and as a guide, a mercy, and a healing. It warns and brings glad tidings, directs and recounts, is read aloud, recited, heard, memorised, and written down.

Allah sent it down in successive stages, arranged it in measured tones, called it a weighty discourse, and favoured it above all other scriptures. Its verses were perfected and then set out in detail.

He commanded that it be recited deliberately, reminded His servants of the blessing of its revelation, and Allah together with the angels bore witness to its descent upon His Messenger: “He is the One Who has sent down to you the Book; in it are verses that are clear and decisive—they are the foundation of the Book—while others are allegorical. Those whose hearts are deviant pursue what is allegorical in it, seeking discord and seeking its interpretation.”¹

Allah has recommended seeking refuge in Him when it is read, and has commanded attentive listening and silence when it is recited. Whoever affirms that this is the Qur’an has spoken correctly, been guided to the straight path, and embraced the creed of the Muslims.