THE QUR’AN

from:‘The People of the Book’

The Qur'an has come to be looked upon as the standing miracle of Islam and occupies a unique place among all scriptures. Muslims believe that the Qur'an is God's uncreated Word the very words of God Himself written in Arabic. Not the ideas only but the very words in their spelling and their grammar, all are God's own God's alone. L. Bevan Jones investigates these claims looking into the revelations of Muhammad, the compilation content and sources of the Quran and reaches a different conclusion about the Quran.

The Qur'an, the sacred book of the Muslims, is held in extraordinary esteem by the followers of Muhammad not withstanding the fact that many who do read it, find its language, Arabic, difficult to understand.

Many are impressed by the verse usually inscribed on the covers, a quotation from within, which utters the warning,

"Let none touch it but the purified," Surah 56:78

It is not surprising ; therefore, that many of the orthodox resent it’s coming into the possession of one of another faith. Muslims, everywhere, love to chant its periods in a low monotone that is not without its peculiar charm even for the uninitiated ; while to be a hafs - to achieve the feat of committing to memory the whole book - is still the highest ambition of countless Muslim children and an accomplishment bringing much merit. Certain of the more devout, as a pious practice, wear a miniature copy of the book, called hama'il, enclosed in a bag suspended from the neck. Again, with a view to warding off evil and sickness, certain of its verses and chapters are recited, or else used as charms and tied round the neck or arms.

The Traditions ascribe to Muhammad a variety of statements regarding the value and reward attached to the repetition of certain portions of the book: e.g., "The chapter entitled 'The earthquake' (99) is equal to half the Qur’an; the declaration of 'The Unity' (112) is equal to a third of the Qur'an, and that commencing, 'Say, 0 ye unbelievers' (109) is equal to a fourth of the Qur'an."

Again, "The person who repeats, two hundred times every day, the declaration of God's Unity (112), his faults of fifty years shall be blotted out, unless he shall have debt upon him." (Mishkatu’l-Masabih, Book 8, ch 1 Part 2).

A view prevalent among strictly orthodox Muslims concerning the origin of the Qur'an enables us to understand how it is that this high regard for the book becomes at times scarcely distinguishable from superstition.

According to this view the Qur'an is eternal; the very words now found between its covers were inscribed from eternity on lauh mahfuz, the Preserved Table (85:22). The whole collection of these writings was brought down from its place near God's throne, long ago, in lailatu’l qadr, "the night of power" (97: 1) in the sacred month of Ramadan, to the lowest heaven (2:181); and there stored up until it was revealed, "piecemeal," as occasion required, to Muhammad (25:34).

And these believe that the Qur'an is God's uncreated Word, something inherent in His essence. It follows that in their view we have here the very words of God Himself albeit in Arabic. Not the ideas alone but the very words in their spelling and their grammar, all are God's own God's alone.

Other books, including the Old and New Testament were revelations delivered to men in the form of ideas which inspired prophets gave forth after clothing them in human language. Not so with the Qur'an. Its actual text was pronounced by Gabriel in the ear of Muhammad (75:16-19). For this reason orthodox Muslims include every word of the Qur'an in the category of Qal Allahu, "Allah has said," and consequently they rate the Christian Scriptures much lower because they are not cast entirely in this mould.

The unique origin of the Qur’an is, in their eyes, further enhanced by the consequent claim that it is alike incomparable and incorruptible. Much is made in this connection of the fact that Muhammad was illiterate, and though some claim that the term nabi ummi, applied to him in the Qur‘an (7:156,158), means the Gentile prophet, yet others contend that it signifies the unlettered one.

In any case the Qur'an has come to be looked upon as the standing miracle of Islam and as occupying a unique place among all scriptures. Muhammad declared it to be the one sufficient "sign" granted to men through him (29:49, 50). Arabs were challenged to produce something like it (17:90; 2:21).

But there is another side to all this. Muhammad seems to have been very sensitive to any criticism of the high claims he himself made for the Qur'an, claims out of which still more extravagant ones developed. In the short seventy seventh Surah the phrase is repeated ten times,

His enemies found one reason for this charge in the way he made disjointed pronouncements from time to time, claiming each to have been revealed to him by God. The charge and his reply are preserved in the Qur'an;

"And the infidels say, ‘Unless the Qur'an be sent down to him all at Once…. ’ But in this way would we stablish thy heart by it, in parcels have we parcelled it out to thee,"(25:34 ; cp. 17:107).

