Bismillāh ir Raḥmān ir Raḥīm
Today we posted Sūrat al Naḥl ~ the Bee, part of the 14th juz, today’s reading for this 14th day of Ramaḍān:
For the coming week, already up on the website are Sūrat al Kahf ~ the Cave, spanning parts of the 15th and 16th juz, Sūrat Maryam ~
Mary, from the 16th juz, and Al Naml ~ the Ant, from the 19th juz.
Sūrat al Naḥl ~ the Bee, covers a lot of ground. Much of the focus is on the importance of gratitude for the bounties and favors of Allāh
toward humanity that come to us through nature ~ from rain, to shade from the sun, graze for livestock, crops, various fruits, the seas and
the fish we may eat, to the milk produced by animals that we may consume.
Within this sūrah are specified the permitted and forbidden [ḥalāl and ḥarām] foods (verses 114-116), as well as the encomium to take
refuge in God from the rejected shayṭān before reciting any verses of the Qur’ān (verse 98).
Gratitude toward, and awe of, God and God’s creation are central themes of the Bee, along with the necessity to be generous,
to do good works, and to be honest with oneself and with others. These attributes form a good first approximation of the manifestations
of taqwā, variably translated here and by others as God consciousness, God fearing, or fear of God.
Of course when we become conscious of the truly incomprehensible majesty and power of Allāh, we are necessarily awestruck.
With this awe, for anyone who is aware, along with gratitude for our many blessings, invariably comes fear of that awesome power.
Waw Qaf Ya, the triliteral root of the word taqwā, occurs in various forms over two hundred fifty times in the Qur’ān. It appears at
the very beginning in the second verse of al Baqarah ~ the Cow, which declares the Qur’ān to be a book specifically intended
“for people of taqwā”.
Words formed from the wqy root for taqwā occur eight times in the Bee, from the second to the very last ayah, in fact the very
last word of the sūrah. As in al Baqarah ~ the Cow, the wqy root also appears in the second verse of the Bee, translated here
as “be conscious of Me.” It appears twice in verse 30, translated first as “fear God”, and the second time as “God conscious”.
In verse 31 it is translated as “pious”, and in verse 128 it is cast as “conscious of God”.
May reading this beautiful sūrah help us all to increase in taqwā, in consciousness of God during Ramaḍān and throughout our lives,
insha’Allāh.
With the completion of an Naḥl ~ the Bee, the 17 sūrāt now up on the site represent more than one sixth of the total ayāt al Qur’ān,
al ḥamdulillāh. Further good news ~ all of the previous display problems for all the sūrāt already posted should now be fixed, insha’Allāh.
Please let us know if you find this is not so.
Please keep this project in your prayers, as we keep you in ours.
Jazakum Allāhu khairan
~ Rasheed al Ḥajj Abū Muṭahhar, 14 Ramaḍān 1442
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