Post by pieter on Jun 18, 2006 5:25:18 GMT -7
Islam
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Islam (Arabic: al-isl?m listen) is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Muhammad as recorded in the Qur'an. Muslims believe Muhammad to have been God's (Arabic: All?h) final prophet.
It is the second-largest religion in the world, with a total of about 1.2–1.3 billion adherents.
Followers of Islam are known as Muslims. Like Judaism, Christianity and the Bahá'í Faith, Islam is considered an Abrahamic religion. By both religious conversion and military conquest, Islam rapidly expanded under the leadership of Muhammad and his successors in the 7th and 8th centuries. Muslims may be found all over the world today, concentrated especially in West Asia, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Etymology
In Arabic, Islam derives from the triconsonantal root S?n-L?m-M?m, with a basic meaning of "to surrender". Islam is an abstract nominal derived from this root, and literally means "submission to 'The God' (Allah)". Other Arabic words derived from the same root include:
- Salaam, meaning "peace", also part of a common salutation, assalamu alaikum ("peace be upon you").
- Muslim, an agentive noun meaning "one who submits [to God]".
- Salamah, meaning "safety", also used in the common farewell ma' as-salamah ("[go] with safety").
- Islam (with a short "a" vowel) also means "I submit", since the addition of a hamza to the beginning of the triliteral root, followed by the first two consonants, a short vowel, and the final consonant, is the first-person singular imperfect tense in Arabic. (For example, from S?n-Kãf-N?n, the word "'askun" means "I live".)
Beliefs
The basic tenet of Islam is found in the shah?dat?n ("two testimonies"): l? il?h? ill?-ll?hu; muhammadun-r-ras?lu-ll?h — "There is no deity worthy of worship other than God (Allah) and Muhammad is a messenger of God (Allah)."
Muslims believe that God revealed his direct word for humanity to Muhammad (c. 570–632) and earlier prophets, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last prophet, based on extrapolation from the Qur'anic phrase "Seal of the Prophets", and that his teachings for humanity will last until the Day of the Resurrection. Muslims assert that the main written record of revelation to humanity is the Qur'an, which they believe to be flawless, immutable, and the final revelation of God to humanity.
Muslims hold that Islam is essentially the same belief as that of all the messengers sent by God to humanity since Adam, with the Qur'an, the text used by all sects of the Muslim faith, codifying the final revelation of God. Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as derivations of the teachings of Abraham, and the Qur'an calls Jews and Christians (and sometimes people of other faiths) "People of the Book". However, Muslims believe that these other faiths have distorted the word of God by deliberately altering words in meaning, form and placement in their respective holy texts, such as Jews changing the Hebrew Bible and Christians the New Testament. This is considered by Muslims to be what necessitated the revealing of the Qur'an to Muhammad, in order to correct the distortion in the other Abrahamic religions. This perceived distortion of the Bible is known as tahrif, or tabd?l, meaning "alteration, substitution". This doctrine is accepted by most Muslims; only a few relatively small sects, such as Mu'tazili and Ismaili, as well as a few Islamic scholars and members of various liberal movements within Islam, reject the view that the Qur'an is a correction of Jewish and Christian scriptures.
Tenets
The two largest Muslim subgroups are the Sunni and the Shi'a. Sunni Muslims make up the largest percentage of Muslims overall, although large majorities of Shi'a Muslims are found in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Iraq. However, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, Sunni Muslims are in the majority.
Many Muslims, however, do not like to label themselves as from any of the denominations listed above. These Muslims believe that the following extract from the Qur'an bans the formation of sects within Islam, and therefore classify themselves as simply "Muslims".
As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with God. He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did. (6:159)
Sunni Islam's fundamental tenets are referred to as the Five Pillars of Islam,2 while Shi'a Islam has slightly different terminology, encompassing five core beliefs known as the Roots of Religion, and ten core practices known as the Branches of Religion. All Muslims agree on the following five basic obligations for believers, which Sunnis term the "Five Pillars of Islam" and Shi'a Muslims would consider to be elements of the Roots of Religion and the Branches of Religion:
-Shah?dah: Testifying that there is none worthy of worship except God (Tawhid) and that Muhammad is his servant and messenger (Nubuwwah). The profession of faith in Allah.