And it is unquestionably the fact that numerous passages in the book are of an “occasional” nature, i.e., relating to particular events and emergencies.

Sale, writing two hundred years ago, aptly described this manner of revelation in the introduction to his translation of the Qur'an: "Whenever anything happened which perplexed and gravelled Muhammad, and which he could not otherwise get over, he had recourse to a new revelation, as an infallible expedient in all nice cases." (The Koran, The Preliminary Discourse, Sect 3)

Method of recording revelations

The methods used by Muhammad for recording these utterances varied. At times he would employ a scribe who wrote out the portions upon palm - leaves, leather, stones, or the broad shoulder - blades of some animal. Much, however, was not transcribed, but was stored in the minds of the Companions, secial value attached to this method, because at an early date the recital of a passage of the Qur'an formed an essential part of public worship. But though the Arab mind was remarkably retentive it was not infallible. Even Muhammad's memory seems to have failed him at times (cp. Surah 2:100).

A situation arose in the eleventh year of the Hijra, within two years of Muhammad's death, which caused both Abu Bakr and 'Umar to fear for the safety of the Qur'an. In that year at the battle of Yamama many Muslim warriors, who were also qaris, or reciters of the Qur'an, lost their lives. The fear lest the book of God should be lost led these two Companions of the prophet to employ Zaid ibn Thabit to collect all the material. What a task he took hand! Tradition records that he gathered it "from palm-leaves, skins, blade-bones and the hearts of men."

But who shall say that Zaid managed to secure all that Muhammad had ever uttered and all that had been committed to memory? - that no portion was irretrievably lost in the death of some qari or other? As a matter of fact a tradition according to "Umar asserts that "the verse of stoning" concerning the penalty for adulterers, was extant as a revelation in Muhammad's time, though it is not to be found in the Qur'an today. (cp The Verse of Stoning, W.H.Gairdner, C.L.S. Madras)

The Form of the Quran.

Judging by the command given to Muhammad, the meaning of the word Qur'an is recital, Surah 96:1:

and it can apply not only to the whole book but to any portion of it (Surah 12:3)

There are in use among Muslims other names for the book, e. g., Furqan, Al Kitab. These are found in the book itself, but it is customary in speaking of it to add some such attribute as sharif, noble or majid, glorious:thus, Qur'an sharif.

In length the Qur'an is slightly longer than the New Testament, but it has a certain unity which cannot be claimed, for either the O.T. or the N.T., inasmuch as it comes from one source and exhibits the working of a single mind.

The book is divided into 114 sections, or suras of very unequal length. These are named, not numbered, the name of a particular surah being supplied either by the opening words of that surah or by some subject or person mentioned therein. Twenty-nine of these surahs begin with mysterious letters. At the head of each sura is a note indicating whether it was "revealed" at Mecca or Madina. Then, as a kind of preface to the contents of the surahs we find an invocation, the bismillah, i.e., bismillahir-rahmani’rrahim, “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." This appears in all but the ninth surah. Each surah is divided into ayat, signs," or, as we might say, "verses."

Muslims are accustomed to divide the Qur'an into thirty parts to facilitate the reading of the whole book in one month, viz in Ramadan. These parts are called juz in Arabic, and sipara in Persian. Again, the siparas are subdivided into several ruku, "acts of bowing," these being sections of the sacred text used by Muslims in prayers,

The nature of the Arabic language is such that it is comparatively easy to make use of rhymes. This was a style frequently used by Arabs and it abounds in the Qur'an, Its verses are made to close with words having similar sounds for their last syllables. An expert reader makes the most of this kind of rhythmical prose.

Unfortunately there is, in the form in which it is usually available, no recognized order or arrangement in the chapters of the Qur‘an. What is noticeable is that after the opening section, called 'Fatiha, the longest chapters come first and the shorter ones, some of them with less than a dozen verses, at the end. This is clearly intentional, but it means that as they stand the chapters are neither in chronological order, nor arranged according to their subject-matter.

It amounts to this really, that when Zaid was commanded to collect the Qur'an he put his materials together as they came to hand, often without regard to continuity of subject. Accordingly, we have late Madina surahs placed before early Meccan ones; indeed, the short surahs at the end are admittedly some of the earliest portions. Not only so, verses of undoubted Meccan origin are found embedded in Madina surahs, and vice versa. All this makes it peculiarly difficult to read the Qur'an intelligibly.

