(ca. 610-632) sacred scripture of Islam
Muslims believe that the Koran (or Qur’an, Arabic for “recitation”) is the word of God as revealed to muhammad in a process that began in the year 610, during the month of Ramadan, when the angel Gabriel called out to him and commanded him to “recite in the name of the Lord.” For more than 20 years, until his death in 622, Muhammad continued to receive further revelations when in a trancelike state, and he would then convey the words to his followers. Each revelation eventually became part of a surah, or chapter, in the Koran.
After the prophet’s death, different versions and arrangements of the surahs began to spread across the expanding Muslim realm. To counteract this trend, Muhammad’s secretary, Zayd Ibn Thabit, collected all the written fragments he could find and recorded the recollections of those “reciters” who had memorized parts of Muhammad’s visions.
Together with other scholars, Zayd produced an authoritative text sometime during the reign of the Caliph ‘Uthman (ruled 644-56). This text is the basis of all subsequent editions of the Koran and is recognized by all Muslims, regardless of doctrinal differences.
Muslims often refer to the Koran as the “Arabic Koran (Recitation).” It is considered impossible to translate and impious even to try. Thus, non-Arab Muslims use the Arabic original for prayer, recitation, and study. When Muslims render the text into other languages, it is considered a paraphrase or interpretation.
The written Koran has always been intended for reading aloud, following carefully preserved traditions of pronunciation and emphasis. In this way, difficult Arabic passages can be made accessible. Translators of the Koran will generally add additional wording to preserve the meaning.
Printed editions of the Koran appeared in Europe from the Renaissance on, first in Arabic and then in European languages. Eventually, critical editions were published in Europe in which the text was often rearranged and “corrected” in light of modern linguistic and historical research. Scholarly but strictly orthodox Arabic versions also appeared in the 20th century.
Critical Analysis
Muslims consider the classical Arabic of the Koran to be the very standard of purity, grammar, and diction. Nearly all the vocabulary is of Arabic origin, although some words appear to scholars to be derived from Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew.
There are also several different styles of writing in the Koran. Many of the short, earlier verses are written in the clipped rhymed prose of the kahins, or pagan priests. Other verses in the khatib style have the flavor of sermons, while still others follow the style of stories or dramatic poetry. Finally, many of the legal rulings follow the format of treaties or agreements.
Most of the verses appear to be spoken by God. Many of those spoken by Muhammad begin with the command, “Say,” often when the prophet is being instructed to answer questioners or doubters.
English-language prose versions of the Koran run to about 400 pages. The content is divided into 114 chapters. Some chapters correspond to individual revelations, while others are composites that Muhammad himself assembled from shorter revelations.
In the standard text, the chapters are presented roughly in size order, rather than following a chronology or thematic plan. The longer chapters appear near the beginning, even though many of them date from the last years of the prophet’s life. For example, following a brief introductory chapter invoking God’s guidance, Chapter 2 has 286 verses, while the final 10 chapters range from three to seven verses each.
The verses themselves (ayat in Arabic) vary greatly in length. Many of them, especially in the shorter chapters, consist of one brief line, while the longer verses run the length of a full paragraph.
The title of each chapter is taken from its text but does not necessarily describe the chapter as a whole. Beneath the title is an indication of whether the surah was revealed at Mecca or Medina, followed by the number of verses the chapter contains. All but one chapter continues with the standard invocation, “In the name of Allah (God), the Compassionate, the Merciful.” Finally comes the text itself, except for 29 chapters that precede the text with some stand-alone letters whose mystical significance is not known.
In terms of content, the main theme of the Koran is that the world was created and is ruled by a single all-powerful and merciful God, who demands both faith and righteousness. Failure to obey will result in punishment on the Day of Judgment, when evildoers will be sent to hell and the righteous to heaven.
The Koran says that God, to instruct human beings in proper faith and conduct, sent a series of prophets at different times and to different peoples, all with the same essential teaching. The last prophet was Muhammad, who was sent to the Arabs in particular and to the entire world.