-Salat: Performing the five daily prayers. These are carried out while facing Mecca.
-Sawm: Fasting from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan.
-Zak?t: Giving alms (Zakaah).
-Hajj: The Pilgrimage to Mecca during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, which is compulsory once in a lifetime for one who has the ability to do it.
Shi'a and Sunni also agree on the following beliefs, although they classify them differently: adl, the justice of God; qiyamah, the Day of Resurrection; Amr-Bil-Ma'r?f, commanding what is good; Nahi-Anil-Munkar, forbidding what is evil; and Al Jihad fi sabilillah, striving to seek God's approval.
Distinctive Shi'a beliefs, not held by the Sunni, include khums, paying the tax on profit, and imamah, leadership—the belief in the divinely-appointed and divinely-guided imamate of Ali and some of his descendants.
Other important beliefs which are not regarded as the being included in the Five Pillars include belief in the Angels (mala'ika), belief in life after death (including heaven, jannah, and hell, jahannam), and belief in Fate (qadar). Muslims also believe in all the prophets (nabi) and messengers (rasul) sent by God, while making no distinction between them—i.e., one is not better than another. Lastly, all Muslims believe in the holy books (kutub) sent by God, which include the Suhuf-i-Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham), the Tawrat (Torah) sent to Musa (Moses), the Zabur (Psalms) sent to Daud (David), the Injil (Gospel) sent to Isa (Jesus), and the Qur'an sent to Muhammad.
The Muslim creed in English is:
"I testify that there is no god but God Almighty, Who is One (and only One) and there is no associate with Him; and I testify that Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him), is His Messenger."
"I believe in God; and in His Angels; and in His Scriptures; and in His Messengers; and in The Final Day; and in Fate, that All things are from God, and Resurrection after death be Truth."
God
The fundamental concept in Islam is the Oneness of God (tawhid). This monotheism is absolute, not relative or pluralistic in any sense of the word. God is described in Sura al-Ikhlas, (chapter 112) as follows:
Say "He is God, the One and Only. God, the Eternal, Absolute the Self-Sufficient master. He begetteth not, nor is he begotten. And there is none like unto Him."
In Arabic, God is called All?h. The word is etymologically connected to ?il?h "deity", All?h is also the word used by Christian and Jewish Arabs, translating ho theos of the New Testament and Septuagint; it predates Muhammad and in its origin does not specify a "God" different from the one worshipped by Judaism and Christianity, the other Abrahamic religions.
The name "Allah" shows no plural or gender. In Islam "Allah" Almighty as the Qur’an says:
"(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things)" (42:11).
The implicit usage of the definite article in Allah linguistically indicates the divine unity. Muslims believe that the God they worship is the same God of Abraham. Muslims reject the Christian theology concerning the trinity of God (the doctrine of the Trinity which regards Jesus as the eternal Son of God), seeing it as akin to polytheism. Quoting from the Qur'an, sura An-Nisa(4:171):
"O People of the Scripture! Do not transgress the limits of your religion, and do not say about God except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and His word that He had sent to Mary, and a revelation from Him. Therefore, you shall believe in GOD and His messengers. You shall not say, "Trinity". You shall refrain from this for your own good. God is only one God. Be He glorified; He is much too glorious to have a son. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. God suffices as Lord and Master."
No Muslim visual images or depictions of God are meant to exist because such artistic depictions may lead to idolatry and are thus disdained. Such aniconism can also be found in Judeo-Christian theology. Moreover, most Muslims believe that God is incorporeal, making any two- or three- dimensional depictions impossible. Instead, Muslims describe God by His many Names and Attributes. All but one Sura (chapter) of the Qur'an begins with the phrase "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful". These are regarded as the most important divine attributes, at least in the sense that Muslims repeat them most frequently during their prayers (salat) and throughout their daily lives.
