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The Qur’an
Before it could be told, it happened, it sprang from the source from which all history springs, and tells itself as it goes. Since that time it exists in the world, everybody knows it or thinks he does – for often enough the knowledge is unreal, casual and disjointed. It has been told a hundred times, in a hundred different mediums. And now it is passing through another, wherein as it were it becomes conscious of itself and remembers how things were in the long-ago, so that it both pours forth and speaks of itself as it pours.
Thomas Mann, Joseph in Egypt
The Prophet Muhammad was born in the Hejaz in western Arabia c. 570 and died in 632. Around the year 610 he began to receive a series of revelations from God, which were dictated to him by the Archangel Gabriel. Thereafter the Archangel continued to dictate suras, or chapters, of what would become the Qur’an. The Prophet in turn preached the revelation to Arabs first in Mecca and later in Medina. One of the chief aims of the Qur’an was to warn the Prophet’s audience and to bring them to the worship of Allah, the one true God. Since Muslims hold the Qur’an to be the actual word of God and not a human document, it would be a mistake to regard it as merely the ‘Bible’ of Islam. Most Muslims believe that the Qur’an is uncreated, has existed from eternity and that it is a faithful reproduction of a scripture in heaven. When the thirteenth-century lexicographer Ibn Manzur wrote of Arabic as ‘the language of Paradise’, he meant it literally.
The Qur’an is the fulfilment and ‘seal’ of earlier revelations, including those contained in the Old and New Testaments. The revelations received by Muhammad cover a wide range of themes and the Qur’an contains detailed religious and social legislation, passages of moral exhortation and of mystical imagery, eschatological prophecy, proverbs, tales from biblical and ancient Arabian legend. Particular emphasis is placed on the visible and marvellous signs of God’s creation. The suras vary considerably in length, the longest being 286 verses long and the shortest consisting of only three verses. Although the verses (ayat) rhyme, they are not considered to be poetry. The canonical text of the Qur’an was not at first written down in its entirety, but was preserved in the memories of the Prophet’s contemporaries, as well as in written fragments on papyrus, palm leaves, and other materials. Probably it was not until the caliphate of ‘Uthman (reigned 644–56) that concerns about variations in the transmission of the revelation led to the collecting and writing down of the Qur’an. The book, which contains 114 suras, is quite short. It is, for example, shorter than the New Testament.
According to Muslim doctrine, the Qur’an is untranslatable. English renderings of it are held to be not translations, but rather versions or interpretations. Not only is the Qur’an untranslatable, it is also inimitable. A tenth-century literary theorist, al-Baqillani (d. 1013), wrote a treatise on the incomparability of the Qur’an. In it, he urged his readers to study the great poems from the Jahili period and the early centuries of Islam: ‘Contemplate all this with the quiet attention of a bird, with lowered wings, relaxation of the mind and concentration of the intellect.’ Having studied these poems and compared them with the Qur’an, they would realize how the form and style of the holy book’s revelation transcended mere literature. All sorts of stories, some of them apocryphal, were told about leading literary figures who nevertheless tried and failed to emulate the Qur’an – Bashshar ibn Burd, Ibn al-Muqaffa', Mutanabbi and Ma'arri among them. The text of the Qur’an explicitly rejects the notion that it is the work of either a poet or a soothsayer. Since it is inimitable and untranslatable, it is not held by Muslims to be a work of literature.
Although the Qur’an is not literature, it cannot be excluded from any discussion of Arabic prose and poetry since in all sorts of ways it exercised a massive influence on Arabic literary forms. As the modern Arab poet Adonis put it, the ‘Qur’an was not only a new way of seeing things and a new reading of mankind, but also a new way of writing’. The Qur’an, also known simply as al-Kitab, ‘the Book’, was the first great event in Arabic literature. It served as a stylistic model for Arab poets and prosodists. Its use of various narrative forms provided a precedent for later literary experiments. For instance, the twelfth-century compiler of fables, Ibn Zafar (on whom see Chapter 7), cited the appearance of fables in the Qur’an (concerning the ant and the gnat, and King Solomon and the lapwing) in defence of his own compilation. The Qur’an was regularly quoted or alluded to in poems and works of fiction and provided much of the currency of Arabic literature. It was almost universal practice to open a work of literature with an exordium which directly or indirectly quoted the Qur’an. The Thousand and One Nights prefaces its magical tales with the following invocation: ‘Praise be to God, the Beneficent King, the Creator of the world and man, who raised the heavens without pillars and spread out the earth as a place of rest and erected the mountains as props and made the water flow from the hard rock and destroyed the race of Thamud, 'Ad and Pharaoh of the vast domain. I praise Him for His infinite grace.’ In referring to ‘the race of Thamud, 'Ad and Pharaoh of the vast domain’, the anonymous compiler of The Thousand and One Nights was alluding to the stories of vanished pre-Islamic races narrated in the Qur’an. In making such an allusion, doubtless the author wished to imply that the stories he was going to relate, also notionally set in pre-Islamic times, contained warnings or messages of moral value for those who read them.
