The Qur'an
The Qur'an (also Quran, Koran, Alcoran;
Arabic قُرْآن) is the
Islamic holy book of
Allah (The Divine, i.e.
God).
Believers in Islam, called Muslims, believe that the Qur'an is the eternal, literal
word of God, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of 22 years. The Qur'an
consists of 114 suras (chapters) with a total of 6,236
ayats (verses).
The content in the Qur'an makes reference to some of the same people and events as the
Jewish and
Christian
Bibles. Well-known Biblical characters such as
Adam,
Moses,
Abraham,
Noah,
Jesus,
Mary, and
John the Baptist
are mentioned.
Origin and development of the Qur'an
Muslims believe that the wording of the Qur'anic text that we have today is identical to that spoken by Muhammad himself;
created by God and delivered to Muhammad through Gabriel. Muhammad is supposed to have only delivered the Qur'an in spoken form
during his lifetime; the word Qur'an (repertoire) is suitably translated as "recital", indicating that it cannot exist
as a mere text. To ensure they remembered the text thoroughly, the faithful were required to (and many still do) memorize
passages perfectly, down to the last syllable, and recite them frequently. A person whose recital repertoire encompasses the
whole Qur'an is called a
Qari'
(قَارٍئ).
According to the dominant tradition, Muhammad's companions began recording all the suras in writing before Muhammad died in
632 CE. Thus, as Muslims proudly note, two different mechanisms were in place -- oral and
written -- to help ensure that no corruption of the text took place over time.
Most Muslims believe that of the major
Ibrahimic religious
works containing the word of God, (the Qur'an, the
Tanakh, and the
New Testament) only the Qur'an has remained uncorrupted over the years. In recent
years, some students of Muslim theology have advocated the findings of modern biblical
textual criticism, which claims to have shown that the extant version of the
five books of Moses was not written solely by Moses 3500 years ago, as traditional Jews and Christians had believed,
but instead was compiled perhaps 2500 years ago from a number of previous sources. This is known as the
Documentary hypothesis. Similar work has been carried out on
the New Testament. In Muslims' view, this demonstrates that the Jewish
and Christian scriptures, though originally divinely inspired, have been corrupted by malicious or careless scribes over the
centuries, and cannot therefore provide a reliable guide to God's will for mankind - thus necessitating the final revelation of
the Qur'an. However, the Qur'an also stipulates that the Jewish and Christian scriptures are based, however loosely, on divinely
inspired originals, and Muslims therefore have respect for them.
Among Islamic scholars, there is almost no dispute that the text today is as it was when it was first written down. The
emphasis on the need for copies of the Qur'an to be exact has resulted in the destruction of any copies which differ from the
original. Some textual critics argue that this makes an objective and scientific study on the authenticity of Qur'anic codexes
virtually impossible, suggesting that this practice simply destroyed variations that had been original to the text.
The two best-known readings of the Qur'an are the
Warsh (ورش) and
Hafs (حفص) readings, which differ in the vocalization (tashkil
تشكيل) of a few words, however,
cantillation
(tilawa تلاوة) of the Qur'an is a fine art in the Muslim world, and allows for several
variations of pronunciation of, for instance, pausal vowels and ta marbutah. Recent discoveries of "Qur'an Graveyards"
have thrown more light onto the subject of text evolution and transcribal disputes in early Islam.
The Qur'an has been translated into many languages, but translations of the Qur'an from
Arabic to other languages are not considered by Muslims to be actual copies of the Qur'an, but rather are
considered to be interpretive translations of the Qur'an; they are thus not allotted much weight in debates upon the
Qur'an's meaning. The most important external aid used in interpreting the meanings of the Qur'an is the
Hadith - the collection of Islamic traditions from which the details of early Islamic history are derived.
