THE QUR'AN
At the time of his death in 632 of the Christian
calendar, the revelations of Muhammad had not been codified. It was not until the year 653 that >Uthman, the Muslim caliph,
established the standard version of the Qur=an.
The actual text of the Qur=an,
or Vulgate, was established by Zayd ibn Thabit.
It was in the Qur=an
that the teachings of Islam=s
founder Muhammad were collected. These
teachings are believed by Muslims to be divinely revealed. The Qur=an is thus the sacred text of
Islam.
Qur=an
is an Arabic word meaning Areciting,
recitation, or reading@. The term Qur=an refers to the collected
revelations received by Muhammad. In the
Qur=an
-- in this Areciting@ in the Arabic language -- , Muslims
hear God speaking in his own words: it is God=s
speech (kalam Allah) and self-revelation in much the way that Christ,
the Divine Logos, is for Christians. The
Arevealing@ -- the wahy -- of God=s word through Muhammad has been and is
the unique, inimitable miracle (mu=jizah)
for Muslims, providing them with a guide for all aspects of living, a scripture
for constant Aremembrance@ (dhikr) of God, a shaping
determinant of individual and collective thinking, and a comprehensive vision
of history and destiny.
The collected revelations are normally referred to as AThe Noble Qur=an@
(al-Qur=an
al-karim), or simply AThe
Book@ (al-Kitab),
although the terms for God=s
word in the revelations themselves and in Muslim tradition are numerous. The whole Qur=an
is almost the length of the Christian New Testament and consists of 114 main
divisions, or suras, which range in length in a common printed text from
slightly over two lines (Sura 108) to some 710 (Sura 2).
The suras are numbered and arranged in approximate
descending order of length, albeit with notable exceptions, the prime being
Sura 1, AThe
Opening@, (al-Fatihah),
with only seven ayahs. In Muslim usage,
each sura is referred to not by number but by name -- this usually taken from
one of the initial words (e.g., 92, ANight@) or some striking passage or phrase
(e.g., 2, AThe Cow@) in the sura. Although very old, the names are evidently
not part of the Divine Word, since some suras have more than one name (e.g.,
112, APure
Devotion@ or AUnity@).
There is no unanimity about the precise chronological
order in which the separate revelations came to Muhammad, but texts of the Qur=an traditionally list every sura as
either AMeccan@, AMedinan@, or a combination of the two according
to whether its contents were sent down
during Muhammad=s
prophetic career in Mecca or Medina. In
all schemes, Muslim and non-Muslim, there is general agreement that the
preponderance of early (Meccan) material is to be found in the short, dramatic
suras and ayahs of the final portion of the collected Qur=an, and most of the later (Medinan)
material in the longer, generally less intense passages of the first part of
the text.
The contents of the Qur=an take the form of words from God
addressed alternately to all mankind, to the faithful, to the unbelievers, or
to Muhammad alone. The language of the
revelations is in prose, but a generally dramatic and poetic, often rhyming,
prose that is anything but Aprosaic@. The power of the language, especially
in some of the shorter, more lyrical passages, is overwhelming and all but
impossible to capture in translation.
The content ranges widely and includes paeans of praise for the One God
and his myriad Asigns@ in the natural world, sharp warnings
about the final Day of Resurrection and Judgment, exhortations to piety and
good works, reminders of the history of God=s
dealing with mankind through the long series of previous prophets and
revelations, commands concerning personal morality and social intercourse, and
statements about particular events contemporary with the revelations
themselves. Any or all of these and
other themes recur repeatedly, often in the same sura, giving the whole a
mosaic effect in which the unity of the discrete parts lies not in narrative
development so much as stylistic and thematic repetition. The marked repetitiveness of the Qur=an is indicative of the Arecitative@ nature of the revelations, a quality
underscored by the fact that in daily use the sura divisions for purposes of
recitation alone: (1) into thirty roughly equal Aparts,@ each of these further halved to yield
sixty Aportions@, and each Aportion@
subdivided into quarters to give 240 short recitations; (2) into thirds {see
Suras 1-9, 10-30, 31-114}; and (3) into sevenths. While the latter two kinds of division are
not normally indicated in printed texts, the 30-60-240 divisions are usually
marked for the reader.
