The Holy Quran with Divine Principle commentary
Adh-Dhariyat opens with oaths by the scattering winds and the rain-bearing clouds, affirms resurrection and judgment, recounts Abraham's angelic visitors and the destruction of Lot's people, and declares that God created humans and jinn only to worship Him.
At-Tur opens with a series of oaths by sacred places and cosmic phenomena, announces the inescapability of divine judgment, refutes the arguments of those who dismiss the Prophet, and promises the believers a paradise of peace and reunion with their faithful families.
The promise that believers will be reunited with their families in paradise — "We will join to them their offspring who followed them in faith" — reflects a truth that Divine Principle holds at the center of God's original ideal: the family is eternal. God's purpose was not to save isolated individuals but to build eternal families that reflect the four-position foundation of God, husband, wife, and children. The love that is perfected in a true family on earth does not end at death; it continues and deepens in the spiritual world.
The rhetorical questions God poses to those who deny the Prophet — "Were they created from nothing? Or are they themselves the creators?" — echo the ontological argument at the heart of Divine Principle's Principle of Creation. Something cannot come from nothing, and the ordered, beautiful complexity of the universe demands a Creator whose own nature is the source of that order and beauty. Rev. Moon added the dimension of purpose: not only does the universe require a Creator, but its extraordinary capacity for love relationships requires a Creator whose essential nature is Heart — the impulse to love and be loved.
An-Najm opens by affirming the truth of the Prophet's vision and his ascent toward God, declares that he speaks not from desire but from revelation, and calls humanity to abandon the worship of invented deities in favor of the living God.
The description of the Prophet's spiritual ascent — seeing the greatest of God's signs near the Lote-tree of the boundary — describes a vertical encounter between a prepared human being and the divine realm that Divine Principle recognizes as the deepest form of prophetic experience. Rev. Moon described his own early spiritual experiences in similar terms: direct encounters with the spiritual world in which the mission, its scope, and its necessity were made unmistakably clear. Such experiences do not come to those who merely seek spiritual sensation; they come to those who have purified themselves through suffering and absolute commitment to God's will.
The condemnation of invented gods — Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat — reflects the universal human tendency to fashion smaller, more manageable versions of God that demand less and promise more. Divine Principle calls this the "worshipping of self" in disguise: the gods we invent tend to mirror our own desires and validate our own group's superiority. The restoration path requires the courage to abandon these comfortable projections and stand before the real God — the God whose love demands our total transformation and whose standards are not negotiable.
Al-Qamar opens with the splitting of the moon as a divine sign that was dismissed, then recounts the fates of Noah's people, 'Ad, Thamud, Lot's people, and Pharaoh — each of whom rejected a warner — with the repeated refrain: "We have made the Quran easy to remember; is there anyone who will take heed?"
The repeated refrain "Is there anyone who will take heed?" is among the most poignant cries in all of scripture — a divine Parent calling out across the wilderness of history, asking whether anyone will receive the truth that has been made accessible to them. Divine Principle describes God's situation throughout the history of the Fall as one of unrelenting sorrow: generation after generation receiving the same essential message and generation after generation choosing comfort, pride, and custom over the difficult path of transformation. Each rejected prophet represents not only a human failure but a fresh wound in God's heart.
The roll call of civilizations destroyed by their own rejection — Noah's contemporaries, 'Ad, Thamud, Sodom, Egypt — is not a celebration of God's power but a record of God's grief. Rev. Moon taught that God never wanted to destroy any civilization; each destruction was the last resort of a Parent who had exhausted every other means of calling His children back. The pattern repeats throughout history precisely because humanity has not yet grasped the root cause: the Fall severed the original parent-child bond, and until that bond is restored at the level of true lineage, the tragic cycle will continue.
The lyrical Surah Ar-Rahman enumerates God's gifts to humanity and the jinn with the rhythmic refrain "Which of your Lord's blessings will you both deny?" cataloguing the wonders of creation, the bounties of paradise, and the ultimate accountability of all beings.
