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THE QUR'AN: Scripture and Literature
By James Kritzeck

"That inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy," wrote Marmaduke Pickthall, describing the Quran. "As tedious a piece of reading as I ever undertook, a wearisome, confused jumble, crude, incondite-nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Quran," was Thomas Carlyle's verdict. How could two sensitive and intelligent men of very similar backgrounds differ so markedly concerning a book which everyone knows is a world classic? The answer is complicated, but it can be made simple: Pickthall read Arabic and Carlyle did not.

For all of the world's Moslems, the Quran is the greatest work of literature. For almost everyone else it is, literally, a closed book. One would be hard pressed to find a single non-Moslem friend who has actually read it from cover to cover. Why is that? The Quran is not a long book; it is shorter than the New Testament. It is readily available in a variety of translations which are accurate enough, some of which have been issued in inexpensive editions. Is the Quran worth reading? To start with, what is it?

The Quran is the collection of formal utterances of Mohammed, the prophet of Islam. He was born in Mecca about 570 and was orphaned soon after his birth. The family into which he was born was part of a prominent tribe, but indications are that it was in straitened circumstances. Little reliable information has come down to us concerning Mohammed's youth. He became a trader, perhaps participated in caravans to Syria, and when he was about twenty-five, married a wealthy merchant's widow some years his senior.

Mecca at that time, it is important to note, was no mere desert oasis, but a bustling and prosperous center of commerce on the major north-south caravan route, and its sanctuaries were places of religious pilgrimage for many neighboring tribes. Mohammed began by following the beliefs and customs which were commonly adhered to by his tribe and by most Arabians. However, he soon became disgusted with polytheism and the morality which went along with it and gave careful (but probably concealed) audience to the worship and disputation of Jews and Christians, who lived in Arabia in considerable numbers. He seems to have accepted their general religious tradition and pattern without feeling inclined to embrace either Judaism or Christianity. When he was about forty years old he experienced his first "revelation" and a call to prophet hood. These revelations, which continued to occur at intervals during the rest of his life, constitute the Quran.

Mohammed proved himself a prophet in an important sense of the Hebrew term: he was not a man who foretold, but a man who told forth. He did not claim to be divine; that is the very last thing he would ever have claimed and the very last claim he would have ever have recognized. Rather he claimed to be a reciter of a "recitation" (Quran means "recitation") unmistakenably within the traditions of the Hebrew prophets. Mohammed preached; he did not write. Indeed, one of the principal bits of evidence adduced by Moslems for the divine origin of the Quran is the doubtful fact, and even more doubtful compliment, that their prophet was illiterate.
The Quran was not put together in written form well after Mohammad's death. A special point must be made of the form in which it was put together, since that helps to explain why even well-meaning non-Moslems never get far in reading it. Its one hundred fourteen chapters, except for the first, are arranged roughly in order of length; many of the chapters must themselves have been compilations. There was no good reason, apart form a rare rabbinical custom, for doing such a thing-and every reason for doing otherwise. The chapters vary in length from thousands of words to only a line or two, and generally speaking the longer ones are of a later period than the shorter ones. One is reading the Quran, therefore, in roughly the reverse order of that in which it was composed. This is a serious obstacle for any book to have to overcome.

For the Moslems, on the other hand, it is no obstacle at all, only a trivial complaint characteristic of infidels. The nature of their claim for the Quran (which is the Quran's claim for itself) fully accounts for this attitude. There is absolutely no doctrine of inspiration in Islam. The Quran must be believed to have no human author at all, but rather to be, syllable for syllable, the very dictation of God. That dictation, through an angel customarily identified as Gabriel, was "taken" by Mohammed's memory and then confidently set adrift in other men's memories. From the evidence of the final text, it must be granted that those memories were excellent. Nevertheless, by comparison with the claims advanced for the Quran, those advanced by Jews and Christians for the books of the Bible seem very modest.

When the Moslem legists forbade translations of the Quran, they recognized something important for us to recognize. The most difficult things to translate from any language are those captivating little nuances, lying somewhere between prose and poetry, which catch perfect the beauty of that language. The Quran was composed entirely of such prose-poetry, in a form called sash. Moslem sages contend that it is untranslatable, and they have no idea how right they are. It is regarded as a foolish cliché to say of a work that "it loses everything in translation." In the case of the Quran, this is true. No translation can convey more than the barest suggestion of what it is in the Quran that can "move men to tears and ecstasy."

