Voices of Islam (16 page)

Along with the distinction they make with regard to subject matter, schol- ars often make a stylistic distinction between the Meccan
suras,
which are more poetic, and the Medinan
suras,
which are more discursive and matter- of-fact. The following passage from the Meccan
Surat al-Naba’
(‘‘The Tidings,’’ 78:1–17) provides an example of this. Arguing from the principle that privilege entails responsibility, this
sura
says that nature is a source of blessings for human beings, who will be asked, on Judgment Day, whether they showed gratitude to God for such blessings:

What are they querying one another about? About the Momentous News (of the Final Hour) In regard to which they are of different opinions. Certainly not! They will soon find out.

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Voices of Tradition

Again, certainly not! They will soon find out. Have We not made the earth a cradle

And the mountains stakes? And We created you in pairs,

And We made your sleep a comfort, And We made the night a garment,

And We made the day a time for earning a livelihood,

And We made, above you, seven Firm Ones (that is, the seven heavens), And We installed a blazing lamp,

And We sent down, from the wringing wet ones (the clouds), streaming water, That We may cause to grow, by means of it, grains and vegetables

And dense gardens.

Indeed, the Day of Decision is an appointed time.

Now let us look at a passage from the Medinan
Surat al-Ma’ida
(‘‘The Table Spread,’’ 5:1–3). These verses, which refer to certain rituals of the Hajj pilgrimage, urge the believers to fulfill their obligations:

O you who believe, fulfill your contracts. Made lawful for you are animals of the type of cattle—except that which is being recited to you—without making hunted game lawful while you are in a state of sanctity. O you who believe, do not desecrate any of the symbols of God: the sacred months, the sacrificial offer- ings, the collared animals, or those intending to go to the Sacred House, seeking as they do bounty from their Lord and His pleasure. And when you leave the state of sanctity, then you may hunt. Let not the enmity of a group of people induce you—on account of their having kept you from the Sacred Mosque—to commit aggression. Cooperate in piety and Godfearingness, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And have fear of God. Indeed, God is swift in punishment. Made unlawful for you are carrion, blood, the flesh of the pig, that over which is taken the name of someone other than God, that which is strangled to death, that which receives a fatal blow, that which has fallen to its death, that which is butted to death, and that which predators have eaten of—except that which you have properly slaughtered—and that which is immolated at altars; and that you should take portions by means of casting arrows. This is a sinful transgression. Today, those who have disbelieved have despaired of your religion, so do not fear them, but fear Me. Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed my blessing upon you, and I have approved of Islam as your religion. So, toward the one who is compelled in extreme hunger—but without having any inclination toward sin—God is Very Forgiving, Very Merciful.

The language of the Qur’an has a notable ring of Divine authority.
Allah,
the Arabic word for God, occurs about 2,700 times in the Qur’an, often sev- eral times on every page. This means that God has, literally, a ubiquitous presence in the pages of the Qur’an—a linguistic counterpart, one might say, of the theological doctrine of Divine omnipresence. Furthermore, even though the Qur’an quotes many speakers—including both good figures like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus and evil fi like Satan and Pharaoh—the

The Qur’an, the Word of God
59

entire Qur’an is believed by Muslims to be the Speech of God, and, there- fore, technically, God is the only speaker in the Qur’an. The God of the Qur’an sometimes speaks in the first person—in the singular or in the plural (in the latter case, it is the plural of majesty rather than the numerical plu- ral)—and sometimes in the third person. But always it is in an authoritative voice that is unmistakable, whether that voice describes, explicates, analyzes, comments, praises, chides, promises, threatens, foretells, or reminds. This voice contributes in no small way to creating solemnity, which is a major characteristic of the Islamic scripture.

The best guide to the meaning of the Qur’an is the Qur’an itself. As has been noted above, the Qur’an returns to its main themes again and again. In doing so, however, it usually makes variations on the themes, approaching them from somewhat different angles, furnishing more details where only a little was supplied before, responding to certain issues that might have arisen from an earlier account, or citing a parable to illustrate or reinforce a point already made. Very often, the Qur’an breaks up a story—that of a prophet or a previous nation, for example—into several portions and presents one portion of it in one
sura,
another in a second
sura,
and so on. Only that por- tion of a story that is relevant to a theme under discussion in a
sura
will be presented in that
sura.
Consequently, a full understanding of the story would require that the various parts of the story be put together in a logical sequence. Studying one part of the Qur’an, therefore, necessarily involves studying other parts of it.