There is, however, another side to this. If we regret that Zaid did not exercise more freedom and judgment in his task, we must acknowledge that he was scrupulously honest and that as a result we have a volume which, taken as a whole, is in a high degree authentic.

Later on, however, Zaid’s services were again required. His compilation had more or less fixed the text of the Qur’an but not the reading of it,.Uthman, the third Khalifa, had to deal drastically in his time with a widespread scandal whereby different persons claimed the right to read certain passages of the Qur'an in different ways. Some of these differences were due to the peculiar use made in tribal dialects of certain words. Thus arose differences of interpretation and consequent wrangling. Besides which it would appear that Muhammad, himself, on occasion, dictated the same passage to different persons with different readings; --a tradition says, "the Qur'an was revealed according to seven modes of reading” (Mishkatu’l-Masabih, Book 8, Ch.3, Part 1).

Alarmed at the bitter feelings roused by these disputes, Uthman was persuaded to intervene by Hudhzaifa, who is reported to have said: "Stop the people before they differ regarding their scriptures, as do the Jews and the Christians" (Quoted by Muir, Life of Mahomet, Vol 1, p 13). Accordingly he appointed a commission, consisting of Zaid with three men of the Quraish, to decide finally upon the text and to fix the reading according to the pure Quraish idiom. When this edition was completed Uthman sent copies to the principal cities of the empire and ordered all the previous copies to be burnt. Uthman’s recension, made about 653, has remained the authorised text down to the present time. But while it may be true that no other work has remained for twelve centuries with so pure a text, it is probably equally true that no other has suffered so drastic a purging.

Re- arrangement of the chapters

In consequence of the lack of order in the compilation of the Qur'an, scholars, both Muslim and Christian, have attempted a rearrangement of the chapters in their chronological order. A most natural division is that whereby the contents fall into two main groups, viz. The passages which are said to have been revealed at Mecca, and those revealed at Madina, In other words, the principle has come to be accepted that the Qur’an is only properly explained by continual reference to the life of Muhammad.

"No book bears more distinctly the impress of its author's mind." Says S. Lane - Poole, Studies in a Mosque, p 168.

In English, the handiest edition showing this re - arrangement of the surahs is Rodwell's translation. Such a rearrangement not only makes the book more readable ; it enables one to trace the career of Muhammad and the development of Islam. We can see, too, how this professedly " piecemeal " revelation fitted new situations as they arose. Read in this order, the earliest surahs are found to be marked by certain grandeur of expression rarely found in the later Madina ones. God's omnipotence, omniscience and unity are favourite themes. These chapters also reveal in Muhammad an exalted state of mind and a conviction that his call was from God (cp. Surah’s 74 and 94). Surah 91:1 - 10 is such a striking passage.

The Meccan Surah’s

We can see Muhammad in those early days denouncing the idolatry of his fellow - townsmen and threatening them with the tortures of hell if they will not hearken (Surah 77:111 ; 104:96). Over against such passages we have others which are intended to reassure and encourage his persecuted followers ; e. g., the graphic accounts of the Paradise that awaits them (Surah 78 and 56).

Muhammad also rebuts charges of imposture and utters threats against those who doubt the divine inspiration of the Qur'an (Surah 77 and 25:5-6). References to former prophets now begin to appear, and are meant to show that they, too, were treated with scorn and accused of imposture (cp Surah 26) The closing portion of the Meccan period, made difficult by the boycott of the Quraish is reflected in a passage like 6:106;

The Madina surahs, constituting rather more than one-third of the whole collection, bear, as we should expect, a different character. In them there is less stress than formerly on dogma and more on the precepts and laws which are to guide the daily lives of Muslims. The dictates of the practical administrator of the affairs of the new State replace the burning eloquence of the preacher. Muhammad is obliged now to deal with questions of social life, domestic details, peace and war. This part of the book may not inaptly be termed the legal section of the Qur'an.

Muhammad's conflict with the Jews is as marked in this section of the Qur'an as is his controversy with the Meccans in the earlier one. In Mecca his tone towards the Jews had been friendly;

"Dispute not with the People of the Book except in kindly manner," Surah 29:45.