So much for that. The Quran is still a book which can be read, if one is dogged enough, in a single day. One is likely to get further along with it, for the reason already given, if one starts at the back. Above all, one must bear in mind constantly while reading it that it is supposed to have been "spoken" by God to mankind through Mohammed. The saj` and many individual features, which will be noted in due course, are common to the book as a whole. However, among the chapters a distinction can be made between those composed at Mecca and those composed later at Medina. The distinction has sometimes been exaggerated by commentators but holds up well enough for the novice.

At Mecca, for some twelve years, Mohammed preached a religion which was quite simple and easy for anyone familiar with the Judaeo-Christian tradition to understand. For his polytheistic countrymen, of course, it was neither so simple nor so easy to understand. It was a religion of one God who created man, subsidized him with the goods of this world, revealed himself through the prophets and "messengers," and intends to judge him, rewarding good and punishing evil, in a life hereafter. Through Islam, this God wished to re-emphasize the fundamentals of what had become, in man's hands, a confused and contentious religious structure.
The themes and forms of the Meccan chapters are, from a literary standpoint, probably the most attractive in the book. The first chapter to be revealed, according to Islamic tradition, was "The Clot" (Quran 96). Each chapter has a title, usually taken from some striking reference within it, and all but one begin with the invocation, "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate":

Recite: In the name of your Lord who created,
created man from a clot.
Recite: And your Lord is most generous,
who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.
No, but man is rebellious because
because he sees himself grown rich.
Indeed, the return is to your Lord.

Have you seen him who forbids a servant to pray?
Have you seen if he was rightly guided or ordered piety?
Did he know that God sees?

No, if he does not desist, we shall seize him by the forelock,
a lying, sinful forelock!
So let him call his council.
We shall call the guards of hell.

No do not obey him,
but fall down and draw near.

This chapter is obviously a conglomeration of editorial layers, and requires a great deal of explanation. It is more than likely that everything after the first five lines was added later, and everything after the first eight was aimed against a particular enemy. Most of the early Meccan chapters are simpler. Usually they begin with an interesting but harmless oath ("by the daylight," "by the fig and the olive," "by the city"), go on to indict some form of evil-doing, warn of judgment, frighteningly describe hell, and call men to repentance. "The Chargers" (100) is one of the most beautiful of them, though it, also, is difficult:

By the snorting chargers,
the fire-strikers,
the plunder-raiders at daybreak,
the dust-raisers centering in it all together!

Man is indeed ungrateful to his Lord,
and he himself is a witness to that:
he is strong in his love of goods.
Does he not know that when
what is in the graves will be torn out
and what is in the breasts will be made to appear,
on that day their Lord will be an expert on them?

That chapter was chosen because it is an especially brilliant example of the rhythmic saj`. It sounds, insofar as its sound can be represented by the Roman alphabet, something like this:

Waal aadiYAATi DAB-han, faal mooriYAATi KAD-han,
faal mogheeRAATi SUB-han,
fa atharna beehee NAK-an
fa wasama beehee JAM-an!

Innal inSAANa lee rubbeehee la-kaNOOD,
wa innahoo ala THAAlika la-shaHEED:
wa innahoo lee hobbil khair la-shaDEED.

Afalaa yalamoo itha
bothira mea fill koBOOR
wa hossila mea fiss soDOOR,
inna rubbahom beehim yawma-ithin la-khaBEER?

Such clever combinations of repetition and variation of sound give these chapters their special lilt. They are brief, lively, menacing, full of crisp and startling imagery. Some of them are built entirely around strange words, presumably as strange to their first audiences as they are to us. It has been shown that in this respect they resemble the oracular pronouncements of the Arabian soothsayers, although Mohammed took an extremely harsh stand against them-and, indeed, against all mere poets. "The Striking" (101) is an example:

The "Striking"!-what is the "Striking"?
What could convey to you what the "Striking" is?
It is the day when people will be like scattered moths
and the mountains will be like carded wool!

Then, as for him whose scales [of merit] are heavy,
he will be in a pleasing life.
But as for him whose scales are light,
he will be a son of-"Bereft"!
And what could convey to you what "Bereft" is?-
Raging fire!

