Part 9

It was a singular system these early revisers went upon. They seem, indeed, to have established the authenticity of each saying satisfactorily; but in the arrangement of them they showed an extraordinary dulness. The tradition of the year when each revelation was spoken appears to have been lost even in the short time that had elapsed since it had been spoken. People remembered the words, but seldom the occasion of the words. Hence the revisers had to devise an artificial order; not according to subject, nor after the development of the style, but simply in order of length! They put the longest chapters first and the shortest last; that is to say, they inverted, roughly speaking, the true order, for the early soorahs were short and the later ones long.

Read in this order, the Ḳur-án is an unintelligible jumble. Carlyle may well say that ‘nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Ḳur-án.’ You can trace no development of mind or doctrine in the present arrangement; it is indeed a confused mass of ‘endless iterations, long-windedness, entanglement, most crude, incondite.’ But scholars have long discovered certain signs of a true order—several kinds of evidence by which a chronological arrangement of the Ḳur-án may be attempted. These are—(1.) The _references to historical events_ in the Ḳur-án, as identified by tradition. These, however, are but few, and occur chiefly in quite the latest soorahs; and tradition is apt to identify any reference with any event it chooses. A much more important test is (2.) the _style_; for a distinct development can be traced in the rime, in the length of verses, and in the words employed. And then there is (3.) the _matter_ test, based on what we know of Moḥammad’s life, from which we can argue a certain change in his preaching at Mekka, and still more when, from addressing idolaters in his birthplace, he came to preach to Jews and Christians at Medina. The danger of this last test is that each man forms his own theory of Moḥammad’s mental and religious growth, and may arrange the soorahs in accordance with that theory. Even with these three tests, used by the most accomplished critics, it is impossible to arrive at an exact order, and to determine the precise chronological position of each soorah. But whilst it is admitted that an exact chronological arrangement of each individual chapter of the Ḳur-án is impossible, it is yet no less certain that the soorahs may be roughly grouped together, and that these groups can be definitely assigned to certain periods of Moḥammad’s career.

Professor Th. Nöldeke’s _Geschichte des Qorâns_ has established his right to the first place in this science of Ḳur-án arrangement, and his order of soorahs may fairly be accepted as authoritative. Of this order Mr. Rodwell’s English version of the Ḳur-án is an example, except that a few of the earliest soorahs are transposed. Nöldeke has two great divisions of the soorahs: those revealed at Mekka, and those revealed during the Medina period. Further, he divides the Mekkan division into three groups.[23]

{ I. A.D. 612-617 (Rodwell, pp. 1-64)—To the Abyssinian { exile (fifth year). { { II. A.D. 617-619 (Rodwell, pp. 64-192)—Fifth and sixth Mekka { years of Moḥammad’s mission. { { III. A.D. 619-622 (Rodwell, pp. 193-366)—From the { seventh year to the Flight.

Medina A.D. 622-633 (Rodwell, pp. 366-555)—At Medina.

Read in this order the Ḳur-án becomes intelligible. It is still confused in its progression and strangely mixed in its contents; but the development of Moḥammad’s faith can be traced in it, and we can see dimly into the workings of his mind, as it struggles with the deep things of God, wrestles with the doubts which echoed the cavils of the unbelievers, soars upwards on the wings of ecstatic faith, till at last it gains the repose of fruition. Studied thus, the Ḳur-án is no longer dull reading to one who cares to look upon the working of a passionate troubled human soul, and who can enter into its trials and share in the joy of its triumphs.

In the soorahs revealed at Mekka, Moḥammad has but one theme—God; and one object—to draw his people away from their idols and bring them to the feet of that God. He tells them of Him in glowing language, that comes from the heart’s white heat. He points to the glories of nature, and tells them these are God’s works. With all the brilliant imagery of the Arab, he tries to show them what God is, to convince them of His power and His wisdom and His justice. The soorahs of this period are short, for they are pitched in too high a key to be long sustained. The language has the ring of poetry, though no part of the Ḳur-án complies with the demands of Arab metre. The sentences are short and full of half-restrained energy, yet with a musical cadence. The thought is often only half expressed; one feels the speaker has essayed a thing beyond words, and has suddenly discovered the impotence of language, and broken off with the sentence unfinished. There is the fascination of true poetry about these earliest soorahs; as we read them we understand the enthusiasm of the Prophet’s followers, though we cannot fully realise the beauty and the power, inasmuch as we cannot hear them hurled forth with Moḥammad’s fiery eloquence. From first to last the Ḳur-án is essentially a book to be heard, not read, but this is especially the case with the earliest chapters.

