SYED KALEEM GEELANI

The Muslim Ummah is passing through some of its most difficult times in history. In the modern world, Islam is facing different types of challenges both internally and externally. While external challenges come from our surroundings- most of them created by the West to control and check us but internal challenges are more dangerous than external due to our very own lack of Islamic knowledge and understanding of the Quran.

We are today living in a multiracial, multi-religious and multi cultural society. To live in harmony, peace and friendship, it is important that we understand each others’ traditions and faiths and religions, which have great impact on human sensitivities and emotions. While inter-religious dialogue is in full swing today, the religion of Islam somehow seems to have been excluded from the circle of goodwill. There are large number of problems through with the Muslim Ummah is going through; the solution to these issues lies with us through the glorious book, Quran. But, unfortunately, despite having the Quran in our homes, we are yet out of track due to the lack of easy understanding and interpretation of Quranic verses. There is a dire need of understanding the complete and precise meaning of Quranic verses for the solutions of our problems. We all hear and acknowledge that Quranic carries the solution for everything but unfortunately these have just remained mere words for us due to the lack of exploring and examining the Quranic knowledge with respect to current times of the world. Keeping the modern day problems and issues in view, the Quranic Encyclopedia was launched lately for the ease, knowledge and guidance of Muslims throughout the world to tackle with the problems confronting them at different levels in current times. In little time, we can get Quranic solutions to our problems and issues and that’s all what we need for our disturbed lives.

After long research and struggle for five decades, world renowned scholar Dr Muhammad Tahirul Qadri, has brought forth all the way revolutionary and groundbreaking asset of the Quranic Encyclopedia for the concerns of Muslims all over the world. As the word “Encyclopedia” suggests, it is a book which provides information on many subjects or many aspects of one subject. From ancient to modern and from depths of earth to the limits of sky, the Quranic encyclopedia w provide us knowledge about any field from the Quran. There have been limitless contributions in the history of Islam from time to time but Quranic Encyclopedia is one of the rarest contributions. This versatile book has surely come as a revolution in the whole course of Islamic knowledge due to its comprehensive and in- depth analysis of Quranic verses.

We have become busy to such an extent in our day to day lives that we are even finding it difficult to spare sometime for our duties and responsibilities towards Allah. Due to this, we have landed into different troubles and concerns in our lives and always look for the Islamic solutions to our problems in less time and with comfort. In this growing era of timeliness in our lives, we hardly bother to dig deeper for the solutions to our problems through which we are going frequently.

The people of modern times have been bestowed with the glorious book of the Quranic Encyclopedia by the hands of Dr Muhammad Tahirul Qadri. This revolutionary book has surely come as a sigh of relief for the difficulties prevailing over the Muslim Ummah all over the world. By the introduction of Quranic Encyclopedia in the history of Islam, the whole Muslim Ummah has been delivered with a treasure of understanding and comprehension of Quran in an easy and understandable language. Understanding the Quranic verses and its meaning and then complying them with our lives, has never been so easy but with the help of Quranic Encyclopedia, it has became easy for us to understand as the verses have been translated to Urdu with the pretext of current problems faced by the Muslims.

Let’s talk about the structure of Quranic Encyclopedia: It consists of eight volumes in which 5000 topics have been covered. The list of the topics covered is on 400 pages and the abstract of these topics are covered by eight volumes.

‘Volume I’ consists of 400 pages compromising of the topics of Existence of Allah, Faith on Allah, Caste and attributes, Grace of the universe, Purpose of creating it, Solar system, the formation of the day and night, Creation of mankind, Extension of sky and earth, Reality and utility of mountains and seas, Philosophy of life and death, Intellect of knowledge, Paradise and hell and other topics related to faith. Furthermore, it contains answers to some important questions: What is Tawheed? Greatness of the names of Allah? Attributes and roles of Allah? Need of faith and its importance and so on.

‘Volume 2’ compromises of topics like Shirk and its types, Faithfulness, Faith of books, Faith of angels, Values of faith and faith on hereafter. The second volume continues with the topics of faith. After covering all the topics related to Tawheed in the first volume, the second volume comes with the topics of Reality of Shirk, Factors of Shirk and its related issues for which thousands of Quranic explanations have been provided.

‘Volume 3’compromises of topics like the day of judgment, worship, Rights and duties, Science and technology, Degrees of hell, Punishments. It also carries essentials and terms of prayers, Importance of wisdom and blessings, Fasting and its commandments, Zakaat and Sadqaat, Issues of Hajj and Umrah at present and so on. Besides these, several other issues have been covered.

‘Volume 4’ compromises of topics like Peace and Love, Need of rectifications in the society, Protection of human lives, Sectarianism, Unity among Muslims and so on. It also carries the issues of Protection of holy places and life and property of non Muslims and Religious knowledge and its importance ,among other topics.

‘Volume 5’ compromises of the topics like Government and political system, System of justice, Eternality and so on. This volume discusses about Social ethics, Islamic government and governance, Responsibilities of the leaders and the Ummah. It also covers issues like economic and financial issues, principals of trade, interest permissibility in Islam, Islamic economy and other related issues.

‘Volume 6, 7 and 8’ compromises of easier Urdu translation of Arabic language word by word so that we get proper and complete understanding of Quranic verses. This will also help the reader to develop an expertise of Quranic language which will in turn help us in finding the solutions from Quran.

Because the topics covered are vast and thousands in number, we can’t sum up and include all the topics here but I have just tried to highlight some of the important topics of these volumes. Now, that the book has been delivered to us after 50 years of struggle and research, it becomes obligatory upon us to read and refer to this unique book. Let us all expose and manifest ourselves towards the light of Islamic knowledge and Quran so as to bring betterment and solutions to our lives. Lighten yourself- by the light of Quran and its understandings.

—The author writes on various issues and can be reached at: Kaleemgeelani11@gmail.com