The Qur'an
The Qur'an is the sacred book of Islam. It has also been called, in English, "the Koran" and (archaically) "the Alcoran". Qur'an is the currently preferred English transliteration of the Arabic original (?); it means “recitation”. Although the Qur'an is referred to as a "book", when a Muslim refers to the Qur'an, they are referring to the actual text, the words, rather than the printed work itself.
Muslims believe that the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and up till his death in 632. In addition to memorizing his revelations, his followers are said to have written them down on parchments, stones, and leaves.
Muslims hold that the Qur'an available today is the same as that revealed to Muhammad and by him to his followers, who memorized and wrote down his words. Scholars generally accept that the version of the Qur'an used today was first compiled in writing by the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, sometime between 650 and 656. He sent copies of his version to the various provinces of the new Muslim empire, and directed that all variant copies be destroyed. However, some skeptics doubt the recorded oral traditions (hadith) on which this account is based, and will concede only that the Qur'an must have been compiled before 750.
There are numerous traditions, and many conflicting academic theories, as to the provenance of the Qur'anic verses that were eventually assembled into a single volume. (This is covered in greater detail in Qur'an). Most Muslims accept the account recorded in several hadith, which state that Abu Bakr, The First Caliph, ordered his personal secretary Zayd ibn Thabit to collect and record all the authentic verses of the Qur'an, as preserved in written form or oral tradition. Zayd's written collection, privately treasured by Muhammad's wife Hafsa bint Umar, was, according to Muslim sources, later used by Uthman and is thus the basis of today's Qur'an.
Uthman's version, organized the suras roughly in order of length (excepting the brief opening sura Al-Fatiha), with the longest suras at the start of the Qur'an and the shortest ones at the end. More conservative views state that the order of most suras was divinely set. Later scholars have struggled to put the suras in chronological order, and at least among Muslim commentators, there is a rough consensus as to which suras were revealed in Mecca and which at Medina, with distinctive characteristics observed within these two subgroups. Some suras (e.g. surat Iqra) are thought to have been revealed in parts at separate times.
To understand the notion of "variants" within the received Qur'anic text, one must understand that Arabic had not yet fully developed as a written language. The Qur'an was first recorded in written form (date uncertain) in the Hijazi, Mashq, Ma'il, and Kufic scripts; these scripts write consonants only and do not supply vowels. (Imagine an English text that wrote the word 'bed' as "BD," and required the reader to infer, from context, that the reference was to "bed" - and not to 'bad" or "bide.") Because there were differing oral traditions of recitation as non-native Arabic speakers converted to Islam, there was some disagreement as to the exact reading of many (vowel-free) verses. Eventually, scripts were developed that used diacritical markings (known as points) to indicate the vowels. For hundreds of years after Uthman's recension, Muslim scholars argued as to the correct pointing and reading of Uthman's (unpointed) official text. [5] Eventually, most commentators accepted seven variant readings (qira'at) of the Qur'an as canonical, while agreeing that the differences among the seven are minor and do not affect the meaning of the text.
The Qur'an early became a focus of Muslim devotion and eventually a subject of theological controversy among skeptics. In the 8th century, the Mu'tazilis claimed that the Qur'an was created in time and was not eternal. Their opponents, of various schools, claimed that the Qur'an was eternal and perfect, existing in heaven before it was revealed to Muhammad. The Ashari theology (which ultimately became predominant) held that the Qur'an was uncreated.
Most Muslims regard paper copies of the Qur'an with extreme veneration, wrapping them in a clean cloth, keeping them on a high shelf, and washing as for prayers before reading the Qur'an. Old Qur'ans are not destroyed as wastepaper, but buried in soil.
Most Muslims memorize for personal contact at least some portion of the Qur'an in the original language. Those who have memorized the entire Qur'an are known as hafiz (plural huffaz). This is not a rare achievement; it is believed that there are millions of huffaz that are alive today.
From the beginning of the faith, most Muslims believed that the Qur'an was perfect only as revealed in Arabic. Translations were the result of human effort and human fallibility, as well as lacking the inspired poetry believers find in the Qur'an. Translations are therefore only commentaries on the Qur'an, or "interpretations of its meaning", not the Qur'an itself. Many modern, printed versions of the Qur'an feature the Arabic text on one page, and a vernacular translation on the facing page.