In Madina, being vexed that they cannot find, or refuse to admit, references to himself in their Scriptures, he indignantly charges them with concealing the truth (cp. Surah 2:73 ; 3:64, 72 ; 7:161). And when things had reached an extreme pass he utters the most terrible predictions concerning them :

"0 ye to whom the Scriptures have been given ! believe... ere we efface your features, and twist your head round backward, or curse you... Those who disbelieve our signs we will in the end cast into the fire:so oft as their skins shall be well - burnt we will change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the torment,"Surah 4: 50 and 59.

Strained relations with the Meccans and doubts regarding the attitude of Arab tribes soon led to the sanction of fighting, thus:

"War is prescribed for you:but from this ye are averse "; and "Fight for the cause of God,"Surah 2:212, 245.

One chapter, chapter 33 is concerned for the most part with the domestic affairs of Muhammad, overmuch of it indeed with his wives (see v. 49). In this same chapter we find the phrase commonly used, "God and His Apostle." In Mecca he had stressed that he was a plain - spoken " wamer " (cp. Surah 67:26); but in Madina he demands that, special deference be shown to him ; "Address not the Apostle as ye address one another," Surah 24:63. Disobedience is not only an offence against God, but against "His Apostle" also, Surah 33:36.

The general design of the Qur'an seems to be to unite the adherents of the three different religions then followed in Arabia, most of whom were idolaters, the rest Jews and Christians, in the knowledge and worship of the One Living God. For this purpose certain laws and ceremonies were sanctioned, some of them ancient, some quite new. At the head of this community stands Muhammad combining in himself the double office of pope and prince, to whom all are obliged to render obedience since he has been sent of God to establish true religion, but not a new religion, on earth.

The above statement is fully borne out by a consideration of the contents of the Qur'an; in particular, it can be shown how Muhammad incorporated into his system not only articles of faith, but customs and ceremonies that had for long been associated with the religions of the peoples mentioned. The Qur'an, indeed, testifies to the fact that his critics observed this tendency and charged him with borrowing: “The infidels say,

Surah 25:5, 6 ; cp. 16:103, 105 ; 52:33 ; 21:5.

Muhammad rebuts the charges, declaring that the statements referred to have been "sent down" or "brought down"; that is, by Gabriel.

1. There are elements in the Qur'an from pagan sources

(a) From the heathen Arabs Muhammad took over most of the ceremonies connected with the hajj (cp. 22:27ff). The perplexity felt by some at such incorporation is illustrated by a remark attributed to Umar, the second Khalifah who, in the act of kissing the Black Stone, said I know that thou art a stone ; thou dost no good or harm in the world:and if it were not that I saw the Prophet kiss thee, I would not kiss thee ! (Mishkatu’l - Masabih Book 11, Ch 4, Part 3).

(b) From the Zoroastrians of Persia Muhammad incorporated in somewhat modified form, conceptions of heaven and hell, judgment and reward. From this source come the huris, or virgins of Paradise, and fables about the jinn.

2. A considerable amount of material comes from Jewish sources. In a number of passages in the Qur'an we find a curious likeness, and unlikeness, to narratives in the Old Testament. This is due to the fact that Muhammad had to do with Jews who had accustomed themselves to use not so much the Old Testament as the Talmud, which had been completed in the century before Muhammad. The apocryphal stories of this Talmud formed the basis of instruction in the Jewish schools of his day. Muhammad would have heard these stories rather than the Biblical narratives. There is more than one curious illustration of this fact in the Qur'an; e.g., the story of Cain and Abel (Surah 5:30-35), where a raven is sent which "scratched upon the ground” to show Cain how to dispose of his brother's body. There is nothing of this in Genesis, but in the Pirke Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 31, it is to Adam that the raven shows the method of burial.

Whole chapters are devoted to Abraham (Surah 14) and Joseph (Surah 12). With regard to the former it is repeatedly stated in the Qur’an that he was cast into a fire because of his refusal to worship idols (see 37:95; 21:68-70; 29:23). Now this curious idea is found in a Jewish book, called the Targum of Jonathan, in reference to Genesis 11: 28 and 15:7. The Jewish author took Ur (of the Chaldees), the name of a place, to be literally "fire," which is what the word itself means. The rest of the story in the Targum about Abraham being thrown into the fire for refusing to worship idols is a pure invention on the part of the Jewish writer, yet the Qur'an has incorporated the whole thing!

