From The Star
by Ahmed Sahi
Right now, during Ramadan, there are more than 1.6 billion Muslims on Earth fasting every day from sunrise to sunset.
While Ramadan is known for fasting, what many might be unaware of, is the other equally fundamental significance and focus of Ramadan is the Quran.
Ramadan is the month in which Muslims believe the revelation of the Quran — considered to be the verbatim Word of God — began. The Quran itself states as much and declares that Ramadan is a time during which recitation and study of the Quran should be emphasized.
That’s why all Muslims worldwide, including more than a million in Canada, are reading and pondering the Quran daily, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.
At a time when mistrust and suspicion of Muslims is as high as ever in Canada — caused by groups such as Daesh and the rise of radicalization — this might be as good a time as ever for Canadians to open up a Quran and see what their Muslim neighbours are studying so intently.
The Quran’s overarching declaration that “whosoever takes a life … it is as if he has killed all mankind” (Chapter 5, Verse 33), and that “there is no compulsion in matters of faith” (Chapter 2, Verse 257) lay the axe to every act of terror or forced conversion ever committed in the name of Islam, by the mullahs and their followers. These two verses alone, if stressed enough in the West, would greatly help to change the perception of Muslims and Islam, as well as fix the misconceptions of misguided Muslims, who take their cues more from the corrupt clerics than the Quran itself.
A lot of the misconceptions that persist in the West about Islam, spring from either attributing the violence and horror committed by terror groups to the Quran, which in reality, is due to a sheer lack of knowledge of the Quran’s contents.
For example, in a high-profile anti-Islam protest organized last year outside a mosque in Phoenix by a former Marine, he said the atrocities committed by groups such as ISIS, were based on direct statements “written in the Quran.”