Ar-Rahman is perhaps the Quran's supreme celebration of the Second Blessing: God's gift of dominion over a creation so abundant and beautiful that the only appropriate response is endless gratitude. Divine Principle understands this abundance not as a test of asceticism but as an invitation to joy — the joy of a child who receives lavish gifts from a Parent overflowing with love. God did not create a sparse, austere world; He created oceans and pearls, gardens and fountains, spices and fragrant herbs, because His love is extravagant and He wanted His children to be surrounded by beauty.
The refrain "Which of your Lord's blessings will you deny?" is not a threat but an unanswerable question posed by a generous God to a forgetful child. Rev. Moon often said that if human beings truly understood the extent of God's love and the depth of His suffering on their behalf, they would be unable to stop weeping and unable to stop loving in return. The surah's invitation to acknowledge God's gifts is the first step on the path of restoration: the turning of the heart from ingratitude to recognition, from taking to receiving, from possession to gratitude.
Al-Waqi'ah describes the Day of Resurrection as the Inevitable Event that will sort all humanity into three groups: those brought near to God, the companions of the right hand, and the companions of the left — each receiving a destiny corresponding to how they lived.
The tripartite division of humanity in Al-Waqi'ah — the foremost (sabiqun), the companions of the right, and the companions of the left — resonates with the Divine Principle understanding of the spirit world's structure. The spiritual realm is not a single undifferentiated place but an ordered reality in which beings dwell at the level of love they have actually developed. Those who lived for God and others before self occupy the highest realms; those who lived decent lives in the middle; those who lived only for themselves in the lowest. There is no arbitrary assignment — the spiritual world is simply the world where the inner reality is fully visible.
The surah's meditation on the creation of the human embryo, the grain of wheat, the water we drink, and the fire we kindle — asking "Did you create these, or did We?" — is a series of gentle provocations toward humility. Rev. Moon taught that the most dangerous spiritual condition is to believe that one has earned one's own success, one's own gifts, one's own very existence. The person who truly understands that every breath is a gift from God lives in a state of perpetual gratitude that naturally expresses itself as love toward others — and this is the seed of the original ideal.
Al-Hadid calls the believers to spend generously in God's cause, declares that God sent down iron as a source of both strength and benefit, honors those who believed and spent before the victory, and invites the People of the Book to join in the light of God's final revelation.
The image of God sending down iron — hard, practical, the material of civilization — alongside the scripture places spiritual and material transformation in the same providential frame. Divine Principle has always insisted that God's restoration is not a purely spiritual affair; it requires the transformation of actual families, actual societies, actual nations. Rev. Moon's work spanned business, media, science, politics, and the arts precisely because he understood that God's kingdom cannot be built in the heart alone — it must be embodied in every institution and relationship of human life.
The distinction between those who believed and spent before the victory and those who came afterward carries a specific resonance for those who understand the concept of providential timing. Divine Principle teaches that God's providence moves in stages, and those who respond at the critical moment of each new dispensation carry a greater responsibility and receive a greater blessing than those who come after the path has already been cleared. The call to give generously before the outcome is certain is the call to absolute faith — to invest one's life in God's will without the security of guaranteed results.
Named for a woman who brought her marital grievance directly to God through the Prophet, Al-Mujadila addresses the unjust pre-Islamic practice of zihar divorce, regulates the conduct of consultations with the Prophet, and warns against secret conspiracies that grieve the believers.
The image of a woman bringing her suffering directly to God — and God hearing her — is a testament to the Divine Principle understanding of God's personal, intimate engagement with every human being. God is not remote from the suffering of a woman trapped in an unjust marital arrangement; He hears her complaint and responds with new guidance that protects her dignity. Rev. Moon taught that God's parental heart is most keenly felt by those who are suffering unjustly — the oppressed, the abandoned, the forgotten — because God's own heart has been in that condition since the Fall.