In the soorahs of the second period of Mekka we begin to trace the decline of the Prophet’s eloquence. There are still the same earnest appeals to the people, the same gorgeous pictures of the Last Day and the world to come; but the language begins to approach the quiet of prose, the sentences become longer, the same words and phrases are frequently repeated, and the wearisome stories of the Jewish prophets and patriarchs, which fill so large a place in the later portion of the Ḳur-án, now make their appearance. The fierce passion of the earliest soorahs, that could not out save in short burning verses, gives place to a calmer more argumentative style. Moḥammad appeals less to the works of God as proofs of his teaching, and more to the history of former teachers, and the punishments of the people who would not hear them. And the characteristic oaths of the first period, when Moḥammad swears by all the varied sights of nature as they mirrored themselves in his imagination, have gone, and in their place we find only the weaker oath ‘by the Ḳur-án.’ And this declension is carried still further in the last group of the soorahs revealed at Mekka. The style becomes more involved and the sentences longer, and though the old enthusiasm bursts forth ever and anon, it is rather an echo of former things than a new and present intoxication of faith. The fables and repetitions become more and more dreary, and but for the rich eloquence of the old Arabic tongue, which gives some charm even to inextricable sentences and dull stories, the Ḳur-án at this period would be unreadable. As it is, we feel we have fallen the whole depth from poetry to prose, and the matter of the prose is not so superlative as to give us amends for the loss of the poetic thought of the earlier time and the musical fall of the sentences.

In the soorahs of the Medina period these faults reach their climax. We read a singularly varied collection of criminal laws, social regulations, orders for battle, harangues to the Jews, first conciliatory, then denunciatory, and exhortations to spread the faith, and such-like heterogeneous matters. Happily the Jewish stories disappear in the latest soorahs, but their place is filled by scarcely more palatable materials. The chapters of this period are interesting chiefly as containing the laws which have guided every Muslim state, regulated every Muslim society, and directed in their smallest acts every Mohammadan man and woman in all parts of the world from the Prophet’s time till now. The Medina part of the Ḳur-án is the most important part for Islám, considered as a scheme of ritual and a system of manners; the earliest Mekka revelations are those which contain what is highest in a great religion and what was purest in a great man.

The word _Ḳur-án_ means the _crying_, _reciting_, _reading_, and is applied not only to the whole book, but to any chapter or section of it. The Ḳur-án is also called El-Furḳán, ‘the Distinguisher,’ and El-Muṣḥaf, ‘the Volume,’ and El-Kitáb, ‘the Book,’ and Edh-Dhikr, ‘the Admonition.’ The Ḳur-án contains, in its ordinary form, 114 chapters (_soorahs_), 6616 verses (_áyát_, literally ‘signs’ or ‘wonders’), 77,934 words, and 323,671 letters, according to the estimates of laborious Muslim divines, which differ, however, in a slight manner in consequence of the various divisions of verses. After the first chapter, which is a short prayer (the Fátiḥah), the soorahs gradually decrease in length from 289 verses in the second to from three to six in the ten concluding chapters. Each chapter is headed by a title, taken from same prominent word in it (as the ‘Chapter of the Striking,’ ‘of the Cow,’ &c.); beneath which is noted whether it was promulgated (according to tradition) at Mekka or Medina, and the number of its verses. Then follow the words:—‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful;’ after which the chapter begins. To twenty-nine chapters are prefixed certain letters (_e.g._, ch. ii. on p. 4), or a single letter, which have never been successfully interpreted. The Muslims believe them to conceal profound mysteries. In Soorah 55 a refrain is found, and traces of a like imitation in Soorahs 54 and 17. It is probable that the Ḳur-án was originally _chanted_ in somewhat the same manner as it is in the present day.

