þ7×JfÖJXXXXXXXXXXŽæDFFF ffff Chapter 6 The Nature and Function of the QurÕanLanguage, Format, and Chronology The word qurÕaøn, as mentioned earlier, means Òrecitation,Ó which refers to individual passages as well as to their collection in the book that Muslims possess. A codex, that is, a bound volume, is called in Arabic a mus.h.af, which is a common synonym for the QurÕan when preceded by the definite article, as in al-Mus.h.af, Òthe Book.Ó Another synonym for the QurÕan is al-Kitaøb, Òthe Writing,Ó or Òthe Book.Ó (But Òthe Holy BookÓ in Arabic is Òal-Kitaøb al-Muqaddas,Ó which convention limits to the Holy Bible.) Other names for the QurÕaøn, mentioned in the text itself, are al-Furqaøn, Òthe Criterion [between truth and falsehood],Ó al-Hudaø, Òthe Guidance,Ó and al-Tanzõøl, Òthe DownsentÓ [that is, Òrevealed from aboveÓ]. Only in recent times have Muslims taken to calling their scripture Òthe Holy QurÕan,Ó influenced by English translations, especially in India. There is nothing wrong with the name, but it is not a traditional or idiomatic one. The most common name for the Islamic scripture among Muslims is al-QurÕaøn al-Karõøm, Òthe Noble (or Gracious) QurÕan.Ó Oral and Written Transmission The Muslims have handed down the QurÕan through the ages by both oral and written means. The former has always been considered to be the primary mode of transmission, reflecting its original revelation to Muhammad through the archangel Gabriel. During the early generations of the Islamic movement, for more than its first two centuries, in fact, written Arabic was not developed enough to preserve precisely every sound and thus needed the help of oral knowledge. That is, in some respects, the bare consonantal text (without the vowels marked in to indicate active or passive voice, mood, tense, and so forth) is like shorthand. The native speaker knows exactly how to pronounce a written phrase, but the non-Arab who has learned the language as a second tongue or native Arabs speaking different dialects will not know in every case exactly how to pronounce the text from only the Òdefective script,Ó as it is called. An example of what is meant by a script that lacks vowels is the following rough approximation, which you should try to decipher: w hld ths trths t b slf vdnt tht ll mn r crtd qul tht thy r ndwd b thr crtr wth crtn nlnbl rghts tht mng ths r lf lbrt nd th prst f hppnss. (We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.) This illustration does not quite duplicate the situation of the Arabic-speaking context, but it does suggest something of the problem. Actually, the Arabic consonantal script does have some vowels that are written out at all times, but two of these can also be consonants (the Arabic waøw is both like the English u and w, whereas the yaø is like the English y as in ÒyesÓ and in ÒbabyÓ). Another problem of the old Arabic script was that certain forms for consonants could not be readily distinguished from others, as if we were to use a b to stand also for t and soft th sounds. All of this detail has been included to emphasize the importance of a correctly learned oral prototype from Muhammad, which later was written down. The written QurÕan, then, was originally corrected by the remembered oral QurÕan, although from early times the relationship between the two was close. Although Muhammad is reported not to have been able to read or write, there were many in his environment who could. But they were limited by the incomplete written script of their day. It was not until nearly three hundred years after the death of the Prophet that what is called a Òstandard exemplarÓ of the QurÕanic text was perfected. That technical term refers to a completely voweled and otherwise precisely marked text that could be used for copying purposes. Conventional Format The format of the QurÕan is not a product of revelation, but of convention. There are one hundred fourteen chapters, called suøras, arranged roughly according to length. They progress from the longer ones in the earlier portions to the shortest ones at the end. The first suøra is an exception: a short prayer called ÒThe OpeningÓ (Al-Faøtih.a), which occupies a position in Islam parallel to the LordÕs Prayer in Christianity. We may call the traditional arrangement of the suøras the ÒcanonicalÓ ordering, in that it is official. There is also a chronological arrangement of suøras, according to when each was revealed. There is not unanimous agreement about every suøraÕs historical time of origination, although there is a general consensus about most of them and also about certain individual passages of suøras. Most Muslims do not believe that the QurÕan was revealed in any manner that would suggest it was a response to