freelance Islamic scholar, in one of his serial talks entitled “GET TO KNOW ISLAM, Episode 27-Surah Al Ikhlas”, he defines the word ‘Ikhlas’ in the context of the Surah to be connected to the ‘process’ of refining and purifying our belief in Allah SWT in our mind and heart. If we are able to incorporate this concept into our mind and soul, it will make us become “Ikhlas’ or sincere in whatever we do.
According to Imam Farur Razi, a well known Islamic scholar who did a very comprehensive and in depth study of the word ‘Ikhlas”, has concluded that the word ‘Ikhlas’ means ACTION and not NARRATIVE. This can be found in his book entitled ‘Kitab Tafsir Ar Razi’. This is very much in line with Ustadz Nouman Ali Khas definition.
This surah is short, and consists of only 4 equally short verses. This Surah is very easy to memorise, and almost every Muslim, from a child to an adult has memorised it. This Surah begins with the word ‘Ahad’ (means oneness of Allah SWT) in the first sentence, and ends with the word ‘Ahad’ at the end of the 4th verse. This strongly proves that this Surah is related to TAUHID or the concept of there is only on God and that is ALLAH SWT. Another interesting fact of this Surah is that ALL the verses end with the letter ‘Dal’. This Surah is the second most recited Surah after Surah Al Fatihah in our salah.
HUSTORY AND THE ORIGIN OF SURAH AL IKHLAS
THE ORIGIN OF SURAH AL IKHLAS
This powerful Surah has another special feature. This is one of the very few Surah’s that has been sent by Allah SWT to the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW in two places i.e. in Mecca and Madinah. There are a few versions on the origin of this Surah.
According to Ustadz Abu Bakar Zoud, a well known Islamic scholar from the United States of America, who had delivered a speech in one of his serial lectures on this topic entitled ‘The Secret of Surah Al Ikhlas’ at Jamia Masjid Sultania in the United States in 2020, says that there were 2 separate incidents that happened in Mecca and Madinah that led to this Surah being revealed 2 times.
In Mecca, when Prophet Muhammad SAW preached the new religion of Tauhid I.e. there was only One God that is Allah SWT (Islam) to the Meccans, it caused a lot of uneasiness and restlessness to the people of Mecca. Before the arrival of Islam, the people of Mecca or were traditionally idol worshippers. It is believed that there were more than 360 idols surrounding the Kaabah in all shapes and sizes, depending on what they were worshipping. The traders from Mecca will bring back an idol from the place where they have traded, and place it near the Kaabah. They also crafted their own idols from precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, iron and sometimes in wood. The metal being used to build the idol will depend on the social status of the person building the idol. The richer the person was, the more expensive was the idol.
These idol worshippers started to torment, scorn, tease and ridicule Prophet Muhammad SAW. To irritate and provoke Prophet Muhammad SAW, these idol worshippers started asking ridiculous questions such as, what was the ancestry or lineage of the God (Allah), what material was God (Allah) made from etc. This group of teasers was led by their 2 idol worshipper leaders namely Amr Ibn Tufail and Abbat Ibn Rabia’a.
When matters worsened and got serious, after a few days, Allah SWT sent Malikat Jebreel with this Surah i.e Surah Al Ikhlas to be given to Prophet Muhammad SAW to assist Prophet Muhammad SAW in answering all the ridiculous questions posed by the idol worshippers. When Prophet Muhammad SAW read out Surah Al Ikhlas, they were stunned and spellbound by the answer they got for all their questions. This Surah answered ALL their questions.
In Madinah, Prophet Muhammad SAW was met with another obstacle in the form of the Jewish priests that were living in Madinah at that time. The Jewish community in Madinah felt threatened by the emergence of this new religion (Islam). These priests started to question Prophet Muhammad SAW about ALLAH SWT and Islam. They asked Prophet Muhammad SAW to explain about Allah and Islam. They asked ridiculous questions such as, ’’Does Allah SWT eat and drink?” and “Who will inherit from Allah SWT?”. Once again Allah SWT revealed Surah Al Ikhlas for the second time in Madinah, to help Prophet Muhammad SAW answer the questions posed by the Jewish priests. This is the reason why Surah Al Ikhlas was revealed twice.
MATHEMATICAL MIRACLES FOUND IN SURAH AL IKHLAS.
oبِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
oوَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ oلَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ oاللَّـهُ الصَّمَدُ oقُلْ هُوَ اللَّـهُ أَحَدٌ
(PLEASE REFER TO YOUR COPY OF HOLY QURAN)
According to Hasan Madi, a freelance Islamic scholar, who had done an extensive research on the numerical secrets hidden in this Surah, had stated in one of his lectures titled “The Magnificent Balance in Chapter 112”, the following findings:
1. The Holy Quran is a very special ‘book’, like no other book. Finally, some of the hidden secrets in the Holy Quran had been discovered and explained. According to Hassan Madi, we will discover a certain unique pattern in the structure of the Al Quran where the words, the alphabets in the Quran, the vowels and the vocal are in harmony. This structure he calls it as ‘Butterfly Image’.
2. Surah Al Ikhlas is made up of 4 short verses only, but strangely this whole Surah has ONLY ONE ‘KASRAH’ ( the kasrah sign is a small line placed below a letter or alphabets) in the whole Surah. Hassan Madi has described this to be strange and unusual. He further explains that there will be 1 or more ‘kasrah’ in a single verse, but in this Surah there is only ONE ‘kasrah’ in the ENTIRE SURAH.! Hassan Madi did a research to find out exactly what is the secret behind this phenomena. His research had unveiled that this Surah is made up of 15 words and 47 alphabets ONLY.
3. There is something unique in word no.8 of this Surah that is made up of 3 alphabets ‘Ya’,’Lamm’ and ‘Dal’ (YALID).
4. The alphabet ‘Lamm’ has a ‘kasrah’. The presence of this ‘kasrah’ has divided equally the Surah into two halves.
5. There are 7 words BEFORE the ‘kasrah’ and another 7 words AFTER the ‘kasrah’. This represents the 7 stages in a human development.
6. There are 23 alphabets BEFORE the ‘kasrah’, and another 23 alphabets AFTER the ‘kasrah’. Letter ‘Lamm’ is the 23rd letter of the Surah. Which is located exactly in the middle of the Surah. According to Hassan Madi, this represents the 23 pairs of chromosomes that are found in a living human beings, animals and plants,
7. This Surah is the second most recited Surah in our prayer,’ It is second only to the ‘Ummul Kitab’ that Surah Al Fatihah.
8. Last but not least, this Surah is related to the concept that there is only ONE God and that is Allah SWT. This Surah is all about Tauhd. tbc…
Note: The author would like to thank everyone who spent a little bit of their precious time to read this article. This is the introductory part with some other information of interest. The Second part will be uploaded on Monday 29 March 2021.
Dear readers, please share this article with your family members and friends, I need your support to keep me continue writing. Please make this site very active. This will motivate and inspire me to write more. If the response is lukewarm, I may stop writing.
Thank you for your continued support.