The Ḳur-án is also divided in thirty sections, and these are again subdivided; and from this division rather than from chapter and verse do the Muslims generally quote.

‘The Muslims absolutely deny that the Ḳur-án was composed by their Prophet himself, or by any other for him; it being their general and orthodox belief that it is of divine original; nay, that it is eternal and uncreated, remaining, as some express it, in the very essence of God; that the first transcript has been from everlasting by God’s throne, written on a tablet of vast size, called the Preserved Tablet, in which are also recorded the divine decrees, past and future; that a copy from this tablet, in one volume on paper, was, by the ministry of the angel Gabriel, sent down to the lowest heaven, in the month of Ramaḍán, on the Night of Power;[24] whence Gabriel revealed it to Moḥammad by parcels, some at Mekka, and some at Medina, at different times during the space of twenty-three years, as the exigency of affairs required; giving him, however, the consolation to show him the whole (which they tell us was bound in silk, and adorned with gold and precious stones of Paradise) once a year; but in the last year of his life he had the favour to see it twice. They say that few chapters were delivered entire, the most part being revealed piecemeal, and written down from time to time by the Prophet’s amanuensis, in such or such a part of such or such a chapter, till they were completed, according to the directions of the angel. The first parcel that was revealed is generally agreed to have been the first five verses of the ninety-sixth chapter. After the new revealed passages had been from the Prophet’s mouth taken down in writing by his scribe, they were published to his followers, several of whom took copies for their private use; but the far greater number got them by heart. The originals, when returned, were put promiscuously into a chest, without regard to any order of time, for which reason it is uncertain when many passages were revealed.

‘The Ḳur-án being the Muslims’ rule of faith and practice, it is no wonder its expositors and commentators are so very numerous; and it may not be amiss to take notice of the rules they observe in expounding it.

‘One of the most learned commentators distinguishes the contents of the Ḳur-án into allegorical and literal. The former comprehends the more obscure, parabolical, and enigmatical passages, and such as are repealed or abrogated; the latter, those which are plain, perspicuous, liable to no doubt, and in full force.

‘To explain these severally in a right manner, it is necessary, from tradition and study, to know the time when each passage was revealed, its circumstances, state, and history, and the reasons or particular emergencies for the sake of which it was revealed. Or, more explicitly, whether the passage was revealed at Mekka or at Medina; whether it be abrogated, or does itself abrogate any other passage; whether it be anticipated in order of time or postponed; whether it be distinct from the context or depend thereon; whether it be particular or general; and lastly, whether it be implicit by intention, or explicit in words.

‘By what has been said, the reader may easily believe that this book is held by the Muslims in the greatest reverence and esteem. The more strict among them dare not touch it without being first washed or legally purified; which lest they should do by inadvertence, they sometimes write these words of the book itself on the cover or label, “None shall touch it but they who are purified.” They read it with great care and respect, never holding it below their girdles. They swear by it, consult it in their weighty occasions, carry it with them to war, inscribe sentences from it on their banners, sometimes adorn it with gold and precious stones, and knowingly suffer it not to be in the possession of any person of a different persuasion. It is the foundation of their education; and the children in the schools are taught to chant it, and commit the whole of it to memory.’

BOOKS.

In reading a large number of works bearing upon the subjects of this Introduction, I have remarked a curious freedom of quotation in most of the writers. I find the same sentence, or at least the same thought, repeated in several books without any reference to the author who first put it forth. Each writer seems to have studied his predecessors with such minuteness that he can quote their very words, but he does not appear to remember whence the words came. When a thought has once been perfectly expressed, it were a ridiculous vanity to seek to frame it in different words, and so far it is undoubtedly wise to make use of the best of what has preceded us; nevertheless, it is well to acknowledge our debt. Yet thoughts, and even phrases, impress themselves on the memory till one unconsciously comes to appropriate them as his own; and this, I doubt not, is the cause of much of the plagiarism I have noticed. It is extremely probable that I have been guilty of the same sin. I have crowded my pages with marks of quotation, sometimes with foot references, sometimes without (for the student of the subject will know where to look for them), but it is quite likely that I have often unconsciously used another’s phrase or metaphor without rendering thanks. So I now append a list of the principal European books I have used, and beg once and for all to record my indebtedness to their writers. The original Arabic authorities will dispense with my acknowledgments, and the catalogue of them would not assist the English reader who wishes to proceed further in the study of the subject, for whom this list may prove useful.

