The objective of the essay is to explore the five major themes contained in the Quran.

This will be
achieved through an exploration of different Quran Suras and verses. The five themes have been
derived from the Sura of Mary, the Sura of the Prophets and the Sura of Counsel. The significant issues
of the Holy Quran are God, prophets, man, divine scriptures, and sin.

The first major theme of the Quran is God, also referred to as Allah (Madigan 82). According to the
teachings of The Quran, there is no other God other than Allah, the mighty and the highest (Madigan
80). God in the Quran has been regarded as compassionate and merciful to humankind.

God is merciful to man, and as such, man has the obligation of serving God. As noted in The Quran, God
is “the mighty, the wise, inspire thee and those before thee “(42:1). The implication is that God is wise,
mighty and inspires man through His creation. Also, He is the highest in addition to being above what is
found on the earth and in heaven. Moreover, God watches over those who stand beside Him.

He is kind and compassionate. He forgives man from his sins. This observation is supported by the Sura
of Counsel as contained in The Quran which states that “God is kind to His servants; He provides whom
He will, and He is the mighty, the glorious” (The Quran 42:18). God created both heaven and others, and
as a result, he is above all his creations. God also created day and night and gave man the power and will
to differentiate good from evil (The Quran 21: 34).

The second theme of the pillar is God has given that man free will and choice. The presence of God in
man’s life gives it meaning, both personally and collectively. A man was created by God, who has
endowed him with free choice. According to The Quran, God watches over man and forgives man from
his sins (The Quran 42:3). The Quran teachings go ahead to explain that God “answers the prayer of
those who believe and do right, and gives them increase of His grace; but the misbelievers, – for them is
keen torment” (The Quran 42: 25).

This implies that the man who believes in God does the right thing and prays to God. In turn, God
answers the prayers of such a man. Also, God shares his blessings with such a man. However, a
nonbeliever faces the wrath of God for his sins. This is because man has been given the free will, choice,
and the ability to differentiate good from evil.

Furthermore, God’s mercy on man is shown through Zachariah who was given a child at old age and
with his barren wife (The Koran 19:1). Therefore, whereas God remembers man all the time, on the
other hand, a man remembers God only when he is in need. A man who believes in God and lives by his
teaching and remains a loyal servant like Zachariah is endowed with God’s grace.

The third theme of the Quran is the prophets. Based on the teachings of the Holy Quran, God speaks to
the man through the Holy Scriptures as envisioned by early prophets like Muhammad. The prophets
reside besides God, and they are found on earth and in heaven (The Quran 21:22). An excellent example
of the prophets is Muhammad. Another proclaimed prophet was Abraham (The Quran 19:42), the father
of all nations and humankind.

Others include Moses, Ismail, Idris, and Aaron, among others. According to the Holy Quran, Mary was
able to conceive by receiving a breath from the prophets, “And she (Mary) who guarded her private
parts, and we breathed into her of our Spirit, and we made her and her son a sign unto the worlds” (The
Quran 21:19). This means that Mary was able to give birth to a son through the power of the prophets
who breathed their holy spirit on her. Prophets have lifted so many people, according to the Holy Quran.

At the end of times, prophets will drag men and devils around hell, and they shall be answerable to God
on judgment day (The Quran 19:70). The presence of prophets is shown through a messenger to Mary.
The divine scriptures state that “I am only a messenger of thy Lord to bestow on thee a pure boy” (The
Koran 19:19). This implies Mary bore a child through the will of God and this was communicated
through a prophet.

The fourth pillar of the Quran is sin or evil. God gave man free will and the choice to differentiate evil
from good. Because of their sin, men will be dragged in hell and brought on their knees (19:70). The Holy
Quran speaks of the theme of evil (sin) which is personified by Iblis or Satan (Madigan 82).

Satan disobeyed God, and since then he has remained the most significant rival to man. Besides, Satan is
always encouraging man to disobey God. Wickedness is drawn from Satan’s strength which compels a
man to sin. However, because God is merciful, he forgives and pardons the sins committed by man (The
Quran 42:24). According to the teaching from the Holy Quran, God pardons those who have sinned
against him and rewards those who do well.

The Quran warns the man to be on guard of the Iblis since he is always on the trail of the man. The
prophets reside on earth to protect man and save the believers from the evil and evildoers (21:87-88).
As a result, man is kept away from sin.

The fifth and last theme of the Quran is divine scriptures. The Quran contains sacred scriptures which
were revealed to Prophet Muhammad through God (Allah). The religious scriptures assist man in
keeping close to God and preventing him from sinning. The divine scriptures act as a guide to man,
thereby aiding him to operate following the will of God. God’s mercy and the work of the prophets are
proclaimed through divine scriptures.

The Quran state that, “God it is who has sent down the Book with truth and the balance” (The Quran
42:16). In this context, the “Book” is used to refer to the Holy Quran which contains the divine scriptures
as revealed to Muhammad by Allah. The sacred scriptures act as a guide to man through God’s power.

