THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE QURAN
A CPS International Initiative
This article is written by Mohammad Usman. He is the sub-editor of Spirit of Islam (SOI). He has been associated with SOI since 2015. He proofreads, edits, translates, and writes for SOI. The intersection between language and technology is his area of special interest. His passion has found expression through many initiatives of CPS International, New Delhi. He has been closely working with dedicated members of CPS International to bring into fruition the technological developments mentioned in this article. ~Fathima Sarah (Publisher)
IN the Introduction of his English translation of the Quran, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan writes: ‘The Quran is a book of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It did not come to him in the form of a complete book, but in parts over a period of 23 years. (…) Whenever any part of the Quran was revealed, it was written down on papyrus (a type of paper), or in Arabic, qirtas (6: 7). During this process, people committed the verses to memory. (…) The writing of the Quran by hand continued till the printing press was invented and paper began to be manufactured on a large scale, thanks to the industrial revolution.’
The world has become aware of Islam and the Quran as these are directly connected to World Peace. Therefore, it is the duty of believers to make the Quran available to the world at large in a manner and in a language that is understandable.
The 21st century brought with it newer modes of learning from the books. Now, it was not enough just to print a book or make its translations available. Wireless connectivity and internet have revolutionized the field of books. In an age where human beings find themselves pressed for time and always on the go, audio books emerged which the busy person could listen to while travelling. To lighten the cumbersome load of carrying bulky books in your bags, e-books were invented. To ease the strain from your eyes, and to read some particular passages from a book without troubling to leaf through its pages, you can now just command your Voice Assistant device to read a particular passage.
The latest and most thrilling addition to this list is Artificial Intelligencesupported GPT. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is described as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational dialogue. The language model can respond to questions and compose various written content, including articles, social media posts, essays, code, and emails.
Among many of its uses, ChatGPT is being used to convert any book into a dialogue or conversation form. Instead of searching through a book for a particular passage, ChatGPT user may direct a question to ChatGPT and get an answer in a form and language he desires. Sensing the great importance that ChatGPT has, CPS International, New Delhi has taken cognizance of this development and developed a WhatsAppintegrated chatbot that is based on Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s English translation and commentary of the Quran as well as other English works. This chatbot is named as Spiritual Message. You may ask a question on any topic related to the Quran, spirituality, peace, art of life, biography of the Prophet, and the Spiritual Message chatbot will provide valuable lessons from these sources.
Maulana wrote in his Introduction of the Quran translation: ‘One special aspect of the Quran is that at any moment its reader can consult its Writer, put his questions, and receive answers, for the Writer of the Quran is God Himself. He is a living God. As man’s Creator, He directly hears and answers man’s call.’
CPS International is doing its best to make the Quran available to entire humanity and in a way so that everyone has access to the message of the Quran. The English translation of the Quran along with supporting literature has been made available on the following platforms:
Audio Files of the English translation of the Quran on AUDIBLE:
AUDIBLE LINK
Spiritual Message podcast on SPOTIFY:
Spiritual Message Podcast Link
Audio Files of the English translation of the Quran on SPOTIFY:
Quran in English Link
Audio Files of the English books of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on
SPOTIFY:
Maulana’s English Audiobooks
Audio Files of the Urdu books of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on SPOTIFY:
Maulana’s Urdu Audiobooks
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s Lectures on SPOTIFY:
Maulana’s Lectures
The Quran Player on Amazon Voice Assistant Alexa:
The Quran Player on Amazon Alexa
The Quran Speaker on Google Voice Assistant:
The Quran Speaker on Google Voice Assistant
Spirit of Islam, Al-Risala (Urdu, Hindi) magazines on Magzter:
Magazines on Magzter
Maulana had written, ‘Today anyone can find a beautiful copy of the Quran, wherever he might be, in any part of the globe.’ Now, CPS International can add that anyone can find the message of the Quran on a relevant topic, in any form and in any of the latest technology this age offers.