historical circumstances in a causal sense. The divine will is inscrutable and far above all that humans can say or understand about it. QurÕan scholars call the specific circumstances connected with revealed passages Òoccasions of revelationsÓ (asbaøb nuzuøl al-QurÕaøn). The occasions are not causes, but simply incidents or events that have been rememberedÑmost often from reports from Muhammad (h.adõøths). Unfortunately, the reports themselves are not always dated, and so the best we have is a crude connection with an actual historical event to, at most, a relative date (as between x and y, but precisely where is unknown). Certain events are referred to directly in the QurÕan. An example is the Battle of Badr: And God most surely helped you at Badr, when you were utterly abject. (3:123) However, all we can discern in this passage is that it was revealed after Badr, but not precisely when. It must be Medinan and after a.h. 2, but we cannot tell whether it was immediately after Badr or several years after. Another passage refers to the awkward incident when ÔAøÕisha was mistakenly left behind when her caravan packed up and continued on its journey. Her attendants thought she was in the curtained litter on the back of her camel, but she was actually off looking for a lost necklace. A young man who had lagged behind the rest discovered ÔAøÕisha and brought her back to Medina on his camel, all the while maintaining a dignified distance from the ProphetÕs wife. But tongues started wagging, because in that gossipy and scandal-mongering society, unrelated males and females alone together constituted prima facie evidence of adultery or fornication. After some time, Muhammad received a revelation that convinced him that any suspicions were groundless. The following verse was revealed, which occurs in a lengthy legal passage on adultery, its establishment, and the rules for punishment. And those who cast it up on women in wedlock, and then bring not four witnesses, scourge them with eighty stripes, and do not accept any testimony of theirs ever. (24:4) These two historical events to which the QurÕan refers, the first specifically, the second implicitly, are not occasions of revelation. Rather, an occasion of revelation is something external to the QurÕan text itself. Meccan and Medinan Suøras Modern Western scholarship has attempted to date the QurÕanÕs contents in a number of ways. The most widely accepted chronology outside Islamic scholarship, which tends to be based on traditional accounts, is that of the German orientalist Theodor Nšldeke (1836Ð1930), which is based on stylistic changes over the years ofÊthe QurÕanÕs revelation.1 The suøras are divided up into the two usual groups of Meccan and Medinan periods. But Nšldeke goes farther by subdividing the Meccan suøras into three periods: early, middle, and late. The earliest suøras are generally brief, highly rhythmic, and laden with imagery. They are often introduced by oaths,Êas in Suøra 95: ÒBy the fig and the olive and the Mount Sinai and this land secure!Ó The middle Meccan period is characterized by a quieter, more serene style. There are numerous illustrations of the truth of the divine message taken from nature and history, as well as a fuller airing of doctrinal issues. These suøras are longer and more formal. God is referred to frequently as Òthe MercifulÓ (al-Rah.maøn) and passages are introduced with GodÕs commanding Muhammad, ÒSay!Ó Earlier prophets are often mentioned and used as proofs of GodÕs purposes in history. The final Meccan period includes much of what the middle contains, but the use of Òthe MercifulÓ as a divine name ceases, and the prophet stories have an altered emphasis. The Medinan suøras are quite different from the Meccan ones because of the changed circumstances of that period when Muhammad had become head of an independent theocratic community. The passages feature legal and social matters and are thus much more prosaic and intended for specific application to the regulation of the ummaÕs life. The old themes of warning, judgment, punishment, reward, and GodÕs signs in nature and history are still encountered, but their relative prominence is less frequent. The passage just quoted about four witnesses being required before a charge of adultery may be raised is typical of Medinan passages of the regulatory and legal type. At many points the chronologies of Nšldeke and the traditional Muslim scholars are in agreement, but their criteria for dating passages are, of course, radically different. NšldekeÕs approach is a literary-critical one and depends to a great extent on internal evidence, regarding the QurÕan itself as its best source of cl...
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