The regulation of secret meetings that spread anxiety and harm among the community reflects the Divine Principle principle that relationships within God's family must be transparent and oriented toward the common good. The fallen nature drives people to form exclusive in-groups that define themselves against others; the original nature seeks inclusion, reconciliation, and the expansion of the circle of love. The truly God-centered person does not whisper conspiracies in corners but speaks openly, works for the whole community, and treats every person as a potential member of the family of God.
Al-Hashr recounts the exile of the Banu Nadir tribe from Medina, instructs the community on the just distribution of war gains to the poor, and closes with a magnificent enumeration of God's names and attributes that is among the most theologically rich passages in the Quran.
The closing verses of Al-Hashr — enumerating God as Al-Quddus (the Holy), As-Salam (the Peace), Al-Mu'min (the Faithful), Al-Muhaimin (the Guardian), Al-Aziz (the Almighty), Al-Jabbar (the Compeller), Al-Mutakabbir (the Supreme) — are a meditation on the fullness of God's nature that Divine Principle approaches through its own systematic theology. Each divine attribute points to a facet of the original relationship God intended with humanity: He is Peace because His ideal was harmony; He is Faithful because His love never wavers; He is Guardian because His heart never stops watching over His children.
The principle of distributing resources to "those who do not ask" — the poor who maintain dignity — embodies the Divine Principle of living for others without demanding acknowledgment. True love gives to those who cannot repay and does not publicize its giving. Rev. Moon described the ideal of love as "water flowing downward" — always moving toward those in the lowest position, always seeking the one who needs it most. A community that practices this kind of downward-flowing love reflects God's own nature, which poured itself out into creation not to gain anything but to share everything.
Al-Mumtahanah addresses the complex loyalties of the early Muslim community, instructs believers not to take their persecutors as intimate allies, establishes a test for believing women who migrate to Medina, and upholds justice and kindness toward those who have not fought against the community of faith.
The surah's nuanced teaching — forbidding alliance with active persecutors while explicitly permitting kindness and fairness toward peaceful unbelievers — reflects the sophisticated moral architecture of a mature providential community. Divine Principle similarly distinguishes between those who actively oppose God's will and those who simply have not yet received or responded to truth. The former may need to be separated from; the latter must be loved toward. Rev. Moon's teaching on "home church" — reaching out to one's immediate neighbors with unconditional love regardless of their beliefs — embodies this same principle: the universe of those we serve is always larger than those who already share our faith.
The figure of Abraham is invoked in this surah as a model of drawing a clear line against evil while remaining open to reconciliation. Abraham declared himself clear of his father's idolatry but promised to pray for him and never cut the relationship with contempt. This is the difficult balance of the restoration path: maintaining the standard of truth without becoming cold or exclusive; opposing the Fall without demonizing the fallen. It requires the simultaneous holding of absolute principles and absolute love — the hallmark of the true parent heart.
Divine Principle Reflection
The declaration that God created humanity only to worship Him must be understood through Divine Principle as an invitation to relationship, not servitude. The Arabic word for worship — 'ibadah — carries the sense of grateful, loving service: the kind a child renders to a parent not out of fear but out of love and joy. God's purpose in creating humanity was to experience love through His children's free and joyful response. Rev. Moon expressed this by saying that God created us to be His object partners of love — beings whose joy in God completes God's own joy.
The story of Abraham's angelic visitors announces the coming birth of Isaac, the child of promise upon whom an entire providential lineage would be built. Divine Principle sees in this story the pattern of God's advance notice to prepared hearts: before a new chapter of the providence opens, God sends messengers to those who have established the required foundation of faith. Abraham had passed the test of absolute sacrifice; now God could fulfill His promise of blessing through lineage. Every providential birth in history is preceded by this same pattern of test, faithfulness, and announcement.