The Jinn – A
Commentary on Chapter 72: Surat Al-Jinn
(Selected Verses)
Introduction
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not
read or write in the way we do. He read what was written from before
Adam: the book, kitab, which was written at the time of
creation. It came in different forms, in bits and pieces, which have
reached us through the different prophets until this last one. He
had direct access to the book of the creational reality – the story
of creation and the reality behind it. What Allah has done is the
book. One's access to it is through the heart, but the heart must be
pure. What is written is written in every heart. The reason it is
not evident is because of the tarnish and clutter which surrounds
it, the attachment which obscures and closes the heart. The word for
heart in Arabic is qalb, from the verb qalaba, to
turn. The heart is purified by turning away from this clutter of
attachments and turning to Allah.
The wife of the Prophet, Sayyidna 'Aisha, was asked to
explain what the Prophet was like. She replied, 'He was the
Qur`an on two legs,' (or, 'He was Qur`an walking') –
meaning that the Qur`an was clear in his actions. So we must tackle
the Qur`an from that point of view, as an encoded transmission,
cellular, living.