Belief in the Qur'an's direct, uncorrupted divine origin is fundamental to Islam; this of course entails believing that the
Qur'an has neither errors nor inconsistencies. ("This is the book in which there is no doubt, a guide to the believers": Surat
al-Baqarah, verse 2.) However, it is well-known that certain chronologically later verses supersede earlier ones - the banning of
wine, for instance, was accomplished gradually rather than immediately - and certain scholars have argued that some verses which
discourage certain practices (for instance,
polygamy) without banning them
altogether should be understood as part of a similar process, though others argue that this contradicts "This day have I
perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and chosen for you Islam as your religion" (5.3).
Some Muslims interpret the Qur'an as containing many statements that (in retrospect) foreshadow discoveries made by modern
science (see external links below). The statements within the Qur'an cover the origin of the Universe, the description of black
holes, quantum physics, the water cycle, human embryology, geology, and many others;
Maurice Bucaille, a French
scientist and convert to
Islam, has chronicled these. Note that unlike Christian
"Creation Science", which seeks to interpret science to fit the Bible (analogous to a few
Wahhabi scholars, such as Sheikh Bin Baz, who claims the earth is
flat), these groups seek to reinterpret the Qur'an to fit science
Contemporary Scholarship and the Qur'an
Higher biblical criticism revolutionized Judaism and Christianity by calling into question long-held assumptions about the
origins of the Bible; some ambitious textual critics are attempting to do the same for the Qur'an. They claim that parts of the
Qur'an are based on stories of the
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), the New Testament of the Christian Bible, and other non-canonical Christian works; differences of the
biblical to the Qur'anic versions indicate that these stories were not taken directly from written texts but seem rather to have
been part of the oral traditions of the Arab peninsula at Muhammad's time. To Muslims, however, this explanation is topsy-turvy:
the "non-canonical" Jewish and Christian stories are simply further textual corruptions of an otherwise nearly lost divine
original reflected in the Qur'an.
Islamic history records that
Uthman ibn Affan collected all
variants of the Qur'an and destroyed those which he regarded as corrupted. Beside the known earlier versions from Abdallah Ibn
Masud and Ubay Ibn Ka'b, there exist also some highly dubious reports about a Shiite version which was allegedly compiled by
Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law, which he gave up in favor of Uthman's
collection. Modern researchers assume that the differences between the versions consisted mostly of orthographical and lexical
variants and differing count of verses. Also, all three of the mentioned people (Ibn Masud, Ubay Ibn Ka'b & Ali) were in
positions of authority that would allow them to oppose any variations that existed between their collection and that of Uthman's.
But to the contrary they all supported this and continued to serve under the Caliph's rule and the first two were, as orthodox
Muslims believe, licensed by Muhammad himself to teach the Qur'an. The copy used as a standard, according to Islamic history, was
the one compiled by the first Caliph (Abu Bakr) almost immediately after the demise of Muhammad. Abu Bakr only ruled two years.
This may explain why no opposition existed once the written Qur'an copies were standardised.
Since Uthman's version contained no diacritical marks and could be read in various ways, around the year 700 the development
of a vocalized version started. Today the Qur'an is published in fully vocalized versions.
The Hadiths (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) represent an additional view into
the Muslim understanding of Islamic law; they are roughly equivalent to Judaism's oral law in the
Mishnah and
Talmud. Different schools within the various branches of
Islam accept different hadith collections as genuine.
The interpretation of the Qur'an soon developed into its own science, the ilm at-tafsir. Famous commentators were
at-Tabari, az-Zamakhshari, at-Tirmidhi. While these commentaries mention all
common and accepted interpretations, modern fundamentalist commentaries like the one of
Sayyed Qutb show tendencies to stick to only one possible interpretation.
Today seven canonical readings of the Qur'an and several uncanonical exist. This sevener-system was laid down by Ibn Mujahid
who tried to find the special characteristics of each reading and thus derived common rules by analogical reasoning
(qiyas).
Robert of Ketton was the first to translate the Qur'an into
Latin, in 1143.
The traditions governing the translation and publication of the Qur'an state that when the book is published, it must never
simply be entitled "The Qur'an." The title must always include a defining adjective (avoiding conceivable confusion with other
"recitations", in the Arabic meaning), which is why all available editions of the Qur'an are titled The Glorious Qur'an, The
Noble Qur'an, and other similar titles..
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