Our book has been conceived bearing in mind three main objectives: namely,
1) The first verse revealed began with the word 'Read!' It follows therefore that man's first duty is to read and acquire scientific knowledge and wisdom. For those who do not know Arabic, reading its translated versions and acquiring the meaning in the verses are of utmost importance. Naturally, readers of all classes and strata of society will formulate their judgments according to their respective educational background. However, it may take sometime before the reader of the Qur'an has a more or less correct insight into the meanings - some hidden and some explicit - of the verses. Bearing this in mind, we have tried to prepare a book that will pave the way to an easier introduction to it, so that it can help the students to learn, in a shorter time, the basic tenets of Islam. This is the first objective we had in mind.
2) Love, the absolute motive power of Creation, is one of the basic concepts of the Qur'an. Yet, the number of works that stress this point is on the decline. The persons, who often come up with the often asked question: “Love is the main purpose of Christianity, why Islam should be any different?” seems to be ignorant of actual facts. Nevertheless, the Qur'an, the essence and the most perfect among those revealed in the past, is interspersed with that sentiment considered to be the foundation of the entire creation. I owe special thanks to my wife for her valuable contribution.
3) The Qur'an, on many instances, states that the servants that please God most are his devotees. What were exactly the principles that make man God's devotee, what are the acts that contribute to man's ascending to heaven? We went through the entire Qur'an screening the verses which have special relevance to our subject matter and found out that there were about ten basic precepts. Believers should carefully abide by these particular points and follow the line they trace so that they dedserve God's favor and achieve salvation. The details of those factors that devotion requires have been given in the multifarious verses of the Qur'an.
How was the present book written? It is a fact that trying to learn a language in an advanced age, especially a language as arduous and complicated as the Arabic is almost impossible. However, the passion kindled in our breast for the divine being led us to refer to the Turkish translations of the Qur'an. We are proud of the great number of scholars and commentators of Qur'an in our country. Once we decided on the subject matter, we went over a variety of commentaries, dwelling on each of them and making comparisons between them before formulating our opinion to the best of our ability and capacity. We hope God will forgive any erroneous conclusion we may have arrived.
There will be a time when we shall have to depart from this transitory world which is a place of maturation for the human being and stand before the Supreme Being with our merits and demerits. However, before we leave this earth, we must know what exactly are the good deeds we are encouraged to perform and sins to avoid. Is the path we have chosen the right one or are we being dragged by the guiles of Satan? Therefore, we have to study first the stages that our soul, or self, will climb the ladder to perfection, from the lowest stratum to the highest attainable height. It is a fundamental thing to do before we are taken unawares.
We hereby should like to express my gratitude to our valuable and esteemed commentators, and in particular to late Elmalı'lı Hamdi Yazır. We feel it our duty to pay tribute to the great Islamic scholar Prof.Dr.Yaşar Nuri Öztürk, from whose book we have largely drawn here. And last but not least, our heartfelt thanks go to Dr. Lütfü Doğan, sometime Head of Religious Affairs and State Secretary, who obliged us mercifully in writing an introduction to our book.
God! Grant that we are among your faithful servants and believers, who have never failed to praise you, who have always remained devoted to you, and who have served, not their neighbors only, but the entire mankind!
Mesut KAYNAK
April 2000