How can ‘Zikr’ be translated as ‘Quran’ only?
Question: اِنَّا نَحۡنُ نَزَّلۡنَا الذِّکۡرَ وَ اِنَّا لَہٗ لَحٰفِظُوۡنَ ﴿۹
Allama Syed Abdullah Tariq has given a reference of the above mentioned ayah, translating the word ‘zikr’ as Quran. My question is how can ‘Zikr’ be translated as Quran? Why cannot we translate it as ‘Ahadith’ as well? Please Clarify.
Answer: Zik’r is a comprehensive word which means remembrance, remembrance of Allah by a person, remembrance of others for guidance towards Allah and also the remembrance descended or revealed from Allah.
The Earlier Books:
The Books revealed by Allah to the prophets contained Zik’r and the Books were themselves Zik’r as a whole:
The Qur’an:
Like the earlier Books, Qur’an too contains Zik’r and the whole Qur’an is a Zik’r too.
If you read from 15:6 to 15:9, it is evident that the ‘Zik’r’ twice mentioned in these Ayahs is Qur’an.
So you see that the Zik’r in question is something which is a revelation, sent down to the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. through angels. It was sent down to the earlier prophets also but the Zik’r revealed to Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. will be safeguarded. Specifying at another place that this Zik’r (remembrance) is a Book that will not be corrupted, the Qur’an says:
Which revealed Book (to the Prophet Muhammad) do you think this Zik’r (remembrance) is which is immune from corruption and adulteration?
Hadiths referred to as safeguarded Zik’r in 15:9?
Some people claim this (One) Book is the scattered Hadiths found in numerous collections that have been partly or fully adulterated and mixed with weak, suspicious and false narrations and which the Hadith Scholars have been trying to sort out from the Muhadditheen era to this day! Has anyone ever dared to research about false, weak or doubtful Ayahs in Qur’an? This fact alone is proof enough of the above group’s own practical admission that Hadith literature cannot be placed at par with Qur’an and this is not a collection about which Allah SWT, in Qur’an says:
“We are surely going to safeguard it.” Nothing can ever be in the likeness of and at par with Qur’an in sanctity and purity.
Their claim is on the authority of the following narration in Abu Dawood:
“Beware! I have been given the Book and (another) like it and with it…”
There are too many follies in the whole narration, a part of which is cited above but at least it accepts the existence of a revealed Book which they say is also a Zik’r but the Ayahs of the Book may be cancelled or repealed by another type of Zik’r revealed with it and in its likeness. They are continually searching and researching for the True part of the other Zik’r that will be the ultimate authority to test the Book.
Pray, they would have heeded the following Ayahs of Qur’an: