Qur'an

From Mw

The Qur`ān (Arabic: القرآن al-qur`ān), also spelled as Koran, Kuran, and Coran in English, is the holy book of Islam which is believed by Muslims to have been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad from God over a period of roughly twenty-three years. Muhammad started receiving this revelation at the age of forty in the year 610 CE (12 BH), until the year of his death in 632 CE (10 AH). They also believe it to be the the final revelation sent from God; the previous scriptures being the Psalms (زبور zabūr), the Torah (التورات at-tawrāt), and the Gospel (الإنجيل al-injīl).

The word "Qur'an" is derived from the Arabic root qara`a which means to read or recite. The word qur`ān therefore means "that which is recited" or "the recitation". As is used in the Qur`an itself, the word refers to the actual recitation of the text, and not the written form in the shape of the book as we have it before us today.<sup>[1]</sup> The Qur`an written down in book form is known as a mushaf (pronounced mus-haf).^[2]

The first revelation of the Qur`an revealed to Muhammad was the first five verses of al-`Alaq.

"Read in the name of your Lord, who created,¹ created man from a clot.² Read! And your Lord is most bountiful.³ He who taught (the use of) the pen,⁴ taught man which he knew not.⁵"
Qur'an, 096:001-005

Contents 1 Revelation of the Qur`ān 1.1 First Revelation 1.2 In Stages 2 Content 2.1 Layout of the Qur`ān 2.2 Recurring elements 2.2.1 Rhyme 2.2.2 Parables 2.3 Stories 3 Sciences of the Qur`ān 3.1 Tafsir 3.2 Recitation 4 The Oral Qur`ān 4.1 The inimitability of the Qur`ān 4.2 History of Qur`ān Compilation 4.3 Linguistic Errors and Inconsistency 4.4 Grammatical Errors 5 History of the written Compilation 5.1 The Seven Ahruf 5.2 The Evolution of Reading Aids of the Written Qur`ān 6 References 7 External Links

[edit] Revelation of the Qur`ān

Revelation, or inspiration, of the Qur`an is called wahy (وحي) in Arabic. There are several ways in which something, particularly the Qur`an, was inspired to Muhammad or any other prophet of Islam. This includes dreams, God speaking directly to the prophet, or an angel giving the prophet revelation.

[edit] First Revelation

Main article: First Revelation of Quran

The Qur`an was first revealed to Muhammad when he was in the Cave Hira. The prophet would often go there in seclusion to think about and worship God. During one of his visits there, he saw an angel asking him to read. But the prophet being illiterate, replied, "I do not know how to read."

This time the angel grabbed the prophet and pressed him extremely hard, such that the prophet could not bear it anymore. The angel released him and asked him to read again, the prophet replied as he did before. So the angel once more squeezed him and then released him again. One last time, the angel asked him to read. This time the prophet answered, "What should I read?" After pressing him once more, the angel recited the beginning of Surat Al-`Alaq. The prophet returned to his wife Khadija, frigtened, and said to her, "Cover me! Cover me!" The prophet explained to her what happened and said he was afraid something might happen to him. At this, she replied, "Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously and assist the deserving calamity-afflicted ones."^[3]

[edit] In Stages

Throught the life of Muhammad , during his prophethood, the Qur`an was revealed to him piecemeal over a course of about 23 years.

Had a Muslim have an queries about a certain issue in Islam, he inform the Prophet about it. If the issue was one of importance, the Prophet would receive a revelation giving the answer or telling them what to do. At other times, an enemy of Islam would accuse the Prophet of something, and the latter would receive revelation refuting it. The Qur`an being revealed piecemeal would also help in gradually implementing the laws of God, or to help the Muslims in memorizing the Qur`an more easily.

[edit] Content

[edit] Layout of the Qur`ān

Main articles: Surah, Ayah, Juz', and Manzil

The Qur`an consists of a total of 114 chapters, which are called suwar (sing. surah). The word surah literally means "row" or "fence". Each chapter is split into verses, called ayat (sing. ayah), which actually means "sign".^[5] There are a total of 6236 ayat in the Qur'an. For the most part, the longer suwar are found towards the beginning of the Qur'an (except for surat al-Fatihah), and the shorter suwar are towards the end of the Qur'an. The longest surah, al-Baqara, consists of 286 ayat, and the shortest surah, al-Kawthar, consists of 3 ayat. All suwar, with the exception of surat at-Tawba (surah 9), start with the phrase bismillahir rahmanir rahim (In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful), which is called the basmalah.^[6] The name of each surah does not usually indicate the subject of the surah, but is often named after a word or phrase from within the text of that surah. For example, surat al-Baqara (The Cow) was named after the occurrence of the word al-baqara in ayat 2:68-2:71. The order of arrangement of the chapters (and verses) of the Qur'an was determined by the Prophet himself under the guidance of the archangel Gabriel.

The Qur'anic mushaf is logically divided into thirty juz' (pl. ajzā'), or portions, for aid in reading or reciting the Qur'an, especially during the month of Ramadan when Muslims try completing the Qur'an at least once. Each juz' is also divided into ahzāb (sing. hizb). Another way the Qur'anic text is divided is into seven parts of roughly equal length, called a manzil (pl. manāzil).

