"The Hour (of Judgment) is nigh, and the moon is cleft asunder. But if they see a Sign, they turn away, and say, "This is (but) transient magic." Al-Qamar; 1-2) and narrations that "The Moon split in two and reunited in the sky with a hand sign of Muhammad" are considered among the most outstanding examples of miracles in believers.
The expressions (that are considered to be one of the inimitable literary beauties of the Quran) were the expressions used in the poems of Imru' al-Qais.
Probably the world's oldest fragments of the Koran have been found in the library of the University of Birmingham, in England. Radiocarbon dating showed with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645 AD. So the manuscript is at least 1,370 years old. It is the earliest, or among the earliest, in existence.
The fragments are written in ink on sheep or goatskin. They are mounted on modern paper to help preserve them. They are going on display at the Barber Institute in Birmingham in October 2015.
There are 30 parts in the Qur'an, which make 114 "suras" (chapters). Each sura has a different number of verses.
According to the Muslim teachings, 87 of these suras revealed in Mecca, 27 of these suras revealed in Medina. The suras which took place in Medina are Al-Baqara, Al Imran, Al-Anfal, Al-Ahzab, Al-Ma'ida, An-Nisa, Al-Mumtahina, Az-Zalzala, Al-Hadid, Muhammad, Ar-Ra'd, Ar-Rahman, At-Talaq, Al-Bayyina, Al-Hashr, An-Nasr, An-Nur, Al-Hajj, Al-Munafiqun, Al-Mujadila, Al-Hujraat, At-Tahrim, At-Taghabun, Al-Jumua, As-Saff, Al-Fath, At-Tawba, Al-Insan.
The verses of the Quran speak about many different topics. For example, the verses of chapter 80 (Abasa) speak about the evils of ableism, also called able-bodyism or ablecentrism. Verse 2:15 speaks about the evils of being two-faced.
The first verse revealed is:
(5) اقرَأ بِاسمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذي خَلَقَ (1) خَلَقَ الإِنسانَ مِن عَلَقٍ (2) اقرَأ وَرَبُّكَ الأَكرَمُ (3) الَّذي عَلَّمَ بِالقَلَمِ (4) عَلَّمَ الإِنسانَ ما لَم يَعلَم
Read (commencing) with the Name of Allah, Who has created (everything). He created man from a hanging mass (clinging) like a leech (in the mother’s womb). Read and your Lord is Most Generous, Who taught man (reading and writing) by the pen, Who (besides that) taught man (all that) which he did not know.96:1
The last verse revealed is:
Who believe! fulfill (all) obligations. Lawful unto you (for food) are all four-footed animals. Dead meat, blood, pig, any food which has been blessed by a (false) god other than Allah; an animal whose death resulted from strangulation, bludgeoning, arrows, falling, or bloodloss; an animal which was partly consumed by a wild animal or an animal which is sacrificed on a stone altar are forbidden. However, if faced with starvation, exceptions are allowed.
The Quranic content is mainly concerned with Islamic beliefs including the existence of God and the resurrection. Narratives of the early prophets, ethical and legal subjects, historical events of Muhammad's time, charity, and prayer also appear in the Quran.
The central theme of the Quran is monotheism. God is depicted as living, eternal, omniscient and omnipotent (see, e.g., Quran , , ). God's omnipotence appears above all in his power to create. He is the creator of everything, of the heavens and the earth and what is between them (, , ). All human beings are equal in their utter dependence upon God, and their well-being depends upon their acknowledging that fact and living accordingly.
Today, the situation of women captured in wars is a critical issue in terms of human rights. According to traditional interpretations of the Qur'an, these women are regarded as captured commodities (War looting). Whether these women are married or not is not taken into account, and like other acquired slave women, right-holders (warriors or buyers of them) can make sexual practices over their bodies without their consent.(Al-Mu’minun;5-6) (see:War crimes)
The doctrine of the last day and eschatology (the final fate of the universe) may be reckoned as the second great doctrine of the Quran. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the Quran is eschatological, dealing with the afterlife in the next world and with the day of judgment at the end of time. There is a reference to the afterlife on most pages of the Quran and belief in the afterlife is often referred to in conjunction with belief in God as in the common expression: "Believe in God and the last day."
According to the Quran, God communicated with man and made his will known through signs and revelations. Prophets, or 'Messengers of God', received revelations and delivered them to humanity. The message has been identical and for all humankind.
The revelation does not come directly from God to the prophets. Angels acting as God's messengers deliver the divine revelation to them.
The mainstream Biblical scholars holds that the contents of the Book of Jonah are entirely ahistorical. Although the prophet Jonah allegedly lived in the eighth century BCE, the Book of Jonah was written centuries later during the time of the Achaemenid Empire. Many scholars regard the Book of Jonah as an intentional work of parody or satire. If this is the case, then it was probably admitted into the canon of the Hebrew Bible by sages who misunderstood its satirical nature.
Iraqi scholar and translator N.J. Dawood interpreted the relationship between Imran and Maryam as a confused transmission of Judeo-Christian theology (confusion of time and persons in Surah al-i Imran).
Koranic scientific foreknowledge; asserts that Koran made accurate statements that science verified hundreds of years later, hence, this is a great Miracle. This belief is a common theme in Bucailleism.
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. He was Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007. On the day he stood down as Prime Minister and MP, he was made official Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the 1994 leadership election following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under Blair's leadership the party abandoned many policies it had held for decades. Labour won a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, which ended 18 years of Conservative rule with the heaviest Conservative defeat since 1832.
He was the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister and the only leader to have taken the party to three uninterrupted general election victories.
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer during all Blair's ten years in office, succeeded him as party leader and Prime Minister in 2007.
Blair was born at Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh on 6 May 1953. He was the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair. Blair joined the Labour Party in 1975.
Blair was a lawyer before becoming a politician. He married Cherie Booth, also a lawyer, who graduated from the London School of Economics with a first-class honours degree. Blair himself left Oxford University with a second-class degree. They have four children: Euan, Nicky, Kathryn, and Leo. There was a controversy over Blair sending Euan to a grant-maintained school. As a result of this, Alastair Campbell discovered Blair "standing stark naked reading the "Daily Mail"."
As Leader of the Labour Party, he won the 1997, 2001 and 2005 UK general elections. Blair is the first and only Labour Party leader to have won three general elections in a row.
He attributes his success in politics to a pair of "lucky brogues", which he wore for every single Prime Minister's Questions of his leadership. He claimed that "cheap shoes are a false economy".