(i) According to the Holy Qur'an only the purified ones shall touch it:

None shall touch it save the purified ones. (Surah al-Waqi'a, 56:79)

Hence, one should perform ablution before the recitation of this Divine Book.

(ii) Before reciting the Holy Qur'an we should invoke Allah's protection from the mischief of the Satan, Satan's diabolic whisperings, devilish activities and dispositions which prevent man to fill his soul with the impact of the Holy Qur'an:

When you recite the Qur'an, seek refuge in Allah from the mischiefs of Satan. (Surah al-Nahl, 16:98)

(iii) While reciting the Holy Qur'an, we should think as if Allah is directly addressing Himself to us. But it should not be so for memorizing it or quoting it in our speeches to arouse passion.

(iv) We should recite the Holy Qur'an in a way as it ought to be recited that is with clear pronunciation of words, in distinct manner, in good voice, with proper care of pauses and not in a hurriedly and unintelligible manner. As the Holy Qur'an says:

Recite the Qur'an distinctly. (Surah Muzzammil, 73 4)

(v) After reciting the Holy Qur'an one should ponder over the meaning also as the Holy Qur'an has objected to those who recite it as a formality just by hurriedly moving their lips without knowing the meaning. The Holy Qur'an says:

Do they not ponder over the Qur'an? (Surah an-Nisa, 4:82)

(vi) While reciting the Holy Qur'an, we should bear in mind the narrations of our infallible Imams about relevant verses of the Holy Qur'an as well as the background of the revelation of those particular verses as to the specific occasions so that we are not distracted from its true meaning and we do not deviate from our basic faith. We should not derive the incorrect meaning of the verse howsoever conservative or progressive it may be in outlook .

Reverting to Main Discussion: Our discussion was about the method of recognizing the signs of Prophethood and we have elaborately discussed the first method which was by means of the miracles of the Holy Prophets. Now we deal with second and third methods one by one.

The Second Method:

We can recognize the Prophets by their life, sayings, miracles and approaches. In this regard, we give an example:

When the two parties quarrel, the police takes them away to lock up and start questioning them in detail as an investigation and ask them:

1. Who are you?

2. Where did the quarrel take place?

3. When did the quarrel happen?

4. What happened then?

5. What did you say?

6. What did you do?

The investigator after making thorough inquiries knows the real facts.

Similarly we can recognize our Holy Prophet from the following inquiries:

1. Who was he?

2. Where did he live?

3. What sort of people visited him?

4. Who were the parties which opposed him?

5. How did he prove his point of view?

6. What was the basic thing he said?

7. Who were the people whom he trained?

The life history of our Holy Prophet appropriately answers the above-mentioned questions:

1. He was unlettered and trustworthy.

2. He was in the midst of the society which was the seat of idolatry, polytheism and dissension and where under the unfavourable and hostile atmosphere of illiteracy, superstitions and savagery he started his mission of inviting people to Allah.

3. He had with him such people as Lady Khadija, his beloved wife and Ali Ibn Abi Talib, his cousin brother, the two being the model of piety and devotion and who before the advent of Islam possessed high qualities of mind and soul.

4. His opponents were powerful, selfish, cruel and haughty.

5. He never deviated from his mission and remained steadfast despite tortures and deceit of the people. He carried out his mission with undaunted courage. He never promised for worldly things to the people in support of his message. Nor did he made any false claims.

6. He proved his point in the light of Divine revelations and preached the Divine commands as revealed by the Holy Qur'an.

7. He trained men like Salman, Abuzar and Miqdad to carry on his message.

Indeed, even if the Holy Prophet had not been endowed with miracles, his life, achievements and sincerity of purpose would have been enough to testify his truthfulness and the righteous cause he stood for.

The Third Method:

We can accept the sayings of the earlier Prophets as the third method of the recognition of the Holy Prophets. We can cite an example as follows:

Suppose I come to your house and claim that your house is actually my house and I am its owner and that the documents mention my name as the owner. The natural course against such a claim should be that you should take out the document and show to the people that nowhere in that document any claim is proved. If on the contrary you become excited, start quarrelling with me, spend money and are not prepared to disprove the claim of my ownership; what decision would the people give in this case? Is your failing to give the proof and quarrelling and suffering not the proof of my claim?

The Holy Prophet came and he claimed that he was the same Prophet whose name was mentioned in Taurat and Injil. The Jews fought the battles and the Christians sustained losses. If this thing had not been mentioned in Taurat and Injil, they would have defamed the Holy Prophet by claiming that his name was not mentioned in their Scriptures. But the enemies of Islam fought the battles against Islam and sustained heavy losses which proved that the name of Prophet of Islam was mentioned in the Scriptures but those people expunged that portion of the text from the Scriptures which contained the name of the Prophet of Islam.

Source: Lessons from Qur'an

By: Muhsin Qara'ati