[edit] Recurring elements

The Qur'an features many recurring elements: repeated refrains, oaths, passages with qul (say), rhyme, and parables. Throughout the entire Qur'an, and within some suwar, certain phrases are repeated. These repeated phrases or refrains are found in order to stress certain points the Qur'an is making. For example, in surat ar-Rahman the refrain "Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny?" (fabi-ayyi ala-i rabbikuma tukaththibani) is repeated roughly after every other verse starting at ayah 13. The phrase "And verily, thy Lord is He, the Exalted in Might, Most Merciful." is repeated eight times throughout surat ash-Shuara.

Many suwar contain oaths made by Allah on His creation, on the Qur'an, and even on Himself. According to traditional interpretations of Qur'an's use of oaths, their function is to strenghten and support an argument because Allah views the object being sworn upon higly.^[7] In the Arabic text, passages beginning with oaths start with "wa" (و) or "la uqsimu" (لا أقسم, indeed I swear).^[8]

The Qur'an often contains commands from Allah for the Prophet to say something, usually in response to a question or an incident. These commands start with the verb say, in Arabic qul قل. The occurence of the word qul in Qur'an is 332 times.

[edit] Rhyme

[edit] Parables

[edit] Stories

[edit] Sciences of the Qur`ān

The Qur'an has many sciences:

• Tafsīr (exegesis of the Qur'an)
• Tajwīd (rules of it's recitation)
• Asbab an-nuzūl (the study of the reason of revelation)
• I'jaz (the study of the imitability of the Qur'an)

[edit] Tafsir

Main article: Tafsir

The word tafsīr is an Arabic word that is used to refer to the exegesis, explanation, or commentary of the Qur'an. Tafsir can be performed through several different methods. Scholars of tafsir (called a mufassir) agree that the best explanation of the Qur'an is through itself. This tafsir is called al-qur`ān yufassiru ba`duhu ba`dan (different parts of the Qur'an explain each other). The second method of tafsir is through the Prophet Muhammad's explanation of it. Lastly, there is the explanation of the Qur'an through the Prophet's companions, and exegesis from one's own opinions, however it is not always recommended in doing so, as the Prophet has warned of it in a saying on the authority of Abdullah ibn Abbas, "He who says something concerning the Qur'an without knowledge, then let him take his seat of fire."^[9]

Some eminent mufassirs of the Qur'an are:

• at-Tabari
• Ibn Kathir, who authored an exegesis of the Qur'an titled Tafsir ibn Kathir
• Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi

[edit] Recitation

Ever since the beginning of the Prophet's inspiration, the Qur`an was transmitted in both written and oral forms. Someone who has memorized the entirety of the Qur`an is called a hafiz^[10] (حافظ); and someone who is able to recite the Qur`an according to the rules of tajwid is called a qari'. Numerous companions of the Prophet had both collected the Qur`an in written form and in their hearts.^[11] A famous tradition records the Prophet as saying, "The most superior among you are those who learn the Qur`an and teach it."^[12] The Qur'an is recited at least five times a day by Muslims all around the world in their five daily prayers.

[edit] The Oral Qur`ān

[edit] The inimitability of the Qur`ān

The Qur`an challenges mankind as well as jinn to produce a surah similar to what is contained within the Qur`an.

Main article: The Inimitability of the Qur'an

[edit] History of Qur`ān Compilation

There are numerous hadiths that testify that the Qur'an was put in written form during the time of the Prophet Mohammed, both in the Meccan Period and the Medina period. For example Zaid b.Thabit narrates that, because of his proximity to the Prophets Mosque, he was often summoned as scribe whenever the wahy commenced.^[13]

In fact During the Medina Period there were approximately 65 Companions who functioned as scrbes for the Prophet at one time or another. See Scribes of the Prophet.

In fact the prevalance of writing down the Quran amongst the Companions was such that the Prophet declared that no one should record anything from me other than the Quran and "whoever has written anything from me other than the Quran should erase it."^[14]

[edit] Linguistic Errors and Inconsistency

The assumption that the Qur`an contains linguistic inconsistency and errors can be proved to be no more than a misconception on the part of the Qur`an critics who do not take into account the linguistic notion of co-text and its influence on the configuration of linguistic elements within a particular linguistic structure. Co-text is the linguistic environment in which a word or a sentence occurs. Each word or sentence is usually surrounded by other words or sentences. The co-text of a word is the set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence. Word meaning can only be arrived at through the study of a words linguistic environment.

The study of co-text provides an answer to the assumed linguistic inconsistencies and errors in the Qur`an. The employment of a given word order, singular or plural, or a specific particle is all decided by the co-text in which one form of a linguistic structure appears in one Aya but a different structure with a with a slightly different configuration of elements appears in another Aya.

[edit] Grammatical Errors

There have been some claims by some anti-Islamics such as Mr. P. Newton and Mr. Rafiqul-Haqq that there are grammatical errors within the Qur`an.<sup>[15]</sup> However, there cannot be any, simply because 1. Grammatical rules came after the Qur`an and 2. Arabic grammar is based primarily on the Qur`an.^[16]

[edit] History of the written Compilation

[edit] The Seven Ahruf

[edit] The Evolution of Reading Aids of the Written Qur`ān

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

• The Inimitable Qur`an
  • An Introduction to the Literary Excellence of the Qur`an
• Examining the Qur`an
• Miracles of the Qur`an by Harun Yahya
• Translations of the Qur`an
• Commentary on the Qur`an by Dr. Zohurul Hoque