BURCKHARDT, J. L. _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys._ 2 vols. 1831.

DEUTSCH, EMANUEL. _Literary Remains._ 1874.

DOZY, R. _Essai sur l´Histoire de l´Islamisme_, trad. par V. Chauvin. 1879.

FRESNEL, F. _Lettres sur l´Histoire des Arabes avant l´Islamisme._ 1836-38.

HUGHES, REV. T. P. _Notes on Muhammadanism._ 2d ed. 1877.

KREMER, A. VON. _Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Isláms._ 1868.

—— _Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen._ 2 vols. 1876, 1877.

LANE, E. W. _The Modern Egyptians._ 5th ed. 1 vol. 1860.

—— _The Thousand and One Nights_ (notes). 2d ed. 3 vols. 1859, 1860.

—— _Selections from the Kur-án._ 1st ed. 1843.

—— _Arabic-English Lexicon_, Preface, &c. 1863.

LYALL, C. J. _Translations from the Hamâseh and the Aghânî; The Mo´allaqah of Zuheyr._ (Journal As. Soc. of Bengal, 1878.)

MUIR, SIR W. _The Life of Mahomet._ 4 vols. New edition.[25] 1867.

NÖLDEKE, TH. _Geschichte des Qorâns._ 1860.

—— _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber._ 1864.

PALGRAVE, W. GIFFORD. _Central and Eastern Arabia._ 6th ed. 1871.

PERCEVAL, A.-P. CAUSSIN DE. _Essai sur l´Histoire des Arabes avant l´Islamisme._ 3 vols. 1847, 1848.

POOLE, R. STUART. _Pagan and Muslim Arabs._ (Fortnightly Review, October 15, 1865.)

RODWELL, J. M. _El-Korân._ 2d ed. 1876.

SALE, G. _The Koran._ 1836.

SÉDILLOT, L.-A. _Histoire Générale des Arabes._ 2d ed. 2 vols. 1877.

SMITH, R. BOSWORTH. _Mohammed and Mohammedanism._ 2d ed. 1876.

SPRENGER, A. _Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad._ 2d ed. 3 vols. 1869.

ST. HILAIRE, T.-BARTHÉLEMY. _Mahomet et le Coran._ 2d ed. 1865.

TIELE, C. P. _Outlines of the History of Religion_, translated by J. E. Carpenter. (Trübner’s Philosophical Library. Vol. vii. 1877.)

WEIL, G. _Das Leben Mohammed’s nach Ibn Ishak_ bearbeitet von Ibn Hischam. 2 vols. 1864.

SELECTIONS FROM THE ḲUR-ÁN.

_PART THE FIRST._

NOTE.

The following extracts were all translated by Mr. Lane, with the exception of those to which an obelus (†) is prefixed, for which I alone am responsible. In the text, the words in italics are inserted from the commentary of the Jeláleyn; words in square brackets [] are Mr. Lane’s additions, inserted where the difference between the Arabic and English idioms required them.

In the foot-notes, words in italics are from the commentary of the Jeláleyn; notes followed by the initial S., from Sale’s _Koran_; the letters B., Z., and A. F., following S. in parenthesis, point to the authorities from which Sale’s note was derived, the great commentaries of El-Beydáwee and Ez-Zamakhsharee, and Abu-l-Fidá’s Life of Moḥammad, respectively. The other notes are Mr. Lane’s, either from the original edition or extracted from his _Modern Egyptians_ (5th 1 vol. ed. 1860), or his notes to the _Thousand and One Nights_ (2d ed. 1859); except those enclosed in square brackets, which are due to myself.

The numbers at the end of each extract refer to the chapter (soorah) and verse in Flügel’s text of the Ḳur-án (Lipsiæ, 1869).

S. L. P.

_PART THE FIRST._

_THE OPENING PRAYER._[26]

_EL-FÁTIḤAH._

I.

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds,[27] The Compassionate, the Merciful, The King of the day of judgment. Thee do we worship, and of Thee seek we help.[28] Guide us in the right way, The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring.

