A Concise Guide to the Quran (Introducing Islam)

Answering Thirty Critical Questions

Ibrahim, Ayman S.

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781493429288
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

What is so unique about Islam's scripture, the Quran? Who wrote it, and when? Can we trust its statements to be from Muhammad? Why was it written in Arabic? Does it command Muslims to fight Christians? These are a few of the thirty questions answered in this clear and concise guide to the history and contents of the Quran. Ayman Ibrahim grew up in the Muslim world and has spent many years teaching various courses on Islam. Using a question-and-answer format, Ibrahim covers critical questions about the most sacred book for Muslims. He examines Muslim and non-Muslim views concerning the Quran, shows how the Quran is used in contemporary expressions of Islam, answers many of the key questions non-Muslims have about the Quran and Islam, and reveals the importance of understanding the Quran for Christian-Muslim and Jewish-Muslim interfaith relations. This introductory guide is written for anyone with little to no knowledge of Islam who wants to learn about Muslims, their beliefs, and their scripture.

Part 1
The History of the Text of the Quran

Part 1 highlights the historical development of Islam’s scripture. Here we examine aspects of Muhammad’s life related to the documentation of the Quran and investigate the claims of its authenticity. Also addressed are Muslim views concerning the canonization of the text. Muslims hold the Quran in the highest esteem but differ in their beliefs about the text, its history, and preservation.

1
What Is the Quran?

The Quran is a mysterious book to many Westerners, perhaps because both Islam (as a religion) and Muslims (as followers of that religion) were generally unknown until the September 11, 2001, attacks. I once asked my atheist neighbor in the United States, “In your opinion, what is the Quran?”

“It is the Bible of Muslims,” my neighbor replied.

This is how many Americans view the Quran. Moreover, this answer demonstrates a tendency to see other religions through one’s own worldview. If I were to ask my neighbor about the actual content of the Quran, our discussion probably would have ended quickly. Muslims, however, know and memorize the Quran from an early age.

The Quran is Islam’s scripture. It is considered the most sacred book by over 1.5 billion Muslims. The title “Quran” appears in other variant forms, including Kuran, Koran, and Qoran, among others. Its transliterated form is Qur’ān, which is an Arabic word best pronounced as “Qur” immediately followed by a glottal stop and “aan.”

The book consists of 114 chapters. Each chapter is called a sura. Every sura is divided into verses, and each verse is called an aaya. The word aaya in Arabic refers not only to a verse in scripture but also to a supernatural wonder, sign, or miracle that denotes evidence or proof. Verses in the Quran are numbered, but the numbers follow the verses in the Arabic Quran—although most foreign translations of the Quran place the verse numbers prior to the verses, as is the custom with biblical texts. The Quran is about two-thirds the size of the New Testament. The total verse count in the Quran varies depending on the respective Arabic reading, ranging from 6,236 to 6,616 verses.

Each chapter has a title. A sampling of titles includes the following: “The Cow,” “The Family of Imran,” “Joseph,” “The Prophets,” “The Forgiver,” “The Catastrophe,” and “The Infidels or Faithless.” These titles, which were not part of the original chapters, were added later by medieval Muslims who attributed them to Muhammad’s authority. Each title identifies a person or theme found within the specific chapter, although the connection between a chapter and its title is not always straightforward and clear (e.g., sura 112).

The 114 chapters of today’s Quran are not arranged chronologically (i.e., they are not organized according to the time of their alleged reception by Muhammad). After the compilation of the chapters into one book (which will be discussed in later questions), Muslims arranged the chapters in decreasing length, with very few exceptions (e.g., Q 1 and Q 108). The longest chapter is “The Cow” (Q 2), and the shortest is “Plenty” or “Abundance” (Q 108). The first chapter is called “The Opening” and serves as the Quran’s prologue. It is an essential component of worship, as devoted Muslims repeat it many times daily in their ritual prayers. It reads,

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate, the Master of the Day of Judgment. You do we worship, and to You do we turn for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have blessed, not of those who have deserved wrath, nor of those who are astray.

While this is the first chapter in today’s Quran, according to Muslim tradition the first revealed chapter is 96: “Read [or recite] in the name of your Lord who created—created man from a clot of blood. Read, and your most bountiful Lord is he who taught the use of pen, taught man what he did not know.”

