While reading and listening to the tasfir of the Nobel Qur’an, I often wondered about the places and people being mentioned. Where are these places? What are their present-day names? How did people travel such great distances and which terrain did they pass?
And also I wondered if the ruins of the ancient civilisations that we see in pictures, such as Petra, were of the people who faced the wreath of Allah and perished.
Then I came across a book that had answers to all these questions and much more — Atlas of the Qur’an, compiled by Dr Shauqi Abu Khalil. This book is one of a kind, more precisely an atlas that takes the readers to all the places, people and important events mentioned in the Holy Quran, “besides locating areas where the incidents of the prophetic Seerah occurred”. With the help of maps, pictures and illustrations, the Quranic message and the stories of the people gone by long ago become clearer and more impactful.
The publishers rightly claim that “the Atlas eliminates all the guessing and the fantasies we used to encounter when reciting the Noble Quran, and takes us to the specific place.”
Today, we tend to take in knowledge better when we see the information in some kind of pictorial or illustrative depiction. Moreover, many of the names of these places have changed today, as have the boundaries of all nations. So we probably cannot understand the references in the holy text as well as the people did in the early days of Islam.
Dr Shauqi Abu Khalil was an Arabic language historian who published this great book in Arabic, through Dar Al-Fikr publishers in Damascus. Later it was translated into English and Urdu by Darussalam, which is a blessing for readers like myself with limited, rather almost no, understanding of the Arabic language.
Dr Shauqi Abu Khalil has also authored another gem, Atlas on the Prophet’s Biography, which, as the name shows, explores the places that had anything to do with Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) life. I have not seen it, but I am sure it must be equally worth-reading.
I must also add here that this is no book review, for a review needs some degree of understanding, if not expertise, in the topic or genre of the book. And I am none of these … I am just a simple reader who is super excited to have in my hands a book that covers an aspect of the Holy Quran that had always intrigued me. And I haven’t seen another book of this kind.
It shouldn’t be confused as a book of tafsir, since the writer too claims, “The reader must bear in mind that this is not meant as a book that explains the stories of the prophets or the events that are mention in the Nobel Qur’an, neither is it a book of tafsir.”
Atlas of the Qur’an is divided into chapters, beginning with the one on Hazrat Adam, and ordered in the chronology of events that are mentioned in the Holy Quran. The chapters start with a map, then mention how many times the prophet, person, event or place, appear in the Holy Quran. Then there are those Verses, in both Arabic and their English translation, and finally some brief details. Some chapters also contain pictures of the places as they are today and then charts, such as the one of ‘Military Campaigns of the Prophet (Peace be upon him)’.
The inclusion of the Quranic Verses offers great help in first reading what Allah has actually said, without the need to have a translation of the Holy Quran by the side for this.
At the end is ‘The Appendix’, which includes a description of places, peoples and persons “mentioned explicitly or implicitly in the Nobel Quran and that do not require any map or picture to describe them,” as the author explains.
The depth of research and detailing undertaking by the author is simply astounding, for he covers so much that a person of limited knowledge of the Holy Quran like myself, didn’t even realise were mentioned or referenced with respect to a location.
For instance, the chapter ‘The Jinn of Nasibain’ shows where the group of Jinns came from, who met with the Holy Prophet (PBUH), heard the Holy Quran and accepted Islam.
I must confess that Atlas of the Qur’an also gives rise to the wish to visit and see these places, especially the lands where Allah’s prophets faced so much tribulations and triumphs.
Atlas of the Qur’an warrants to be read at leisure and in detail, like a cool, nourishing drink that one likes to take a small sip from, feel it going down and cooling one from within, and after enjoying its sweetness for a while, one takes another sip. Another thing I liked about the book is its print quality, which is on glossy paper and excellent, and the font sizes are pretty large to make for comfortable reading material.
I have just started reading Atlas of the Qur’an. Sometimes I read it like an atlas, flipping through the maps and pages, stopping at one to read in detail. And sometimes I read it like a book, starting a chapter and going till its end. But one thing I know, this atlas is going to be read and reread for a long time, since once is not enough to take in the message of Allah. It is our life-long duty as Muslims.
May Allah guide us to understand and follow His message in its true essence and may Allah reward Dr Shauqi Abu Khalil for his effort. Ameen
