SS 102

1. THE QUR’AN: AN
INTRODUCTION
Lecture Outline
-Qur’an as Scripture
-Revelation & Compilation
-Early Orthography & Variant
Readings
-Genre & Structure
-Language and ‘ijaz

2. QUR’AN AS SCRIPTURE
•Qur’an as ‘book of Islamic Revelation’ or ‘Islamic
Scripture’
Scripture:
•The authoritative text forming the basis for a religious
community and also serves as a source of belief and
guidance for that community.

3. QUR’AN AS SCRIPTURE
•Relationship between community & text
•A text not of literary but a religio-historical genre – not any
literature but considered by the community to be absolutely
transcendent and distinct from all other forms of expression
• Qur’anic speech vs. the Prophet’s
•“Exegesis before hermeneutics”
• “To understand the development of Qur’ an interpretation in the centuries
after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, it is important to recognize
that the act of exegesis does not require an explicit hermeneutics.”
(Mattson, The Story of the Qur’an, p. 186)
• Note: Exegesis may be termed tafsīr; hermeneutics may be termed uṣūl
al-tafsīr

4. QUR’AN AS SCRIPTURE
•The word ‘Qur’an’ derived from the root (q r ‘) –
means both recitation & reading.
•Difference between recitation and reading?
•Qur’an as a spoken word: not only scriptural but also
an oral discourse – the historical primacy of its oral
aspect
• Mutawatir transmission

5. QUR’AN AS SCRIPTURE
•Qur’an as a unique text that is self-conscious of its status as a book
or scripture.
• “It is the generic use of kitab/kutub to refer to earlier scriptures and to the
Qur’an itself that is special, or even unique, to the Qur’anic notion of
scripture. In general, the other sacred texts of the world’s religions that we
call ‘scriptures’ were not written with any similar consciousness of
belonging themselves to a category of texts called ‘scripture.’ Most, if not
all, great scriptural texts other than the Qur’an are unconscious of being
even potentially ‘scripture,’ for ‘scripture’ or any analogous concept is
usually a category developed ex post facto and then applied to a text or
texts that the community has experienced as sacred, and consequently
given special treatment.”

6. QUR’AN AS SCRIPTURE
•Qur’an’s relationship with Abrahamic scriptures?
•Views itself as a continuation and culmination of the Old and
New Testaments
•But also, doubts earlier scriptures: – loss of scripture = loss of
tradition
•Centrality of the Qur’an in the Muslim discourse:
•Muslims as a scripture-centered community – “Muslims, from
the beginning until now, are that group of people that
coalesced around the Qur’an.”
•Qur’an as primary locus of divine-human encounter

7. REVELATION & COMPILATION: THE
TRADITIONAL ACCOUNT
•Tanzeel began in the year 610 and ended in 632 CE.
•Rationale for piecemeal revelation?
• Responding to situations as they arose
• Gradual legislation
• Facilitated memorization

8. REVELATION & COMPILATION: THE
TRADITIONAL ACCOUNT
•During Prophet’s lifetime, revelations were written
down by scribes
•After Prophet’s death, many huffaz were killed in the
battle of ‘Aqraba (633)
•At ‘Umar’s insistence, Abu Bakr had a complete
written compilation made – given to Hafsa
•During ‘Uthman’s reign, difference began to arise –
commission produced a standardized official text

9. (i) Samarqand
manuscript
(ii) Cairo
manuscript
‘Uthmanic codex

10. REVELATION & COMPILATION: WESTERN
CHALLENGES
•Western criticism of this account
•Jonathan Brown’s rebuttal of Tom Holland’s revisionist critique?
•Carbon dating gives a broad range
•The divisions and order in the Birmingham manuscript matches modern
versions
•Recent scholarship confirms traditional Islamic accounts of the Qur’an’s
compilation
•Wansborough’s claim that Qur’an was compiled in the late 2nd
century AH
• Muslim Scholars’ refutation of this claim:
• Qur’anic manuscripts and fragments found within first 200 years of Islam
• Umayyad (b. 661) literature shows a recognition of the complete text of the Qur’an
• Qur’an copyists existed within 1st century AH (Estelle Whelan)

11. EARLY ARABIC ORTHOGRAPHY:
‘DEFECTIVE’ SCRIPT
• Early Kufic -- What is the most striking thing about
this script?

12. AN EXTRACT FROM THE SAMARKAND
MANUSCRIPT

13. AN EXTRACT FROM THE SAMARKAND
MANUSCRIPT
Surah ‘Araf 7:86-
87
• The crucial value of memorization and oral
transmission

14. GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF
SCRIPT

15. QIRA’AT: THE MULTIPLE READINGS
•Despite overarching standardization, minor differences in pronunciation – seven
variant readings that exist known as the qira’at.

16. QIRA’AT: THE MULTIPLE READINGS
•Some examples –
•(i) 1:3 [maaliki(master) , maliki(sovereign)] ;
•(ii) 5:6 [arjulakum(wash your feet), arjulikum(wipe your feet)]

17. QIRA’AT: THE MULTIPLE READINGS
•“No major differences of doctrines can be constructed
on the basis of the parallel readings based on the
‘Uthmanic consonantal outline, yet ascribed to
mushafs other than his.”
- Burton, The Collection of
the Qur’an, p. 171
•Seven variant readings are accepted authentic as long
as they are:
• Mutawatir
• In accordance with Arabic grammar
• Correspond to ‘Uthmanic mushaf

18. QUR’AN: GENRE & STRUCTURE
•Mir’s classification of the genre of the Qur’an?
•The indirectly historical nature of the Qur’an – no complete
narratives/stories except chapter 12.
•Qur’an: directly doctrinal indirectly historical
•Other Abrahamic scriptures: directly historical indirectly doctrinal
•Non-linear nature of the Book
•Western scholars’ charge that Qur’an is ‘disjointed’ – How
authentic is this claim?
• Certain themes are grouped together
• Occasionally a surah picks up a theme of the preceding surah’s end
• Living context of the Qur’an – dealing with a wide variety of issues
• The nature of Classical Arabic
• Deep structure of the Qur’an

19. QUR’AN: LANGUAGE AND ‘IJAZ
•Meccan: Rhymed and cadenced prose (saj’) in places;
•Rhetorical power of Meccan surahs (ex. Next slide)
Medinan: terse and weak in rhyme
•Iltifat: Grammatical Shift for Rhetorical Purposes –
sudden change in voices. (ex: Surah Fatiha, Kawthar)
•The doctrine of ‘ijaz al-Qur’an and linguistic

20. RHETORICAL POWER
Exact
repetition for
emphasis
Contrasting
Juxtaposition
Amplification
for effect

21. •Distrust of a translated Qur’an?

22. QUR’AN: LANGUAGE AND ‘IJAZ
“The Qur’an cannot be translated.
That is the belief of old- fashioned
sheykhs and the view of the present
writer. The Book is here rendered
almost literally and every effort has
been made to choose befitting
language. But the result is not the
Glorious Qur’an, that inimitable
symphony, the very sounds of
which move men to tears and
ecstasy. It is only an attempt to
present the meaning of the Qur’an:
and peradventure something of the
charm: in English. It can never take
the place of the Qur’an in Arabic
nor is it meant to do so.”
-Muhammad Pickthall, Foreword