The Recitations of Mohammed

The Koran is the sacred book of the Moslems.  The word, Koran, means “recitation” or  “something to be recited”.  The words of the Koran can be recited by people in any generation to actually experience for themselves the flow of the spirit, the eternal spirit of Allah, which gave birth to the original words through the prophet Mohammed.  Moslems believe that the angel Gabriel revealed the contents of the Koran–a little at a time–from a tablet preserved in heaven, to Mohammed beginning when Mohammed was 40 years of age.  According to Moslem tradition, the revelations began in the month of Ramadan in the year 610 AD and continued until his death in 632 AD.  The followers of Mohammed, who had memorized the recitations, put them into a book now known as the Koran, a book of the inspired recitations from the spirit of Allah.  Moslems believe that although the Koran was not written by Mohammed,  the words recited through him are the words of God.  The central teaching of the Koran is that there is only one God.   The Arabic word for the One God is Allah. 

The Koran mentions twenty-five prophets from the Holy Bible, with particular emphasis on Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.  Moslems consider Mohammed as the last of the prophets.  The name Mohammed means, “the praised one”.  Alternate spellings of his name are Muhammad and Mahomet.  Mohammed, who was born in the city of Mecca in the year 570 AD, is called the Prophet of Islam.  Islam means, “total submission to the One God”.  A Moslem is “one who submits to Allah”.  The most sacred shrine in the city of Mecca is the Kaaba.  The Kaaba is a small cube-shaped building with a flat roof.  Moslems turn their faces in the direction of Mecca, particularly to the Kaaba, which is inside the Grand Mosque, when they pray.  According to Moslem tradition, the Kaaba was built by Abraham (the same Abraham in the Book of Genesis of the Holy Bible) and his son Ishmael.  A black stone enclosed in a silver ring rests on the south wall of the Kaaba.  It is said that this black stone was given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel.  When Mohammed was 35 years old, a flood damaged the Kaaba.  Because of his moral excellence, Mohammed was chosen to set the sacred stone back in place.

Mohammed preached his recitations in Mecca for about 12 years until certain personal calamities took place.  His wife Khadija died and his uncle, Abu Talib (who raised him since the death of his parents) also passed away.  In the year 622 AD, Mohammed fled to the nearby city of Medina, which was then called Yathrib, approximately 200 miles away.  This flight to Medina is called the Hegira.  The Moslem calendar begins with the year of the Hegira in 622 AD.

Mohammed did not claim any powers to perform miracles but he did believe that he was the messenger of God and that he had been sent forth to confirm and validate the previous scriptures.  The Koran accuses the Jews of corrupting the scriptures of the Old Testament because they, as a people, did not submit themselves to God.  The Koran accuses the Christians of worshipping the person of Jesus although He, Himself, had warned them to worship God, the Father.  The Jews and the Christians are referred to in the Koran as the “people of the Book”.  Since the “people of the Book” have gone astray, they should return to the true religion of submission to the One God preached by Abraham.  This complete submission to God, to Allah, is Islam. 

In reading the Koran, it should be kept in mind that except in a few opening verses and some few passages in which Mohammed the prophet or the angel Gabriel speaks in the first person, the speaker throughout is God speaking directly to each individual who has eyes to see and ears to hear.

While reading the Koran, the word, “We”, can be visualized as Allah and His angels in heaven who are always in total spiritual agreement.  The reader can visualize himself as a divided person:  the human portion in a fallen state who has rebelled against God; and the spirit or Being of the person who is in agreement always with God and His angels.  The human aspect, the earthly form, must submit to the spirit of Allah so that the person can return to the control and the experience of God while the person is alive with a heart, mind and body to know the experience of Allah on earth.  As Alla