Al-Baqillani, having noted that parts of the Qur’an were in metre, nevertheless went on to argue that these sections did not in fact count as poetry, for not only did poetry have to rhyme and scan, there also had to be the desire to produce poetry for it to be considered as such. (This may be accounted an interesting early example of the theory of intentionality.) Although the Qur’an was not regarded as poetry, its style and imagery overlapped heavily with that of pre-Islamic poetry, and therefore fragments of such poems were used to interpret obscure words and phrases in the revelation. In many cases this meant that the obscure was being interpreted in the light of the even more obscure. Also, it is clear that some ‘pre-Islamic’ poetry was fabricated precisely in order to provide explanations for obscure and elliptical parts of the divine revelation.
The language of the Qur’an is held to be miraculous. It is indeed a wonderful experience to hear it recited by a professional Qur’an reader. The Qur’an’s message is delivered in saj' – that is to say, its prose is rhymed, rhythmic and makes heavy use of parallelisms for rhetorical effect. It is impossible when reading the text not to become aware that this prose is best suited for oral delivery; it is full of invocations and rhetorical questions. Its story-telling technique is often somewhat allusive, perhaps presupposing that the audience was already familiar with the story that was being told. The opening of the story of Yusuf and Zulaykha may serve as an example of the slightly elliptical narrative technique of the Qur’an. It and the passages which follow are given in Arberry’s version, the most poetic of attempts to present the Qur’an in English.
Joseph
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Alif Lam Ra
Those are the signs of the Manifest Book.
We have sent it down as an Arabic Koran; haply you will understand.
We will relate to thee the fairest of stories
in that We have revealed to thee this Koran,
though before it thou wast one of the heedless.When Joseph said to his father, ‘Father, I saw
eleven stars, and the sun and the moon; I saw them bowing down before me.’
He said, ‘O my son, relate not thy vision
to thy brothers, lest they devise against thee
some guile. Surely Satan is to man a manifest enemy.
So will thy Lord choose thee, and teach thee
the interpretation of tales, and perfect His
blessing upon thee and upon the House of Jacob,
as He perfected it formerly on thy fathers
Abraham and Isaac; surely thy Lord is All-knowing, All-wise.’(In Joseph and his brethren were signs for those who ask questions.)
When they said, ‘Surely Joseph and his brother
are dearer to our father than we, though
we are a band. Surely our father is in manifest error.
Kill you Joseph, or cast him forth into
some land, that your father’s face may be
free for you, and thereafter you may be a righteous people.’
One of them said, ‘No, kill not Joseph,
but cast him into the bottom of the pit
and some traveller will pick him out, if you do aught.’
They said, ‘Father, what ails thee, that thou
trustest us not with Joseph? Surely we are his sincere well-wishers.
Send him forth with us tomorrow, to
frolic and play; surely we shall be watching over him.’
He said, ‘It grieves me that you should go with him,
and I fear the wolf may eat him, while you are heedless of him.’They said, ‘If the wolf eats him, and we a band, then are we losers!’
So then they went with him, and agreed to put him
in the bottom of the well, and We revealed to him,
‘Thou shalt tell them of this their doing when they are unaware.’And they came to their father in the evening, and they were weeping.
They said, ‘Father, we went running races, and
left Joseph behind with our things; so the wolf
ate him. But thou wouldst never believe us, though we spoke truly.’
And they brought his shirt with false blood on it.
He said, ‘No; but your spirits tempted you
to do somewhat. But come, sweet patience!
And God’s succour is ever there to seek against that you describe.’
Then came travellers, and they sent one of them,
a water-drawer, who let down his bucket.
‘Good news!’ he said. ‘Here is a young man.’So they hid him as merchandise; but God knew what they were doing.
Then they sold him for a paltry price, a
handful of counted dirhams; for they set small store by him.
He that bought him, being of Egypt,
said to his wife, ‘Give him goodly lodging,
and it may be that he will profit us,
or we take him for our own son.’
So We established Joseph in the land, and
that We might teach him the interpretation
of tales. God prevails in His purpose, but most men know not.