For further reading go to the link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Islam (Arabic: al-isl?m listen) is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Muhammad as recorded in the Qur'an. Muslims believe Muhammad to have been God's (Arabic: All?h) final prophet.
It is the second-largest religion in the world, with a total of about 1.2–1.3 billion adherents.
Followers of Islam are known as Muslims. Like Judaism, Christianity and the Bahá'í Faith, Islam is considered an Abrahamic religion. By both religious conversion and military conquest, Islam rapidly expanded under the leadership of Muhammad and his successors in the 7th and 8th centuries. Muslims may be found all over the world today, concentrated especially in West Asia, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Etymology
In Arabic, Islam derives from the triconsonantal root S?n-L?m-M?m, with a basic meaning of "to surrender". Islam is an abstract nominal derived from this root, and literally means "submission to 'The God' (Allah)". Other Arabic words derived from the same root include:
- Salaam, meaning "peace", also part of a common salutation, assalamu alaikum ("peace be upon you").
- Muslim, an agentive noun meaning "one who submits [to God]".
- Salamah, meaning "safety", also used in the common farewell ma' as-salamah ("[go] with safety").
- Islam (with a short "a" vowel) also means "I submit", since the addition of a hamza to the beginning of the triliteral root, followed by the first two consonants, a short vowel, and the final consonant, is the first-person singular imperfect tense in Arabic. (For example, from S?n-Kãf-N?n, the word "'askun" means "I live".)
Beliefs
The basic tenet of Islam is found in the shah?dat?n ("two testimonies"): l? il?h? ill?-ll?hu; muhammadun-r-ras?lu-ll?h — "There is no deity worthy of worship other than God (Allah) and Muhammad is a messenger of God (Allah)."
Muslims believe that God revealed his direct word for humanity to Muhammad (c. 570–632) and earlier prophets, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last prophet, based on extrapolation from the Qur'anic phrase "Seal of the Prophets", and that his teachings for humanity will last until the Day of the Resurrection. Muslims assert that the main written record of revelation to humanity is the Qur'an, which they believe to be flawless, immutable, and the final revelation of God to humanity.
Muslims hold that Islam is essentially the same belief as that of all the messengers sent by God to humanity since Adam, with the Qur'an, the text used by all sects of the Muslim faith, codifying the final revelation of God. Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as derivations of the teachings of Abraham, and the Qur'an calls Jews and Christians (and sometimes people of other faiths) "People of the Book". However, Muslims believe that these other faiths have distorted the word of God by deliberately altering words in meaning, form and placement in their respective holy texts, such as Jews changing the Hebrew Bible and Christians the New Testament. This is considered by Muslims to be what necessitated the revealing of the Qur'an to Muhammad, in order to correct the distortion in the other Abrahamic religions. This perceived distortion of the Bible is known as tahrif, or tabd?l, meaning "alteration, substitution". This doctrine is accepted by most Muslims; only a few relatively small sects, such as Mu'tazili and Ismaili, as well as a few Islamic scholars and members of various liberal movements within Islam, reject the view that the Qur'an is a correction of Jewish and Christian scriptures.
Tenets
The two largest Muslim subgroups are the Sunni and the Shi'a. Sunni Muslims make up the largest percentage of Muslims overall, although large majorities of Shi'a Muslims are found in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Iraq. However, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, Sunni Muslims are in the majority.
Many Muslims, however, do not like to label themselves as from any of the denominations listed above. These Muslims believe that the following extract from the Qur'an bans the formation of sects within Islam, and therefore classify themselves as simply "Muslims".
As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with God. He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did. (6:159)
Sunni Islam's fundamental tenets are referred to as the Five Pillars of Islam,2 while Shi'a Islam has slightly different terminology, encompassing five core beliefs known as the Roots of Religion, and ten core practices known as the Branches of Religion. All Muslims agree on the following five basic obligations for believers, which Sunnis term the "Five Pillars of Islam" and Shi'a Muslims would consider to be elements of the Roots of Religion and the Branches of Religion:
-Shah?dah: Testifying that there is none worthy of worship except God (Tawhid) and that Muhammad is his servant and messenger (Nubuwwah). The profession of faith in Allah.