The chapters of the Quran cover various themes and topics. Among the frequently repeated themes are Allah and his attributes; humankind as believing or unbelieving; prophets and messengers sent by Allah to several places; Christians, Jews, and other religious groups; evil; hellfire; Satan; and angels. Most non-Muslims tend to envision the Quran as a book mainly concerned with violence and jihad. This is incorrect. The truth is that, while these topics are present in the Quran, they are by no means the only—or even the major—themes. It might be surprising for people to learn that these misconceptions about the Quran exist not just among non-Muslims. Muslims themselves sometimes have misconceptions about their own scripture. For instance, many Muslims believe that the Quran focuses on tawhid, a term that refers to strict monotheism. They insist that tawhid is the most important concept advanced by the Quran. Interestingly, this term is never mentioned in the Quran. Later Muslims developed it to describe their belief in Allah’s oneness, as distinct from the concept of the Trinity advanced by Christians. Muslims also generally believe that the Arabic Quran has one—and only one—text worldwide, with no discrepancies between copies. As we will see, this is also incorrect.

2
What Does “Quran” Mean?

Most Muslims believe that the word Quran means “recitation” and is either a proper noun initially emerging with the revelation of their sacred text or, alternatively, a derivative noun from the Arabic verb qara’, meaning “to read.” This is the common understanding among Muslims. Some non-Muslim scholars, however, argue that the word Quran is derived from the Syriac word qeryana, which refers to a liturgical text. (Syriac is a Semitic language—a dialect of Aramaic important in the seventh century among Christians.) This argument is built on the notion that the Quran was originally proclaimed in a setting where Syriac was a common liturgical language, particularly used by Christians for biblical and liturgical texts. These scholars believe that the Quran was first orally proclaimed in a mixture of Arabic and Syriac and was later documented in a text that was misread as being only Arabic (which we will discuss later).

Because the Quran is not written in modern Arabic, the classical Arabic of the book is not easy to understand—even for many Arabs. Since the Quran connotes recitation, the ritual recitation of the text is very important to Muslims. It has an almost supernatural effect. Muslims believe that a mere recitation of the Quran can bless, guide, and comfort the soul. The recitation is part of daily devotion and worship and is usually done using melodies and specific technical artistry. While all Muslims are called to recite the Quran, some do so professionally and are known as reciters. In their recitation, Muslims encounter complex, sophisticated, and difficult Arabic terms. These terms are usually viewed as evidence of the divine revelation and an essential part of what makes a text sacred.

Memorizing the Quran and reciting it publicly are highly respected and encouraged among Muslims. In Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the government supervises national annual competitions for reciting the Quran from memory. The prizes are usually large sums of money, and the contestants are sometimes twelve years old or even younger. In 2018, the Egyptian government designated one million pounds (about $60,000) for these types of competitions. The contestants were all Muslim but not all Arab. Some non-Arabs who participated and won came from Chad, Niger, Bangladesh, Brunei, Russia, and the United States. These competitions indicate the level of reverence and admiration with which Muslims treat the words of the Quran. We see similarities here with Judaism. In Deuteronomy 6, the Jews are instructed to dwell in the words of the Torah: placing them on their hearts, teaching them diligently to their children, and talking of them frequently.

3
Are There Other Scriptures in Islam?

The Quran is the only scripture in Islam; however, there are other texts that Muslims value and revere. These texts, though less important than the Quran, form the Muslim identity and understanding of their religion. They explain unclear elements of the Quran and provide details and establish context for understanding Islam’s scripture. Without these additional texts, various elements of the Quran would remain ambiguous.

The most important Islamic texts, second only to the Quran, are the hadith collections, which are collections of sayings, deeds, and teachings attributed to Muhammad. They were compiled by Muslims who lived centuries after his death. Every hadith collection includes hundreds or thousands of these sayings, deeds, and teachings categorized in sections by topics and grouped together in volumes. It is important to note that Sunni and Shiite Muslims disagree strongly about these hadith collections. Not only do they employ and advance different collections that they claim are “trusted,” but they also dispute what is considered forged and what is authentic. While these collections emerged centuries after Muhammad’s death, they claim to preserve his exact statements. One hadith states, “The Messenger of Allah said, be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.” Of course, one can notice similarities with other religious traditions. Another hadith reads, “Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him.”1 This hadith is often used by radical Islamists to enforce the killing of anyone who abandons Islam, although liberal Muslims generally warn against taking it literally.