And when he was fully grown, We gave him
judgment and knowledge. Even so We recompense the good-doers.Now the woman in whose house he was
solicited him, and closed the doors on them.
‘Come,’ she said, ‘take me!’ ‘God be my refuge,’
he said. ‘Surely my lord has given me
a goodly lodging. Surely the evildoers do not prosper.’
For she desired him; and he would have taken her,
but that he saw the proof of his Lord.
So was it, that We might turn away from him
evil and abomination; he was one of Our devoted servants.
They raced to the door; and she tore his shirt
from behind. They encountered her master
by the door. She said, ‘What is the recompense
of him who purposes evil against thy folk,
but that he should be imprisoned, or a painful chastisement?’
Said he, ‘It was she who solicited me’;
and a witness of her folk bore witness,
‘If his shirt has been torn from before
then she has spoken truly, and he is one of the liars;
but if it be that his shirt has been torn
from behind, then she has lied, and he is one of the truthful.’
When he saw his shirt was torn from behind
he said, ‘This is of your women’s guile; surely your guile is great.
Joseph, turn away from this; and thou, woman,
ask forgiveness of thy crime; surely thou art one of the sinners.’
Certain women that were in the city said,
‘The Governor’s wife has been soliciting her
page; she smote her heart with love; we see her in manifest error.’
When she heard their sly whispers, she sent
to them, and made ready for them a repast,
then she gave to each one of them a knife.
‘Come forth, attend to them,’ she said.
And when they saw him, they so admired him
that they cut their hands, saying, ‘God save us!
This is no mortal; he is no other but a noble angel.’
‘So now you see,’ she said. ‘This is he you
blamed me for. Yes, I solicited him, but
he abstained. Yet if he will not do what I
command him, he shall be imprisoned, and be one of the humbled.’
He said, ‘My Lord, prison is dearer to me
than that they call me to; yet if Thou
turnest not from me their guile, then I
shall yearn towards them, and so become one of the ignorant.’
So his Lord answered him, and He turnedaway from him their guile; surely He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.
Then it seemed good to them, after they had
seen the signs, that they should imprison him for a while.
And there entered the prison with him
two youths. Said one of them, ‘I dreamed
that I was pressing grapes.’ Said the other,
‘I dreamed that I was carrying on my head
bread, that birds were eating of. Tell us
its interpretation; we see that thou art of the good-doers.’
He said, ‘No food shall come to you
for your sustenance, but ere it comes to you
I shall tell you its interpretation.
That I shall tell you is of what God
has taught me. I have forsaken the creed
of a people who believe not in God
and who moreover are unbelievers in the world to come.
And I have followed the creed of my fathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Not ours is it
to associate aught with God. That is of God’s
bounty to us, and to men; but most men are not thankful.
Say, which is better, my fellow-prisoners –
many gods at variance, or God the One, the Omnipotent?
That which you serve apart from Him, is
nothing but names yourselves have named,
you and your fathers; God has sent down
no authority touching them. Judgment
belongs only to God; He has commanded
that you shall not serve any but Him.
That is the right religion; but most men know not.
Fellow-prisoners, as for one of you, he shall
pour wine for his lord; as for the other,
he shall be crucified, and birds will eat
of his head. The matter is decided whereon you enquire.’
Then he said to the one he deemed
should be saved of the two, ‘Mention me
in thy lord’s presence.’ But Satan caused him
to forget to mention him to his master,
so that he continued in the prison for certain years.And the king said, ‘I saw in a dream
seven fat kine, and seven lean ones
devouring them; likewise seven green ears
of corn, and seven withered. My counsellors,pronounce to me upon my dream, if you are expounders of dreams.’
‘A hotchpotch of nightmares!’ they said.
‘We know nothing of the interpretation of nightmares.’
Then said the one who had been delivered,
remembering after a time, ‘I will
myself tell you its interpretation; so send me forth.’
Sura 12, verses 1–45, trans. Arberry,
The Koran Interpreted, vol. 1, pp. 254–9
COMMENTARY
These are the opening verses of one of the longer suras of the Qur’an. Joseph, who is released from prison, predicts seven years of plenty and seven lean years, and the rest of the story is much as it is related in the Old Testament. The Qur’an includes some details which are not found in the Old Testament (for example the ladies with the fruit-knives) while omitting others. The story of Joseph is narrated in a fairly straightforward fashion. Other tales about God’s chosen Prophets in the Qur’an are told more elliptically, as the audience is assumed to be familiar with the story and is only being reminded of it.