TADVIN-E-QURAN =COMPILATION OF QURAAN

The journey of the Quran, which began to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad during the month of
Ramadan in 610, in its original form to the present day is a characteristic that none of the previous
sacred books have.

The companions of Prophet Muhammad, who were great people, played an important role in the
compilation of the Quran, leaving an interesting story behind.

12 People

During the 23 years of Muhammad's time as a prophet, the verses of the Quran were memorized as they
were revealed, and about 42 scribes wrote the verses on different materials such as paper, cloth, bone
fragments and leather.

In ancient times, literacy was a skill that few people had and Muhammad himself did not know how to
read or write.

During the time of Caliph Abu Bakr, when 70 people who knew the Quran by heart (qari), were killed in
the Battle of Yamama, Umar ibn al-Khattab became concerned and appealed to Abu Bakr in order to
compile the Quran into a book.

Abu Bakr formed a delegation under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit, one of the leading scribes.

This delegation of 12 people, including famous figures such as Uthman ibn Affan, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Talha
ibn Ubaydullah, Abdullah ibn Masood, Ubayy ibn Kab, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Hudhaifah and Saleem, came
together in Umar's house and collected all the materials on which verses from the Quran were written.

In addition, the verses memorized by the companions were heard as well. Each of them was asked to
show two witnesses for the verse they read.

Mushaf

Thus, all the verses of the Quran that describe the creation of the universe and people, judgment day,
exemplary stories of the people who lived before and the beliefs, worship, morals and legal bases that
believers should obey were collected together into a single-volume book. Each of the verses was taught
by the archangel Gabriel and declared by Prophet Muhammad. The verse is the name given to each
sentence of the Quran and the surah is the name given to each part of the holy book. There are 6,236
verses, 114 surahs and about 323,000 letters in the Quran.

Saeed ibn al-Aas, who was renowned for the beauty of his handwriting, wrote them down on gazelle
skin. The writing used was the Arabic script of the time, which was already old and used commonly at
that time in Hejaz.

The companions reached a consensus that this writing, which was used by Prophet Ismail in Hejaz, is the
writing of Muslims.

The copy of the Quran was recited to the companions at a general meeting. There was no objection. So,
a book called "mushaf" emerged, which means written verses.

A total of 33,000 companions agreed that every letter of the Quran was in the right place. Then this
mushaf was sent to Umar ibn al-Khattab. After his death, this book passed on to Hazrat Hafsah, the
daughter of Umar and a wife of Prophet Muhammad.

Dialect of Quraysh

A difference was observed in the recitation of the Quran in the Armenia battles between Muslims from
Damascus and Iraq during the period of the third caliph, Uthman.

Hudhaifah, one of the companions, went before the caliph on his way back from an expedition and
asked him to prevent this.

On the 25th year of the hijra (647), Uthman gathered a delegation attended by Abdullah ibn al-Zubair,
Saeed ibn al-Aas and Abd al-Rahman ibn Harith under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit. All of them,
except for Zaid, were from Quraysh. Uthman said that the dialect of Quraysh should be preferred if they
were to fall into conflict with Zaid regarding the dialect, since Muhammad was from the Quraysh tribe.
The Quran had been revealed in seven dialects of the Arabic language of the time.

The first Muslims who were literate could easily read the writing of their own language, but somewhat
differently, since at the time the Arabic script did not have diacritical marks to differentiate letters or
vowel symbols.

For example, those from the Tameem tribe pronounced the letter "sin" as "te" and read the word "nas"
as "nat." It was diverse and convenient, and did not change the meaning.

The delegation brought the original mushaf from Hafsah. In this mushaf, the surahs were not separated
from each other. The surahs were sorted according to the order of their descent in Ali's manuscript and
according to their lengths in the manuscript of Abdullah ibn Masood.

Now the verses were written in the Quraysh dialect. The surahs were arranged in rows, separated from
each other regarding their length and alignment with each other. The order of the surahs was not based
on the order the archangel Gabriel gave them to Prophet Muhammad, but on the consensus of the
companions.
The old copies were destroyed to prevent future conflicts. Because of this, there are some Shia sects
that accusing Uthman of changing the Quran.

From the new copy, some mushafs were also written on parchment and sent to different places such as
Bahrain, Damascus, Basra, Kufa, Yemen and Mecca, accompanied by a qari. There are also rumors that
copies were sent to Egypt and Jazeera.

The copy that stayed with the caliph was called al-Mushaf al-Imam (the head mushaf). There is no
difference between the mushafs recited around the world today since they were all copied from original
copies.

Thus, the Quran was written during Muhammad's lifetime, while its compilation was done during the
caliphate of Abu Bakr and it was copied during the caliphate of Uthman.

Uthman also established special schools for the correct recitation and writing of the Quran. During the
caliphate of Ali, saw the introduction of diacritical marks. During the time of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-
Malik, vowel marks were also added.

Since then, countless Muslims have memorized the Quran. In the month of Ramadan, the entire Quran
is recited in the Tarawih prayer at the Kaaba. Even the slightest mistake can stand out to Muslims who
know it well from all around the world.