(i.)

_PREMONITION._

II.

A.L.M.[29] Respecting this Book there is no doubt;[30] _it is_ a guidance for them that fear Him,

Who believe in the unseen,[31] and perform the prayer, and of what We have bestowed on them expend,

And who believe in that which hath been sent down to thee,[32] and what hath been sent down before thee,[33] and have firm assurance of the life to come.

Those follow a right direction from their Lord, and those are they who shall prosper.

As for those who have disbelieved, it will be equal to them whether thou admonish them or admonish them not: they will not believe.

God hath sealed their hearts and their ears, and over their eyes is a covering, and for them is [ordained] a great punishment.

(ii. 1-6.)

_GOD._

III.

SAY, He is God, One [God]; God, the Eternal. He begetteth not nor is begotten, And there is none equal unto Him.

(cxii.)[34]

IV.

_The Throne-Verse._[35]

God! There is no God but He, the _Ever_-Living, the Ever-Subsisting. Slumber seizeth Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the Heavens and whatsoever is in the Earth. Who is he that shall intercede with Him, unless by His permission? He knoweth what [hath been] before them and what [shall be] after them, and they shall not compass aught of His knowledge save what He willeth. His Throne comprehendeth the Heavens and the Earth,[36] and the care of them burdeneth Him not. And He is the High, the Great.

(ii. 256.)

V.

†SAY, O God, to whom belongeth dominion, Thou givest dominion to whom Thou wilt, and from whom Thou wilt Thou takest it away; Thou exaltest whom Thou wilt, and whom Thou wilt Thou humblest. In Thy hand is good. Verily Thou art all-powerful.

Thou causest the night to pass into the day, and Thou causest the day to pass into the night; and Thou bringest forth the living from the dead, and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living; and thou givest sustenance to whom Thou wilt without measure.

(iii. 25, 26.)

VI.

Blessed be He in whose hand is the dominion and who is all-powerful;[37]

Who hath created death and life, that He may prove you, which of you [will be] best in works: and He is the Mighty, the Very-Forgiving:

Who hath created seven heavens, one above another. Thou seest not any fault in the creation of the Compassionate. But lift up the eyes again _to heaven_. Dost thou see any fissures?

Then lift up the eyes again twice; the sight shall return unto thee dull and dim.

(lxvii. 1-4.)

VII.

Verily your Lord is God, who created the heavens and the earth in six days: then He ascended the throne. He causeth the night to cover the day; it followeth it swiftly: and _He created_ the sun and the moon and the stars, made subject utterly to His command. Do not the _whole_ creation and command belong to Him? Blessed be God, the Lord of the Worlds.

(vii. 52.)

VIII.

We have placed in heaven _the twelve_ signs _of the Zodiac_, and adorned them for the beholders _with the constellations_;

And We have guarded them (_by means of shooting stars_) from every accursed devil,[38]

Excepting him who listeneth by stealth, whom a manifest shooting star pursueth.

We have also spread forth the earth, and thrown thereon firm _mountains_,[39] and We have caused to spring forth in it every kind [of green thing] weighed.[40]

And We have provided for you therein necessaries of life, and _for_ him whom ye do not sustain;[41]

And there is not a thing but the storehouses thereof are with Us, and We send it not down save in determined quantities.

We also send the fertilizing winds,[42] and We send down water from heaven, and give you to drink thereof; and ye are not the storers of it.

And verily We give life and death, and We are the heirs _of all the creation_.

We also know those who have gone before you, and We know those who follow after [you].

And verily thy Lord will assemble them together: for He is Wise, Knowing.

(xv. 16-25.)

IX.

And your God is One God: there is no god but He, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the varying of night and day, and the ships that course upon the sea _laden_ with what is profitable to mankind, and the water that God hath sent down from heaven, quickening the earth thereby after its death, and scattering about it all kinds of beasts; and in the changing of the winds, and the clouds that are compelled to do service between heaven and earth, are signs unto a people who understand.

Yet among men are those who take to themselves, beside God, idols, which they love as _with_ the love for God: but those who have believed are more loving towards God _than these towards their idols_.

(ii. 158-160.)

X.