Alif Lam Ra: certain suras of the Qur’an are headed by letters of the Arabic alphabet. The significance of these clusters is unknown. What follows is an Arabic version of the Bible story. Joseph was one of the prophets who came before Muhammad. Muslim Arabs placed great stress on their descent from Abraham, Joseph’s grandfather.
The ‘interpretation of tales’ means the interpretation of dreams.
‘his brother’ means Benjamin, all the others being half-brothers.
‘that your father’s face may be free’ means ‘so that there are no rivals for your father’s favour’.
The dirham is a silver coin.
The Governor’s wife, later given the name Zulaykha, became prominent in Arabic and Persian literature. Her lust for Joseph was reinterpreted by some poets as an allegory of the soul’s yearning for divine beauty. The encounter between Yusuf and Zulaykha and the scene where the women cut their wrists with knives also featured prominently in Persian miniature painting.
The next extract is the ‘Light’ verse. This is set in the midst of a longish sura which deals with quite other matters.
Sura 24, verse 35, trans. Arberry,
The Koran Interpreted, vol. 2, pp. 50–51
There is no need to comment on this verse, which is so beautiful in its mystery.
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In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate |
| Behold, We sent it down on the Night of Power; And what shall teach thee what is the Night of Power? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months; in it the angels and the Spirit descend, by leave of their Lord, upon every command. Peace it is, till the rising of dawn. |
Sura 97, trans. Arberry,
The Koran Interpreted, vol. 2, p. 346
COMMENTARY
This is one of the last and shortest of suras in the Qur’an. The ‘it’ which has been sent down is held to be the Qur’an itself. The ‘Night of Power’ is believed to be one of the last ten days in the month of Ramadan. On the Night of Power the Qur’an was sent down to the lowest of the seven heavens from where it was delivered in successive revelations by the Archangel Gabriel to Muhammad.
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In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate |
| Say: ‘I take refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak from the evil of what He has created, from the evil of darkness when it gathers, from the evil of the women who blow on knots, from the evil of an envier when he envies.’ |
Sura 113, trans. Arberry,
The Koran Interpreted, vol. 2, p. 362
COMMENTARY
This sura, the penultimate in the Qur’an, is recited by Muslims to ward off evil. The people who blow upon knots are sorcerers and sorceresses (kahins and kahinas) who cast maleficent spells against people they wish to injure. The original Arabic saj' has a wonderful fierce rhythm.
In centuries to come the Qur’an guided Muslims in the conduct of their lives. But though the Qur’an’s prescriptions and proscriptions covered a wide range, they did not offer complete and explicit guidance on all aspects of conduct. However, it was supplemented as a source of guidance by hadiths (‘sayings’). A hadith was a saying or an account of an action attributed to the Prophet or to one of his contemporaries. Such sayings or narrative fragments were orally transmitted from believer to believer, and covered a huge range of issues. Even in the earliest centuries it was widely acknowledged that many such sayings were fabricated for particular polemical purposes. Several hadiths, themselves almost certainly fabricated, denounced the fabrication of hadiths; for example: ‘At the end of time there will be forgers, liars who will bring you hadiths which neither you nor your forefathers have heard. Beware of them so that they may not lead you astray into temptation.’ The Muslims developed a science for testing the reliability of the oral chains of transmission of hadiths.
Since hadiths came from a wide range of sources, they often contradicted one another. For example, poets were the subject of a number of hadiths. According to one saying attributed to the Prophet, ‘Verily it would be better for a man to have his belly filled with pus until it destroys him than to fill himself with poetry.’ But according to another saying, also attributed to the Prophet, ‘There is wisdom in poetry.’ Again, the Prophet is reported to have described Imru’ al-Qays as ‘the most poetical of poets and their leader into Hellfire’ (a backhanded compliment, if ever there was one). On the other hand, there were poets who converted to Islam and who wrote poetry in praise of the faith and the Prophet is known to have approved of some of these. The Qur’an itself expresses hostility to poets:
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Shall I tell you upon whom the Satans come down? |
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They come down on every guilty impostor. They give ear, but most of them are liars. And the poets – the perverse follow them; hast thou not seen how they wander in every valley and how they say that which they do not. |
Sura 26, verses 221–5, trans. Arberry,
The Koran Interpreted, vol. 2, p. 75
In part the Prophet’s hostility to poets may have arisen because of the way poetry was used to promote tribal values and to celebrate inter-tribal wars. Nevertheless, in the centuries which followed poetry was composed by even the most pious and puritanical of Muslims. In the long run a considerable quantity of specifically Islamic poetry was produced; to take a modern example, the Ayatollah Khomeini composed poems in Persian.