Finally, words of undoubted Hebrew origin occur in the Qur'an, e.g., taurat, jahannam, sabt, sakina. Muslims, like the late Sayyid 'All of London, and the late Prof, S. Khuda Bakhsh of Calcutta, have themselves admitted that Muhammad drew some of his materials from these sources.

(3) There is, on the other hand, surprisingly little in the Qur'an from Christian sources, and most of that can be traced to apocryphal literature. This is most evident in the narratives concerning Mary, the mother of Jesus. The story that " they cast lots " as to who should be her guardian when she was a child (Surah 3 32 - 39), is recorded at length in the Protoevangelium of James the Less, and in the Coptic work, The History of the Virgin. That the pains of childbirth came upon on her " by the trunk of a palm " (Surah 19. 22 - 25) is part of a story recorded in an apocryphal work called The History of the Nativity of Mary and the Infancy of the Saviour.

The influence of the Gnostic teaching of heretical sects is perhaps to be found in references made in the Qur’an to the doctrine of the Trinity and the Crucifixion.

Muhammad's acquaintance with, and early respect for, the Jews and the Christians, to whom he gave the distinctive title Ahl - I -- Kitab, or “the People of the Book," ensures a prominent place for their Scriptures in the pages of the Qur'an. It declares that they were “given by God. ” (Surah 32:23 ; l7 ; 57 ; 5:50); to be “a light and direction to men” (Surah 6:91); and calls them “ the Book of God" (5:48) and "the Word of God" (2:70)) but, there is little to show that Muhammad had any acquaintance with these Scriptures. The fact that he proclaimed that they contained predictions conceming himself (7:156 ; 6l:6) rather goes to prove this. The Jews'stubborn repudiation of his claim led to a whole series of charges that they were in the habit of manipulating their Scriptures (2:39, 70, 73 ; 3:72 ; 4:48); by which he meant that they so fumished him with information from their book as to convey a sense different from that which its words intended.

The Qur'an has much to say concernmg the prophets: mention is made of some who would be unknown to "the People of the Book." These prophets and others, thousands in number, are also mentioned in the Traditions. Muhammad's idea was that all men need guidance in the matter of faith, and that these prophets are sent from time to time with revelations. But this guidance is essentially the same from the time of Adam to Muhammad. With wearisome repetition, legends concerning the earlier prophets are told in the Qur’an (l9:50 - 64; 38:⁴5ff; 37:77, 6:83 - 86). They form a long line, from Adam through Noah, Abraham, Lot, Ishmael, Moses, on to Jesus, and ending in Muhammad, who is declared to be the Apostle of God, and the seal of the prophets, Surah 33:40.

A number of passages can be cited to show that the Qur'an gives a place to Jesus the like of which is not accorded to any other prophet, not even to Muhammad himself. He is Mary's "holy son" (19:19; cp. 3:31). He is "illustrious in this world and in the next" (3:40). He is "His (God's) Word..." "and a spirit proceeding from Himself" (4; 169). Adam is known among Muslims as Safiu'llah, the chosen ot God; Noah as Najiu‘llah, the prophet of God; Abraham as Khalilu‘llah, the friend, of God (4:124); Moses as Kalimu'llah, one who speaks with God (7:141); Muhammad as Rasulu’llah, the messenger of God (7:158); but Jesus is here called Kalimatullah, the Word of God (4:l69),

And yet the most common title given to Christ in the Qur’an is ‘Isa ibn-Maryam, " Jesus, the son of Mary" (Cp, 5:116; 61:6; 4:156) as though Muhammad would popularise this name by way of protest against all that is implied in the phrase familiar to Christians. "Jesus. Son of God," Ibn’ullah (cp. also 43:59; 5:76-79).

The Qur'an denies, too, that Jesus died upon the cross. It was only an "illusion," another was mistaken for "Him (Surah 4:156). The fact is that Muhammad either could not understand or would not admit the wondrous love displayed on Calvary.

Further; Muhammad's anxiety to be considered “the seal of the prophets” led him to recast Christ's promise of the Paraclete so as to make it a prediction concerning himself:

“Jesus, the son of Mary, said., 0 children of Israel! of a truth I am God's apostle to you to confirm the law that was given before me and to announce an apostle that shall come after me whose name shall be Ahmad" (Surah 6l:6).

Ahmad and Muhammad are variant forms from the same root.