Among the Old Testament characters found in the Koran are Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob; Joseph and his brothers; Moses and Aaron; David and Solomon; Job; and Jonah. The most important of these figures are Moses, who freed the Israelites from Egypt and led them to the Promised Land, and Abraham. The Koran praises Abraham as the first man to abandon idol-worship. It also credits him with building the sacred Ka’bah shrine in Mecca, which Muhammad later designated as the holiest site in Islam. Interestingly, the Koran considers Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs, to be Abraham’s heir, while the Hebrew bible attributes that role to Isaac, the ancestor of the Jews.
The Koran also contains many references to Jesus, who is revered as a prophet and miracle worker, and Mary, but the Koran rejects the Christian concept of the Trinity and denies that Jesus was crucified.
Many of the later chapters of the Koran (which appear earlier in the standard text) deal with laws and society. These chapters have been carefully studied by generations of Muslim legal scholars and form the basis of much Islamic law. Among the topics treated are the laws of prayer, purification, fasting, and pilgrimage; almsgiving and respect for the poor; theft, violence, and revenge; the distribution of spoils when fighting nonbelievers; usury, debts, and inheritance; food and drink; marriage; and the role of women.
Muslims consider the Koran to be the miraculous, infallible, primary source for all basic legal and religious doctrines. The Koran we know is said to be a reflection of a divine, uncreated Koran that has always existed. Because of the crucial importance of every word in the text, many schools of interpretation (tafsir) have arisen over the centuries, using a variety of approaches. The earliest interpreters actually created the science of Arabic linguistics to fix the exact meaning of the text. They pored over every word and studied other contemporary and earlier Arabic writings for clues to meaning, even studying pagan poetry.
Scholars collected and commented on the vast body of hadith, the traditions about the life and sayings of Muhammad not found in the Koran, hoping to clarify the meaning of disputed passages. Each of the many theological camps within medieval Islam produced its own interpretation, and mystics from the Sufi tradition wrote allegories as an aid to understanding the Koran.
In the 19th century, European scholars began to approach the Koran with the linguistic and historical tools developed in the critical study of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. They challenged the authenticity of some of the surahs (chapters) and published editions that rearranged the material in a more chronological fashion.
In recent decades, some academic specialists have gone further. They claim that parts of the Koran were written perhaps a century later than the date of Muhammad’s death. They also speculate that the Koran was largely composed in Syria and Palestine. Other secular scholars dispute these conclusions.
To date, very few Muslim scholars have shown an interest in such speculation, for the historical validity and divine origin of the entire topic remains a matter of faith for nearly all Muslims. Researchers and critics have compared the Koran to both the Hebrew Bible (noting differences between the two texts) and the Hebrew midrash, folktales and sermons that were recorded in the centuries after the Bible was completed (noting similarities). Regardless of ongoing scholarship and debate, one fact remains true: The Koran has had a profound influence on all subsequent Arabic literature and continues to influence contemporary religion, culture, and literature.
English Versions of the Koran
The Essential Koran: The Heart ofIslam. Translated by Thomas Cleary. Edison, N.J.: Castle, 1998.
The Glorious Koran. Translated by Muhammad Mar-maduke Pickthall. Elmhurst, N.Y.: Tahrike Tarsile Qu’ran, 2000. The Koran. Translated by J. M. Rodwell. London: J. M. Dent, 1994.
Works about the Koran
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an. Beltsville, Md.: Amana Publications, 2004.
Barazangi, Nimat Hafez. Woman’s Identity and the Qur’an. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004.
Schwartz-Barcott, Timothy P. War, Terror & Peace in the Qur’an and in Islam. Carlisle, Pa.: Army War College Foundation Press, 2004.
Sells, Michael. Approaching the Koran: The Early Revelations. Ashland, Ore.: White Cloud Press, 1999.
