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Burnishing the
Heart - Selections from
the Qur'an for Self-Awareness.
Abdul Wahid Hamid
Published by MELS - Muslim Education Literary Services UK
Paperback 246 Pages
With an
introduction, brief notes, and a reflection on the message and style of the
Qur'an, and our state as human beings
Description from the Publisher
Burnishing the Heart
offers a flavour of the Qur’an’s indispensable message, in English.
Human beings are the main focus of the Qur’an. And the Qur’an is the best
reader of human beings, revealing the motives both transparent and hidden that
drive us, the various ways both straight and crooked that we follow, and the
outcomes that we face – here and ‘in the end’. It sets out what true
success and happiness is, and also what is real humiliation and pain.
Human beings everywhere need the Qur’an, just as we need food and drink. The
selections presented here are intended to convey a flavour of its indispensable
message. It is hoped that they will inspire or confirm an enduring engagement
with the Book that describes itself as ‘guidance for the God-conscous’ and a
source of ‘healing and grace’ for all who come to believe in it.
Human beings are endowed by their Creator with faculties of mind and heart to
respond to this essential guidance. What is the human heart as the term is used
in the Qur’an, why is there the need to burnish it, and how do we burnish it?
These selections, with brief notes where appropriate and a reflection on our
state as human beings, are intended to provide some pointers. They offer both
challenge and hope.
To be read by individuals
in quiet solitude
In the morning, at noon or
eventide.
In bed or on journeys;
Or by groups
At home, in school assemblies
And meeting places.
By all people - Muslims,
potential Muslims
And others.
The 'Reflection' piece in 'Burnishing the
Heart' focuses on the human being’s original pure state, the process of
keeping this state pure and making it grow, the process by which it can also
become so corrupted and overlaid with dross that it becomes hard and dark. And
then the processes by which even this hardened and darkened state can again be
cleansed and burnished to such a degree that it is shot through with light and
becomes translucent and so exquisitely beautiful. It is only through the
Qur’an that this can be achieved.
The Qur’an provides valid, realistic and satisfying goals for people to strive
for. It challenges people to use their minds to ask questions, to probe, to
reflect, to re-focus. and to return to all that is good and pure. 'The one who
has no mind has no true religion - man laa 'aqla lahu, laa diina lahu,' said the
noble Prophet Muhammad. 'Burnishing the Heart' argues that Qur’an is the only
authentic guide for a life that is in tune with human nature and needs.
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