-Salat: Performing the five daily prayers. These are carried out while facing Mecca.
-Sawm: Fasting from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan.
-Zak?t: Giving alms (Zakaah).
-Hajj: The Pilgrimage to Mecca during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, which is compulsory once in a lifetime for one who has the ability to do it.
Shi'a and Sunni also agree on the following beliefs, although they classify them differently: adl, the justice of God; qiyamah, the Day of Resurrection; Amr-Bil-Ma'r?f, commanding what is good; Nahi-Anil-Munkar, forbidding what is evil; and Al Jihad fi sabilillah, striving to seek God's approval.
Distinctive Shi'a beliefs, not held by the Sunni, include khums, paying the tax on profit, and imamah, leadership—the belief in the divinely-appointed and divinely-guided imamate of Ali and some of his descendants.
Other important beliefs which are not regarded as the being included in the Five Pillars include belief in the Angels (mala'ika), belief in life after death (including heaven, jannah, and hell, jahannam), and belief in Fate (qadar). Muslims also believe in all the prophets (nabi) and messengers (rasul) sent by God, while making no distinction between them—i.e., one is not better than another. Lastly, all Muslims believe in the holy books (kutub) sent by God, which include the Suhuf-i-Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham), the Tawrat (Torah) sent to Musa (Moses), the Zabur (Psalms) sent to Daud (David), the Injil (Gospel) sent to Isa (Jesus), and the Qur'an sent to Muhammad.
The Muslim creed in English is:
"I testify that there is no god but God Almighty, Who is One (and only One) and there is no associate with Him; and I testify that Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him), is His Messenger."
"I believe in God; and in His Angels; and in His Scriptures; and in His Messengers; and in The Final Day; and in Fate, that All things are from God, and Resurrection after death be Truth."
God
The fundamental concept in Islam is the Oneness of God (tawhid). This monotheism is absolute, not relative or pluralistic in any sense of the word. God is described in Sura al-Ikhlas, (chapter 112) as follows:
Say "He is God, the One and Only. God, the Eternal, Absolute the Self-Sufficient master. He begetteth not, nor is he begotten. And there is none like unto Him."
In Arabic, God is called All?h. The word is etymologically connected to ?il?h "deity", All?h is also the word used by Christian and Jewish Arabs, translating ho theos of the New Testament and Septuagint; it predates Muhammad and in its origin does not specify a "God" different from the one worshipped by Judaism and Christianity, the other Abrahamic religions.
The name "Allah" shows no plural or gender. In Islam "Allah" Almighty as the Qur’an says:
"(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things)" (42:11).
The implicit usage of the definite article in Allah linguistically indicates the divine unity. Muslims believe that the God they worship is the same God of Abraham. Muslims reject the Christian theology concerning the trinity of God (the doctrine of the Trinity which regards Jesus as the eternal Son of God), seeing it as akin to polytheism. Quoting from the Qur'an, sura An-Nisa(4:171):
"O People of the Scripture! Do not transgress the limits of your religion, and do not say about God except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and His word that He had sent to Mary, and a revelation from Him. Therefore, you shall believe in GOD and His messengers. You shall not say, "Trinity". You shall refrain from this for your own good. God is only one God. Be He glorified; He is much too glorious to have a son. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. God suffices as Lord and Master."
No Muslim visual images or depictions of God are meant to exist because such artistic depictions may lead to idolatry and are thus disdained. Such aniconism can also be found in Judeo-Christian theology. Moreover, most Muslims believe that God is incorporeal, making any two- or three- dimensional depictions impossible. Instead, Muslims describe God by His many Names and Attributes. All but one Sura (chapter) of the Qur'an begins with the phrase "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful". These are regarded as the most important divine attributes, at least in the sense that Muslims repeat them most frequently during their prayers (salat) and throughout their daily lives.
The Qur'an
The Qur'an is the sacred book of Islam. It has also been called, in English, "the Koran" and (archaically) "the Alcoran". Qur'an is the currently preferred English transliteration of the Arabic original (?); it means “recitation”. Although the Qur'an is referred to as a "book", when a Muslim refers to the Qur'an, they are referring to the actual text, the words, rather than the printed work itself.
