"Say, 'He, God, is One, God, the Eternally Sufficient unto Himself. He begets not; nor was He begotten. And none is like unto Him.'"
Quran,112:1-4
This is the entirety of surah 112, sometimes rendered as "Sincerity." As we know, almost uniformly the surahs get shorter as the Quran progresses (with the obvious exception of the first surah) so, naturally enough, the 112th out of 114 surahs would be very brief. As Nasr tells us, "This surah is second only to Surah 1, al-Fatihah, in Muslim devotional life and is often recited in both canonical and supererogatory prayers as well as supplication (dua)." Not surprisingly, scrawled across the top of this surah in my Study Quran is the line, "g - learn this in Arabic after surah 1, al-Fatihah." It is very straightforward, although the meaning itself is profound. The Prophet was supposed to have said that this surah was the equivalent of one third of the Quran because the central message of the Oneness of God is so essential to Islam. Oh, and I have learned this one in Arabic, sort of, although my Arabic is brutal and an affront to the entire language. It should sound like this. Truthfully, there is no excuse for my wretchedly bad Arabic and my failure to master the basic prayers and recitations other than some combination of fear/laziness/incompetence. I will try and do better.
Quran,112:1-4
This is the entirety of surah 112, sometimes rendered as "Sincerity." As we know, almost uniformly the surahs get shorter as the Quran progresses (with the obvious exception of the first surah) so, naturally enough, the 112th out of 114 surahs would be very brief. As Nasr tells us, "This surah is second only to Surah 1, al-Fatihah, in Muslim devotional life and is often recited in both canonical and supererogatory prayers as well as supplication (dua)." Not surprisingly, scrawled across the top of this surah in my Study Quran is the line, "g - learn this in Arabic after surah 1, al-Fatihah." It is very straightforward, although the meaning itself is profound. The Prophet was supposed to have said that this surah was the equivalent of one third of the Quran because the central message of the Oneness of God is so essential to Islam. Oh, and I have learned this one in Arabic, sort of, although my Arabic is brutal and an affront to the entire language. It should sound like this. Truthfully, there is no excuse for my wretchedly bad Arabic and my failure to master the basic prayers and recitations other than some combination of fear/laziness/incompetence. I will try and do better.
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