The early sources recount in some detail how the process
of Arevealing@ to Muhammad went on over a long
period, perhaps more than twenty years if one dates the first revelation --
traditionally the first five ayahs of Sura 96 -- around 610 C.C., as most
scholars do. Muslim sources treat in
detail the Aoccasions
of revelation,@
i.e., the historical circumstances in which particular ayahs or suras were
given the Prophet, and the Amodes
of revelation,@
or different ways in which revelations were given -- e.g., through the angel
Gabriel in waking or in dream, or as an auditory experience. Muhammad seems to have distinguished clearly
between what was direct divine word intended for Areciting@ (qur=an) and what was inspiration for
his own words and acts. The revelations
likely received some editing and arrangement in Medina
Whether the traditions about early attempts under Abu
Bakr and especially >Umar
to collect the Arecitations@ and organize them are accurate or not,
it is clear that under the auspices of the third caliph, >Uthman, a largely successful effort
was made to compile an Aauthoritative@ text from the variant Areadings@
(qira=at)
of the best reciters from among the Companions of Muhammad. Carried out by Zayd ibn Thabit and other
Companions who Ahad@ the revelation Aby heart@,
the >Uthmanic
recension was an attempt to eliminate divergent arrangements of the Qur=anic material, to prevent errors and
interpolations, and to provide a single text for ritual and educational use in
the rapidly expanding Islamic community.
Variant readings, such as those of Ibn Mas=ud, did persist long after >Uthman, but these are of relatively
minor import and have not been a crucial issue in Muslim life. Recitative variants have even been classified
according to seven accepted systems.
There has been little discord among Muslims over the integrity of the
basic >Uthmanic
text, although some among the Shi>a
have made charges of omissions concerning Ali and his descendants.
While a few non-Muslim scholars have questioned the
antiquity of the received text, these scholars have found little acceptance for
their ideas, and the Qur=an
remains of all major scriptures the one with the clearest textual history. This is largely due to the voluminous records
and scholarship of the Muslims from early times. They have always recognized (even in some
measure when literalist concepts of God=s
revelation and speech have prevailed) that the faultless preservation and
transmission (tawatur) of God=s
Word must be assured by the community and its consensus. The Divine Speech had to be preserved in
human hearts, recited on human tongues, and written by human hands. The Muslims themselves, collectively, through
every generation, are the bondsmen for the inviolate integrity of the Divine
Word; to understand this is to understand in good part the close identification
of the Muslim umma B
the Muslim community B with the Qur=an=s
scriptural revelation.
The religious significance of the Qur=an is reflected in Muslim attitudes
toward, and treatment of, the Qur=an
across the centuries and around the globe.
In the Qur=an,
Muslims find the quintessential expression of God=s
Eternal Word, which is with God on a Apreserved
tablet,@ AThe Mother of the Book@, or simply AThe Book@. From a Muslim perspective, the Qur=an sums up, corrects, and completes
the revelations given earlier prophets such as Moses and Jesus, and in it
Muslims find the basic source for social order, personal ethics, devotion,
liturgy, salvation history, eschatology, and the life of faith.
Of all Muslim religious sciences, the noblest is the
study of God=s Word --
its meaning, proper reading, and practical application. Qur=anic
interpretation in particular has been prolific and important in every age,
normally taking the form of detailed exegesis with historical, grammatical, and
theological explanation of every line.
Memorization of the entire Qur=an
has been and remains the mark of learning and piety, carrying with it the
honored title of Hafiz -- one who Aguards@ the Book in the heart.
Every performance of prayer -- of salat --involves
recitation from the Qur=an,
and non-Arab Muslims who know no other words of Arabic know enough of it to
recite segments in worship. To touch the
Qur=an,
one must be ritually pure; to copy it is a sacred task; to give it is to give
the finest gift.
Mystics have chanted and sung, meditated upon, and
esoterically interpreted the Qur=an;
grammarians have based rules for Arabic on it; theologians have formulated
guidelines for all of life in light of it; artists have embellished almost all
Islamic buildings and artifacts with its words in elaborate calligraphy;
conservators of the status quo have claimed it as their authority; reformers
have built movements around a return to its preaching; and ordinary people have
patterned their lives as well as their speech after its words. The Qur=an stands at the core of Islamic
faith as the active communication of the divine will for humankind.[1]
***
As an historical aside, because the Arabic language in which the Qur=an came to be written is considered sacred, and because Islamic law forbade most kinds of representational images, beginning in the 600s, great attention was paid in Islamic art to calligraphy -- to handwriting -- as an expression of faith and of beauty.
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