Muslims believe that the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and up till his death in 632. In addition to memorizing his revelations, his followers are said to have written them down on parchments, stones, and leaves.
Muslims hold that the Qur'an available today is the same as that revealed to Muhammad and by him to his followers, who memorized and wrote down his words. Scholars generally accept that the version of the Qur'an used today was first compiled in writing by the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, sometime between 650 and 656. He sent copies of his version to the various provinces of the new Muslim empire, and directed that all variant copies be destroyed. However, some skeptics doubt the recorded oral traditions (hadith) on which this account is based, and will concede only that the Qur'an must have been compiled before 750.
There are numerous traditions, and many conflicting academic theories, as to the provenance of the Qur'anic verses that were eventually assembled into a single volume. (This is covered in greater detail in Qur'an). Most Muslims accept the account recorded in several hadith, which state that Abu Bakr, The First Caliph, ordered his personal secretary Zayd ibn Thabit to collect and record all the authentic verses of the Qur'an, as preserved in written form or oral tradition. Zayd's written collection, privately treasured by Muhammad's wife Hafsa bint Umar, was, according to Muslim sources, later used by Uthman and is thus the basis of today's Qur'an.
Uthman's version, organized the suras roughly in order of length (excepting the brief opening sura Al-Fatiha), with the longest suras at the start of the Qur'an and the shortest ones at the end. More conservative views state that the order of most suras was divinely set. Later scholars have struggled to put the suras in chronological order, and at least among Muslim commentators, there is a rough consensus as to which suras were revealed in Mecca and which at Medina, with distinctive characteristics observed within these two subgroups. Some suras (e.g. surat Iqra) are thought to have been revealed in parts at separate times.
To understand the notion of "variants" within the received Qur'anic text, one must understand that Arabic had not yet fully developed as a written language. The Qur'an was first recorded in written form (date uncertain) in the Hijazi, Mashq, Ma'il, and Kufic scripts; these scripts write consonants only and do not supply vowels. (Imagine an English text that wrote the word 'bed' as "BD," and required the reader to infer, from context, that the reference was to "bed" - and not to 'bad" or "bide.") Because there were differing oral traditions of recitation as non-native Arabic speakers converted to Islam, there was some disagreement as to the exact reading of many (vowel-free) verses. Eventually, scripts were developed that used diacritical markings (known as points) to indicate the vowels. For hundreds of years after Uthman's recension, Muslim scholars argued as to the correct pointing and reading of Uthman's (unpointed) official text. [5] Eventually, most commentators accepted seven variant readings (qira'at) of the Qur'an as canonical, while agreeing that the differences among the seven are minor and do not affect the meaning of the text.
The Qur'an early became a focus of Muslim devotion and eventually a subject of theological controversy among skeptics. In the 8th century, the Mu'tazilis claimed that the Qur'an was created in time and was not eternal. Their opponents, of various schools, claimed that the Qur'an was eternal and perfect, existing in heaven before it was revealed to Muhammad. The Ashari theology (which ultimately became predominant) held that the Qur'an was uncreated.
Most Muslims regard paper copies of the Qur'an with extreme veneration, wrapping them in a clean cloth, keeping them on a high shelf, and washing as for prayers before reading the Qur'an. Old Qur'ans are not destroyed as wastepaper, but buried in soil.
Most Muslims memorize for personal contact at least some portion of the Qur'an in the original language. Those who have memorized the entire Qur'an are known as hafiz (plural huffaz). This is not a rare achievement; it is believed that there are millions of huffaz that are alive today.
From the beginning of the faith, most Muslims believed that the Qur'an was perfect only as revealed in Arabic. Translations were the result of human effort and human fallibility, as well as lacking the inspired poetry believers find in the Qur'an. Translations are therefore only commentaries on the Qur'an, or "interpretations of its meaning", not the Qur'an itself. Many modern, printed versions of the Qur'an feature the Arabic text on one page, and a vernacular translation on the facing page.
For further reading go to the link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam