The Qur'an, Source of Guidance: Holding Fast to the Rope of God

M. Fethullah Gülen · Manisa, 25 June 1976 · First sermon of the series "In the Golden Climate of the Qur'an"

A Qur'an in the finest corner of the house, tucked inside an embroidered cover... We revere it. But do we read it, understand it, carry it into our lives? Delivered in Manisa in the summer of 1976, this sermon asks exactly that: what does it mean to truly possess the Qur'an?

This post follows the video above, section by section. The main text is for everyone; comparisons, key terms and sources sit in the expandable boxes.

I — Lā rayba fīh

In it there is no doubt

The sermon opens with two words from the beginning of Sūrat al-Baqarah: "Lā rayba fīh" — in it there is no doubt. The Qur'an receives its first confirmation from God; then the Prophet who brought it, the events that unfold over time, and the advancing sciences all bear witness to the same book.

Hocaefendi's point is this: even if you do not know its language or have an ear for its style, there are aspects of the Qur'an you too will grasp, and you will say, "This is the Word of God." In that sense, you too can say "lā rayba fīh."

II — Hudan li'l-muttaqīn

There is guidance, but for the God-conscious

This book, free of all doubt, is also a source of guidance. Yet the verse sets a condition: "Hudan li'l-muttaqīn" — guidance for the God-conscious. The spring is open to all; drawing from it depends on the state of the one who comes.

If the Qur'an stays hanging in a case at home, it will not guide you. Whether it saves you depends on whether you hold on to it.

III — Hablullāh

A rusty nail, or the mind and heart?

The Qur'an is Hablullāh, the Rope of God: one end in God's hand, the other in ours. Whoever holds fast to it rises to happiness. But what the rope is tied to matters.

If at home it hangs from a nail, then that rope is tied to a rusty nail, not to your heart. When you do not understand its meaning, you reduce it to a mere prayer book. Only when its meaning has been laid open in your mind and it has found a place in your heart can you truly be said to hold on to it.

IV — Umar and the word "abb"

Days of anguish over a single word

The Qur'an's first community longed eagerly to understand every matter in it. A single point they could not grasp was enough to rob them of appetite and sleep for days.

How little a person knows! I cannot grasp the meaning of "abb" in a way that sets my heart at rest.

Umar (may God be pleased with him), from the pulpit

The distress Umar felt over this word from Sūrat ʿAbasa — "abb," usually understood as pasture or fodder — is the measure of a true relationship with the Qur'an. They lingered over every word for days, dissected each one, and saw its light. In Hocaefendi's words: the Qur'an is your book only as much as it was Umar's.

V — Open it, look, understand

What lies within it, in its depths?

The sermon's call is simple: open it, look, understand. Strive to reach the awareness and the spirit it brings; examine every question under the light it sheds; and, stepping away from the murky air, from human darkness and the smoke of desire, seek to grasp it in its own pure world.

For within it is a stirring that leads a person to Paradise, a fervor that leads to God, and in its nature and its loftiness, light, mystery and happiness. The individual who holds fast to it finds happiness; the family that holds fast finds happiness as a family; the community that holds fast finds happiness.

VI — Truly possessing the Qur'an

Do you possess it as fully as your newspaper?

A community that thinks it stands by the Qur'an, yet still hangs it on the walls of its homes, never opens it to look inside, never reads the genuine commentaries... Here Hocaefendi speaks plainly, adding "let no one take offense": such a community does not possess the Qur'an.

His yardstick comes from everyday life: you know your newspaper's columnists and what they wrote in which month and season. If you do not read and follow the Qur'an as closely as that paper, if you do not know it well enough to explain it to others as easily as you eat bread and cheese, then you do not possess the Qur'an.

VII — The crisis of seven hundred million

When was the Qur'an ever truly our book, that we should have fallen behind?

In those days a Muslim world of five, six, seven hundred million was paying the price of being scattered, restless and deprived of happiness. For Hocaefendi, bringing back an age of light and happiness, reviving the era when the Qur'an was truly guidance, depends on turning toward it.

To the question "Why are we behind when the Qur'an is our book?" he answers with a question of his own: When did we ever understand its meaning, when did we carry out the striving, the learning and the reflection it commands, and still fall behind? A Qur'an we did not stand by let go of us; the West, meanwhile, advanced to the extent that it drew on it. The fault is ours.

VIII — Repentance: a return to the Qur'an

Not lip service, but a return

Repenting of this fault is not just saying "Astaghfirullah" ("I seek God's forgiveness"). A lip-service repentance for the fault of abandoning the Qur'an itself needs repenting; that plea for forgiveness itself needs forgiveness, and so on in an endless chain.

The repentance for breaking away from the Qur'an is to return to the Qur'an: you will come back, open it, read what the great renewers have written about it, and understand.

IX — Two books: multaqā al-baḥrayn

You will deepen within and open outward

The sermon speaks of two books: the Qur'an, the book of revelation and a wellspring of mysteries, and the book of the universe, a compendium of systems and galaxies. Where the two meet is multaqā al-baḥrayn, the meeting of the two seas: the place where the inner and outer waves come face to face, lip to lip.

Whoever understands this meeting deepens within and opens outward. But these things are understood only by reading.

X — We hold on as much as we love

Guidance comes in proportion to devotion

People will hold on to the Qur'an only as much as to the newspaper they read and follow, and to the Prophet only as much as to the party and political leader they admire. When that measure changes, the Prophet, Master of the Universe, will take his place among the beloved, and our sacred book its place in our hearts.

The whole sermon comes down to one sentence: our guidance, our becoming God-conscious, will be in proportion to our devotion to the Qur'an, which admits no doubt or suspicion.

The final horizon

Justice, excellence, and a banner on the horizon

The sermon closes with the ninetieth verse of Sūrat al-Naḥl. God commands justice: living honestly, thinking honestly, acting honestly, and living the Qur'an, itself an honest order. He commands iḥsān, excellence: worshipping Him as though you see Him, sensing His presence behind every event. And spending our wealth so that Islam may rise like a banner on our horizon. He also warns against every form of indecency, excess and defiance.

May you find, among a tangle of crooked paths, the one straight path: the way of the Qur'an.

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