The importance of studying Classical Arabic for understanding and inter- preting the Qur’an has already been hinted at. The prime source of the Ara- bic of the Qur’an is pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, a deep study of which yields insights into the vocabulary, idioms, images, and structures that form the background to the language of the Qur’an. Also important for Qur’anic interpretation is knowledge of the sayings and conduct of Muhammad, such knowledge being gained through the body of Prophetic reports known as
Hadith
(literally, ‘‘event,’’ ‘‘news,’’ or ‘‘report’’), which, for the sake of con- venience, we may call the Word of Muhammad.
Hadith
is especially useful for the explication of the legal and ethical content of the Qur’an. As one would expect, a vast amount of exegetical and other types of material on the Qur’an exists in Islamic tradition and is continuously being augmented. It goes with- out saying that a sound knowledge of this scholarly tradition is key to under- standing the Qur’an at more than a superficial level.

The foregoing discussion should not be taken to imply that the Qur’an is a closed book, in the sense that only a select few have the right to interpret it. Since there is no priesthood in Islam, the door of Qur’anic interpretation is, theoretically, open to anyone who brings the necessary qualifications to the task. Today, most Muslims would agree on the need for a fresh and creative interpretation of the Qur’an, but such interpretation will have credibility only if it is authentic and responsible.

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Voices of Tradition

The Qur’an occupies an important place in the lives of Muslims. It has given rise to certain artistic disciplines, notably calligraphy and Qur’an chant- ing. The walls and arches of many mosques in the Muslim world are adorned by beautifully inscribed Qur’anic verses, and, even in this age of computers and printers, calligraphic copies of the Qur’an are readily available in Muslim countries. Qur’an chanting, or
tajwid,
is an art that may take a few years to perfect. Regularly held international
tajwid
competitions for men and women have enabled the public across the Muslim world to appreciate this art. In many Muslim countries, children learn to read the Qur’an at an early age. Reading the Qur’an at this stage means learning to read the Arabic script. Since the scripts of some Islamic languages are Arabic based, the ability to read the Arabic script of the Qur’an gives children, in certain cases, facility to read their own language. At any rate, early exposure to the Qur’an creates in children an attachment to the Holy Scripture and to the Isamic religion.

In the West, the field of Qur’anic studies has registered notable growth in the last two decades. In English and other languages, several new translations of the Qur’an have appeared, many scholarly works have been published, and popular expositions have not lagged behind. Still, one feels that this founda- tional text of Islam has not received the same attention that the political and social history of Islam has. Much exegetical material from the classical period is still in manuscript form, only a relatively small number of scholars are engaged in study of the Qur’an, and despite the production of several edited volumes—especially the
Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an,
4
to which scholars from all over the world have contributed—close collaborative work between Mus- lim and Western scholars has yet to occur. However, the study of the Qur’an is likely to receive a boost from the continuing growth of the larger discipline of Islamic studies, and one can hope that the coming years will bring greater recognition of the importance of the Qur’an not only as a subject of interest in itself but also as a lived reality in Muslim life, thus necessitating study of that lived reality in all its variety.

NOTES

1. A short bibliography of works on the Qur’an may be provided here. For gen- eral introductory accounts, see Richard Bell,
   Introduction to the Qur’an,
   revised and enlarged by W. Montgomery Watt (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970), and Farid Esack,
   The Qur’an: A Short Introduction
   (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2002). On the textual history of the Qur’an, see M. M. Al-Azami,
   The History of the Qur’anic Text from Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments
   (Leicester: UK Islamic Academy, 2003). Two useful thematic studies of the Qur’an are Fazlur Rahman,
   Major Themes of the Qur’an
   (Minneapolis and Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1980), and Muhammad Abdel Haleem,
   Under- standing the Qur’an: Themes and Style
   (London and New York: IB Tauris, 2001). See also Helmut Ga¨tje, ed.,
   The Qur’an and Its Exegesis: Selected Texts with Classical
   

   The Qur’an, the Word of God
   61
   

   and Modern Muslim Interpretations,
   translated by Alford T. Welch (Oxford: One- world, 1996; repr. 1976 Routledge edition). For the stylistic and literary aspects of the Qur’an, see, besides Abdel Haleem’s above-quoted work, Issa J. Boullata,
   Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an
   (Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 2000). See also Mustansir Mir, ‘‘The Language of the Qur’an,’’ in
   The Black- well Companion to the Qur’an,
   ed. Andrew Rippin (Oxford: Blackwell Books, forth- coming). Two relatively advanced studies of exegetical, historical, and other aspects of the Qur’an are
   Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur’an,
   ed. Andrew Rippin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), and G. R. Hawting and Abdul Kader A. Shareef, eds.
   Approaches to the Qur’an
   (London: Routledge, 1993).
   The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an,
   ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2001–2005) is an indispensable work for a wide variety of Qur’anic subjects. In the text above, I have given my own translations of the Qur’anic material cited.
   

2. Since the Muslims are members of a well-knit brotherhood, those who make cutting remarks about other Muslims in effect make such remarks about themselves.
   

3. The Arabs compared backbiting to eating the flesh of the victim, who was likened to a carcass that was being picked at by the predatory backbiter.
   

4. See note 1 above.
   

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