During this period, Mohammed liked to appeal, though somewhat vaguely, to the authority of the Bible for his teachings: "All this is written in earlier scriptures, the scriptures of Abraham and Moses" (87.18). As he then saw it, his was mainly a confirming scripture for the Arabs, who were without a scripture: "Before [the Quran], the book of Moses was revealed, a guide and blessing to all men. This book confirms it. It is revealed in the Arabic tongue" (46.12). Later, when Jews and Christians proved unwilling to accept his claim in sufficient numbers, he emphasized that they had deformed God's pure religion and that the Quran invalidated their scriptures, which had been corrupted. He represented Ishmael, the father of the Arabs according to Jewish lore, as coheir with Isaac to God's covenant with Abraham.

The chapters of the later Meccan period already betray something of this conflict. They also tend to be somewhat longer and to take on more ambitious substance. Entire stories from the Old Testament (such as that of Joseph, included later in full) are narrated in general conformity with the Hebrew versions. Although there is only one indisputable quotation from the Bible in the Quran (that of Psalm 37.29 in 21.105), the Bible is paraphrased in almost every chapter after the early Meccan period. Some of the more trenchant chapters, for example "Unity" (112), bespeak Islam's disassociation from Christianity:

Say: He is God-One!
God-the eternally sought after!
He did not have a son
and was no one's son.
And there is no one equal to Him.

In Mecca, Mohammed's message was first met with indifference, then countered with opposition. The Meccans, and in particular Mohammed's wealthier relatives who profited from the pilgrimage trade to the pagan shrine of the Kabah, took his monotheistic warning very much to heart, but not in the manner he intended. They planned the elimination of his small sect. Some new material, aimed at coming to terms with these opponents, was introduced into the Quran. Three pagan goddesses, for instance, were acknowledged to be "daughters of God," whose cults might therefore be expected to continue. But such devices neither convinced nor placated the Meccans, and Mohammed himself soon regretted these "Satanic suggestions" and repudiated them. Ultimately a good many verses of the Quran were abrogated in this fashion. "The Unbelievers" (109) is said to have been revealed at this time:

Say O unbelievers!
I do not worship what you worship
and you do not worship what I worship;
and I shall not worship what you worship
and you will not worship what I worship.
You have your religion and I have mine.

By 621, Islam's prospects seemed bleak. Mohammed had sent about eighty of his followers to Abyssinia, and indications are that some differences of opinion within his community, as well as the Meccan persecution, prompted that action. He had lost the encouraging presence of his first wife and the protective presence of his guardian, who, as chief of the Hashimite clan, had prevented violent steps being taken against him. Just as the situation was growing desperate, a miracle happened. Two of the principal tribes in Medina, a city some distance north of Mecca, had been feuding for years. Some of their members had heard Mohammed preach and sought him as mediator to end the feud. The Moslems left Mecca unobtrusively in small groups, and finally Mohammed himself fled.

The year of that "emigration" (al-Hijrah, or Hegira), 622, was later chosen as the commencement of the Islamic era. Although it might appear strange that it was selected in preference to the year of Mohammed's birth or that of his first revelation, it was actually an appropriate choice. For it was at Medina that Islam became a state- and ultimately a world empire and a world religion. That transformation did not, of course, take place overnight, but it took place rapidly. Mohammed proved himself a clever and farsighted statesman, as well as a religious leader. His conciliation was successful, and the expansion of his community began.

The style of the Meccan chapters of the Quran had been fitting for the blunt warnings and succinct preaching which were necessary there. At Medina, however, Mohammed became a lawgiver. The basic saj` form did not change in the Medinan chapters, but it was stretched tight to accommodate the lengthy and detailed prescriptions which now came forth. Certainly any legal portion of a typical Medinan chapter, such as the following from "Women" (4.11-12), provides a sharp contrast with any early Meccan chapter:

God enjoins you [as follows] concerning [inheritance for] your children: A male shall get twice as much as a female. If there are more than two females, then they shall get two thirds of the estate; but if there is only one, then she shall get half. Parents shall get a sixth each, provided the deceased has a child; if he has no child and his parents are his only heirs, then his mother shall get a third. If he has more than one brother, then his mother shall get a sixth-after payment of legacies and debts.

It is really unfair to choose a passage like this one, but it was not chosen to typify the content of all the Medinan chapters. Several other Medinan chapters will be given in substantial extracts.

