The Marvelous QurꜤān Project is for Muslims who are critical thinkers: They are evidence-based learners who want to see a better future for mankind.

We invite you to be part of a historic change that is taking place: Focusing on the QurꜤān as the primary source for engaging and understanding the QurꜤān.

There is a major problem in our existing books of Tafseer (exegesis): They all mis-identified the true nature of QurꜤān!

So, what is the QurꜤān? 

    o   If the QurꜤān is comparable to a piece of literature, like a collection of poems, then knowledge is contained within it!

    o   If, on the other hand, the QurꜤān is a communication instrument (as we assert and demonstrate in our videos and publications), then knowledge comes to you live, directly from its creator, Allahh, the living lord of the universe. In this case,  understanding the QurꜤān can NOT be derived exclusively from its composition, and no one should claim to have "a tafseer" (exegesis) of the  QurꜤān, because instruments may not be dealt with in that way!

    o   Unfortunately, all books of Tafseer misidentified the nature of the QurꜤān, treating it as if it were similar to a collection of poetry, thereby assuming that the words and expressions of the QurꜤān need explanation using the traditional Arab poets' language.

As a result of the above mis-identification, existing books of Tafseer (exegesis) made five critical mistakes about the nature and uniqueness of the QurꜤān:

    1. They did not realize that the unique QurꜤān contains its own organic QurꜤānic methodology for engaging it; something Allahh named the term “As-Ṣiraaṭ-ul-Mustaqeem”, or "the methodology for self-correction!"

    2. They did not understand the central importance of Dhikr (QurꜤānic stories and parables); something the QurꜤān clearly stresses in dozens of ayats!

    3. They allowed themselves to use reports from corrupted versions of earlier scriptures (the Torah and the Injeel) to interpret the QurꜤānic stories and parables; something the QurꜤān clearly prohibits us from doing!

    4. They relied on the locution of the Arab poets; something the QurꜤān clearly prohibits us from doing!

    5. They allowed transmitted narrations to restrict the interpretation of the QurꜤān, holding such narrations as dominant over the  QurꜤān itself. And therefore, they fell victim to a serious form of shirk: Associating with Allahh sources of proclaimed authoritativeness taken from his creation.

The fact that there are lots of inconsistencies in the existing, traditional interpretations of the QurꜤān is not a problem that we created, nor is it a problem that we were the first to discover. 

If sincere, every serious Muslim scholar would admit that there is such a problem, because they all see the superficiality in some interpretations, especially the excessive mythology allowed into the books of Tafseer, and the extensive disagreements among various interpreters. And even though they all know and understand this problem, they could not expose it because they had no solution to offer. They were avoiding the possibility of confusing the masses of Muslims, or the appearance of being critical of earlier generations of Muslim scholars.

Unfortunately, some people went further, proceeding to silence any attempt by any individual to engage the QurꜤān directly. Historically, some of these attempts were sinister in nature, and were motivated by political, financial, personal, discriminatory, or dogmatic reasons. However, many Muslims today continue to suppress any attempt at reinterpreting the QurꜤān because they think, wrongly, that they are defending the QurꜤān and the true tradition of our beloved Muhammad (PBUH). Many Muslims still erroneously claim that only the salaf (i.e., the first three or four generations of Muslims) are qualified to know the truth about the QurꜤān. When they do this, these suppressors appear to be trying to silence Allahh in favor of listening to the opinions of people who died over 1200 years ago. 

We believe that Allahh is the living god, and that he relates to his creation in any way, and at any time he chooses. And therefore, we believe that Allahh communicates with every one of his creatures, even those who misrepresent him as a silent god.

Yes, our scholarly tradition suffers major shortcomings, but this DOES NOT mean that we should throw away our traditional books or history. To the contrary, we advocate that our tradition must be preserved, if nothing else, for maintain a record of the mistakes that have been made.

It is naïve to think that everything in our tradition is pure and perfect

When we talk about scholars who misinterpreted the QurꜤān:

-          We do not mean every one of our great scholars

-          We do not name names

-          We do not ascribe bad intentions to specific scholars, even as we do not hold them to a sacred status! Allahh knows better what their intentions were!

-          We ask for mercy and forgiveness for them, even as we explicitly disagree with, and even disparage some of their interpretations.

We believe it is anti-Islamic to force upon Muslims the opinions of a group of dead people, from a certain specific time period, claiming that they knew the truth and that no one else in history could formulate better interpretations of the QurꜤān, or closer relationship with Allahh.

The Marvelous Quran Project not only identifies the problem described above: We also offer a solution! We restrict our interpretations to a QurꜤānic methodology that is organic, i.e., based exclusively on instructions from the QurꜤān. Every Muslim scholar in history agrees that the best way to interpret the QurꜤān is to refer to the QurꜤān itself as its own authoritative reference.

This basic idea of needing a methodology for interpreting the QurꜤān was discussed before by some enlightened scholars. But before our research, no QurꜤānic methodology has been formally defined, published, or applied. 

Every video and publication in this Marvelous QurꜤān Project serve:

-          To illustrate one or more aspects of the central problem identified above, and/or

-          To provide one or more examples of how we apply the QurꜤānic methodology we extracted from within the QurꜤān, to allow ourselves to receive the guidance from our lord.

We believe that a historic shift is taking place, within the Muslim Ummah today: We call it the divinely-granted human right to directly engage the QurꜤān. With the Internet and the wide availability of knowledge, accessible to every Muslim, people are taking matters into their own hands. They are no longer waiting for parroting scholars, and the proverbial “genie” is out of the box. And therefore, we need to provide a clear solution to empower those who are searching, on their own, for answers to their legitimate and sincere questions.

This is what the Marvelous QurꜤān Project seeks to do. We want to support the God-given right for every individual to engage the QurꜤān, directly, and without permission from anyone except Allahh.

Most contemporary Muslims face five basic problems in their engagement of the QurꜤān:

1. Language barrier.

2. Weird interpretations and translations that do not make sense.

3. Contradicting / misleading / incongruent translations.

4. Mythological, Fairy tale like tafseers that offend the intellect and cater only to the superstitious and the uneducated.

5. Asbabun-nuzul: A gathering of stories that are claimed to be the reasons for revelation of various verses of the QUraꜤān..

 

We don’t have answers to every question, nor does anyone other than Allah, the creator of the QurꜤān. But this should not stop us from sharing our limited knowledge, hoping to allow future generations to carry the flag further down afield. We should never allow perfect to become the enemy of good, as long as we keep our humility, and we keep our servitude exclusively to Allahh.

We do not claim to guide anyone. Allahh is the only true guide to his true way.

We do not seek blind followers or reliant fans. We encourage viewers and followers to constantly ask questions and to persistently seek legitimate evidence to verify our claims and to take responsibility for their own decisions.

Our only goal is to please Allahh in all that we do.

We hope that our work is accepted by Allahh, and we hope that you will find our videos and publications educational and helpful to you on your own journey to continue receiving direct guidance from Allahh.

Enjoy the journey with us! Welcome to As-Ṣarḥ!

- Hany