Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................ 7

Reminder................................................................................................................................ 11

Author's Note to the Turkish Edition................................................................................ 12

Statement of Purpose........................................................................................................... 14

What is the Qur'an? How is it defined? ...........................................................................  16

SURA AL-FATIHA ............................................................................................................  18

The Aims of the Qur'an................................................................................................. 19

Bismillâh........................................................................................................................... 21

Praise of Allâh ................................................................................................................  23

Worship ..........................................................................................................................  27

The Straight Path ...........................................................................................................  29

Good and Evil.................................................................................................................. 32

SURA AL-BAQARA ..........................................................................................................  36

Verse 1: The Disjointed Letters .........................................................................................  38

Verse 2: In Praise of the Qur'an.......................................................................................... 42

Verse 3: Characteristics of the Believers - Belief, salât, Zakât....................................... 48

Verse 4: Belief in the Revelation of the Qur'an

and Earlier Scriptures..................................................................................................... 54

Proofs of the Hereafter.................................................................................................. 59

Verse 5: The Right-Guidance of Revelation and its Fruits.............................................. 67

Verse 6: The Disbelievers.................................................................................................... 71

About Unbelief............................................................................................................... 73

Verse 7: The Sealing-up of the Disbelievers' Faculties.................................................... 79

Free Will and the Creation of Man's Actions............................................................. 80

Verse 8: The Dissemblers.................................................................................................... 90

Verses 9-10: Condemnation of the Dissemblers .............................................................. 95

Verses 11-12: The Dissemblers' Spreading of Corruption............................................. 103

Verse 13: The Dissemblers' Contempt for the Believers ............................................... 108

Verses 14-15: The Dissemblers' Fourth Crime: Mockery............................................... 113

Allâh's Punishment of the Dissemblers ...................................................................  117