After the hadith collections, there are several other important texts, including Muhammad’s expeditions (known as maghazi), Muhammad’s biography (known as sira), Muslim conquests (identified as futuh), Muslim history (known as tarikh), Quran commentaries (known as tafsir), and Quran’s contexts of revelation (known as asbab), among others. Each of these genres includes various titles written or compiled by different authors, each of which advances specific—and often contradictory—sectarian or political views. Some of the books include several volumes. They all share a common feature: all were written or compiled centuries after Muhammad’s death. This feature perplexes non-Muslim scholars, as it casts doubt on the validity of the textual testimony. The Muslim community, however, views these sources positively and trusts that they provide authentic descriptions of the days of Muhammad and his followers.

1. The collections of Sunni hadiths are available at Sunnah.com. The first hadith is from Sunan Abi Dawud, Book of General Behavior, book 42, hadith 4923, the second is from Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Apostates, vol. 9, book 84, hadith 57.

4
What Do Muslims Believe about the Quran?

For Muslims, the Quran records the exact words of Allah (kalam Allah). It is without error and totally infallible. It is the last divine revelation given by Allah to humankind. It surpasses and replaces all previous divine revelations, including those found in the Bible. The Quran is the primary source of doctrines and practices.

Muslims believe that the Quran we have in our hands today came down from heaven as a verbal revelation from Allah to his prophet Muhammad, through the archangel Gabriel, over the course of twenty-three years. This idea of a “book sent down” is very important to Muslims. The notion of a literal inspiration with no human influence is central to the Muslim belief regarding the Quran. The Quranic text, Muslims say, is the written document of a preexisting text that has eternally existed in heaven, called “the preserved celestial tablet” (al-lawh al-mahfuz). This celestial tablet contains the exact Arabic words as found in today’s Quran. Muslims, past and present, share this belief with some variations. The celestial tablet is on the right side of the divine throne, above the seventh heaven, preserved and protected from errors caused by devils.

Through the angel Gabriel, Allah sent down the words of this preserved tablet to Muhammad in the seventh century. The majority of Muslims believe that the Quran is uncreated; it existed eternally with Allah and was verbally dictated to Muhammad at a specific time. These dictated words, Muslims believe, were divinely preserved from errors and meticulously protected not only during the transmission from heaven to Muhammad but also during the transition from verbal proclamation to textual documentation. Consequently, Muslims believe that the Quranic text as we have it today includes no human errors or scribal mistakes; it is the exact copy of the original celestial tablet. These beliefs about the Quran create a sacred halo around it for Muslims. It is untouchable. Any question regarding its authenticity is considered an attack against the most sacred book.

During a trip to Morocco in 2005, I met a young man named Mahmud in the streets of Casablanca. As our conversation turned to religion, he was adamant that the “true” Bible was a book of the past that no longer exists because Christians and Jews changed its passages. For Mahmud, the Quran is the only perfectly preserved book. “If Allah sent both the Bible and the Quran, why would he preserve only the latter and allow the former to be altered and manipulated by evil people?” I asked him. I began arguing that his position portrays the deity as unjust and unable and leads to suspicion about the corruption of the Quran. Once I mentioned the possibility of the corruption of the Quran, Mahmud became furious, spat on me, and shouted as he left. This incident illustrates that, as a general rule, questioning the validity or authenticity of the Quran is considered blasphemy. Muslims elevate the Quran and view it as superior to other scriptures, including the Torah and the New Testament—which Muslims believe have not been preserved and thus are corrupt.

Muslims revere not only the words and passages of the Quran but also its book form. By this, I mean they value and highly respect the paper copy itself. This is very different from the Christian treatment of the Bible. Although Christians honor their copies of the Bible, for them its value is in the content. Muslims relate to and treat the Quran differently. Muslims never place the Quran on the floor, because doing so is considered dishonoring and shameful. Muslims often kiss the Quran. They put it on their heads to honor it and seek blessing. Usually, Muslims wash their hands before touching the Quran. Some even perform the detailed Islamic ritual of ablution—which involves washing not only the hands and arms but also the mouth, nostrils, head, and feet with running water—before touching the Quran. The goal is to purify oneself before reading the sacred text. These rituals demonstrate Muslims’ respect for the Quran, but they can also be used to protect people from evil or satanic influence.

My best friend in junior high, Walid, a Muslim from my neighborhood back in Cairo, used to sleep with the Quran under his pillow to avoid bad dreams. He read the Quran before exams to score good grades. One day he told me that he suspected a mutual friend of ours was envious of him, and he was concerned about the evil eye. Walid consequently decided to read the Quran more diligently to send away evil influence and to seek Allah’s protection. Walid was not necessarily concerned with understanding every word of the text; the Quran was ve...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1: The History of the Text of the Quran
• Part 2: Content, Features, and Themes of the Quran
• Glossary
• Sources Consulted
• Index
• Back Cover