Mohammed tried to secure the support of Jewish communities in the vicinity of Medina by incorporating into Islam many elements of Jewish law and ritual. Those which remained within it (for example, the prohibition of pork, the regulations concerning fasting and circumcision) are too numerous to list. It is more important to note that at some point Mohammed broke violently with the past. Islam assumed its own direction of prayer, Mecca (previously it had been Jerusalem), and its own "sabbath," Friday.

Some authorities have professed to sense in this period a greater appreciation of Christianity on Mohammed's part. He regarded the Gospel (in the singular) as a book revealed to Christ, which would indicate that he knew very little about it. The position that he had taken concerning Christ seems to have prevented him from inquiring into the New Testament. He denied original sin, so the incarnation became, in his eyes, the most wicked of blasphemies. Why he kept referring to Jesus as "the Messiah" is therefore something of a mystery, unless (as is quite possible) he had no idea of everything that title implied. Surprisingly enough, he affirmed the virgin birth (19.17-26) in words very similar to St. Luke's. According to one tradition, he even asserted the immaculate conception. What is most surprising of all, perhaps, is that he believed in the ascension of Jesus, while denying his crucifixion:

[The Jews] declared: "We have put to death the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle of God." But they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him. They only thought they did.... But God took him up to himself (4.15~158).

A clearer indication of greater friendliness toward Christians would be the following verse:

You will discover that those who are most implacable in their hatred of the [Moslems] are the Jews and the pagans, while those nearest to them in affection are those who profess to be Christians. That is because there are priests and monks among them, and they are free of pride (5.85).

Ultimately, however, both the Jews and the Christians, as "people of the Book" (i.e., the Bible), were accorded a status as privileged minorities within the Islamic state, or, more accurately, "protected" minorities, in return for payment of special taxes.

Against other non-Moslems the Quran ordered warfare, a holy warfare (Jihad) against unbelievers. Mohammed spent much of the rest of his life in directing military campaigns against trading caravans and neighboring tribes, all with the general goals of consolidating and extending his community and of forcing the Meccans, his most formidable enemies, into submission. Not all of these expeditions ended in victory, and many of the victories were hard won. Tribal alliances gradually emerged as almost as effective a means of attaining these goals as warfare.

Mohammed's actions during these later years are usually regarded by non-Moslems as, at best, unbecoming to him. In Islamic terms, on the other hand, they appear both necessary and consistent. The fire of warning had simply been translated, by Quranic direction, into the fire of action. Toward the end, Mohammed was assured of final victory in "The Assistance" (110):

When God's assistance comes, and victory, and you see the people entering God's religion in droves, then glorify your Lord with praise and ask His forgiveness. Indeed, He is a forgiver.

In 631, Mecca capitulated and the way was prepared for further expansion. A few months later, in 632, Mohammed died in the arms of his favorite wife, Aishah, whose father succeeded him as his first "successor" (Khalifah, hence caliph). Within a century, after one of the most remarkable series of military conquests in history, Moslems had carried the Quran into the valleys of France and the steppes of Central Asia.

The Quran stands at the beginning of Islamic literature, but it stands apart, preeminent without being dominant. All but a few [Muslims] would agree that it represents divine truth as well as superlative literary style-the personal style of God.

For Moslems the Quran is no more literature because it is scripture, than it is scripture because it is literature. It is both scripture and literature at the same time, in a manner absolutely unique to itself. The classical legists formulated it in the concept of "inimitability" (i`jaz), a formulation which in time found its way into several of the Islamic creeds. The important thing, however, was not so much its "inimitability" (its style was in fact consciously imitated by such poets as Abu Nuwas and Al-Maarri and was even, upon occasion, criticized by Moslems) as its singular claim, so unhesitatingly accepted by so many persons. For them, first and foremost, the Quran is God's word.

By the same token, the literary style of the Quran has seldom engaged Moslem thinkers except in illustration of its divine nature or for ancillary purposes. For the Quran is everything to the devout Moslem: It is history, sacred and profane; it is prayer; it is a code of civil and religious law; it is a guide to conduct and meditation. "Everything is in a clear book" (11.6). When the first tortuous theological debates were over, the Quran was formally declared the "uncreated" Word of God, on a par with the divine presence itself. The non-Moslem may be captivated by its beauty, may discern its sharply characterized styles and manifold literary subtleties, but he can never fully understand or appreciate how the Quran has superintended all genuine Moslem thought and fashioned the Moslem soul.

SELECTIONS:

As James Kritzeck pointed out in the previous reading, The Quran is a closed book for those who are unfamiliar with Islam and Arabic. There is more poetic repetitions and less direct statement that Westerners are used to. Chapters are titled after key words (like "clot") that seem better designed to jog the memory than reveal a meaning. Then they are arranged according to length.
Because of these difficulties for the Western reader, we have taken passages out of their original context and organized them according to more familiar categories.

THE OPENING

In the name of God, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful!

Praise to God, Lord of the Universe, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful!
Ruler of the Day for Repayment!
You alone do we worship and You alone do we call on for help.
Guide us along the Straight Road, the road of those whom You
Have favored, with whom You are not angry, nor who are lost. (1:1-7)

MUHAMMAD`S FIRST CALL

In the name of God, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful!

Read in the name of your Lord Who creates,
Creates man from a clot!
Read, for you Lord is most Generous;
Who teaches by means of the pen,
Teaches man what he does not know. (96:1-5)

THE WARNING

In the name of God, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful!

You who are wearing a cloak,
Stand up and warn!
Magnify you Lord,
Purify you clothing
And steer clear of filth.
Do not give so much away
In order to receive more;
be patient with your Lord!
For when the bugle is sounded on that day
It will be such a harsh day,
anything but easy on disbelievers (74:1-9)

THE MESSAGE

The Day for Sorting has been announced,
the day when the trumpet shall be blown
and you shall come in droves
and the sky will open up
as if it had gates,
and the mountains will travel along
like a mirage.

He will lurk in ambush to receive
home the arrogant.
They will longer there for ages;
They will taste nothing cool nor any drink…

The heedful will have their scene of triumph with packs
And vineyards as well as buxom
maidens of their own age
and a brimming cup. (78:17-34)

BELIEFS

Say: "We believe in God and what has been sent down to us, and what
was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants,
and what was given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets by their Lord. We do
not differentiate between any one of them, and are committed to [live at]
peace with Him." (3:84)

Say: God has spoken truly, so
Follow the sect of Abraham, the Seeker;
He was not one to associate
[others with God]. (3:95)

Some People of the Book
Form an upright community;
They recite God's verses through
the small hours of the night
as they fall down on their knees (3:113)

The believe in God and the Last Day;
they command decency and forbid dishonor,
and compete in doing good deeds.
These are honorable men. (3:114)

THE WOMEN`S OATH

O Prophet, whenever believing women come to sear allegiance to you,
Saying they will not associate anything with God, nor steal or misbehave
sexually, nor kill their children, nor give any [cause for] slander they may
invent between they hands and legs, nor disobey you in any decent
matter; then accept their allegiance and seek forgiveness from God for
them. God is forgiving, merciful (60:12).

THE MESSIAH IS NOT GOD

Those who say that God is Christ the son of Mary have disbelieved.
Christ [himself] said: "Children of Israel, serve God [Who is] my Lord as
Well as you Lord." God will ban the Garden to anyone who associates
anything else with God; his lodging will be Fire.

Wrongdoers have no supporters. Those who say: "God is the third of
three," have disbelieved! There is no deity except God alone. If they do
not stop saying what they say, painful torment will afflict those of them
who disbelieve. Why do they not turn towards God and seek His forgiveness?
God is forgiving, merciful (5:72-74).

WAR (JIHAD)

Fight against those who fight against you along God's way, yet do not initiate
hostilities. God loves nor aggressors. Kill them wherever you may catch them
and expel them out from anywhere they may have expelled you. Sedition is
more serious than killing! But do not fight them at the Hallowed Masjid unless
they fight you there. If they should fight you, then fight them back; such is the
reward for those disbelievers! However, it they stop, surely God will be
forgiving, merciful. Fight them and until there is no more subversion and [all]
religion belongs to God alone. If they stop, let there be no [more] hostility except
towards wrongdoers (2:190-193).

Do not reckon those who are killed for God's sake as dead, but rather, they are living;
they will be provided For by their Lord and are provided for. So happy they will be with
whatever God has given them out of His Bounty, and rejoicing for those they left behind
who have not yet overtaken them. No fear will fall on them nor will they be saddened;
they will rejoice because of favor and bounty from God, since God does not deprive
believes of their wages (3:169-171).