The Koran
I was neither Muslim nor literate in Arabic; I bought it for its dainty proportions. Pages from a 15thth century Koran, Libya. I found it over a quarter century later, one sticky summer afternoon in St. The Koran began as a series of revelations to Muhammad, a caravan trader, in the seventh century. These word grew into a spiritual, social, and political force whose impact is now global.
Reading it should be a prerequisite for understanding humanity. I was surprised to discover that the Koran can refract in dazzling ways. The San Francisco civil rights lawyer may discover freedoms in the same chapter in which a twelfth-century Cairo cleric saw strictures. The Marxist and the Wall Street banker, the despot and the democrat, the terrorist and the pluralist—each can point to a passage in support of his cause. A Hindu goes to his Muslim neighbor and asks if he could borrow a copy of the Koran. But I wonder, could you give me a copy of the other Koran? I was a correspondent at Newsweek then and he was working at a think tank, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
That day at Oxford, the mood was bleak. When the Twin Towers fell, the world had cleaved in two, we were told.
The Qur'an
In such a climate, our friendship felt freakish. It had always been an oddity: Akram is a conservative alim, or Muslim scholar. Yet we both sought connections between our seemingly divided worlds. Educated in India and Saudi Arabia, with twenty years in Britain and seasons spent studying in Damascus and Medina under his belt, the Sheikh has a cultural scope that spans continents. My own cosmopolitanism was born of a childhood being towed around the world by a restless father, a man who yearned for minaret-studded skylines lit by scimitar moons.
I had lived in Tehran, Kabul, Delhi, and Cairo growing up; I was a well-trained little nomad, comfortable most places as long as I had my parents, a Laura Ingalls Wilder paperback, and the occasional playmate.
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Allah). It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical. Let me share with you some real religious truths: the Koran likens the murder of an innocent life to the murder of the entire humanity, such is its.
My earliest lessons in cultural difference were crude: In Afghanistan, you never went sleeveless, never photographed someone without permission, and never refused a cup of chai. When I told a Muslim friend of mine that I was to be studying the Koran with a sheikh, she had one request. All too often, people read the Koran selectively, the Sheikh explained, taking phrases out of context. In , I went to Afghanistan to report on life for women under the Taliban.
Afghan women outside one of Kabul's widows bakeries, set up by the World Food Program, in At one point during my trip I asked the father of a ten-year-old girl whether she ever went out. In the years that the Taliban were busy keeping women at home and uneducated, Akram was uncovering a radically different version of Islamic tradition. Its luminaries included women like Ummal-Darda, a seventh-century jurist and scholar who taught jurisprudence in the mosques of Damascus and Jerusalem. Her students were men, women, and even the caliph.
It had begun by accident, he explained. He decided to do a biographical dictionary—a well-established genre in Muslim scholarly culture—that included all the women experts of hadith. I was planning to publish a pamphlet. But it seems there are more. Manal Al Sharif, a campaigner for women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia. Women scholars taught judges and imams, issued fatwas, and traveled to distant cities. Some made lecture tours across the Middle East. For most of Western civilization, men wrote history, and they wrote what they knew.
The reason for discontinuation in the use of the earlier style was that it took too long to produce and the demand for copies was increasing. Copyists would therefore choose simpler writing styles. Naskh was in very widespread use. More distinct is the Bihari script which was used solely in the north of India. In the beginning, the Quran did not have vocalization markings. The system of vocalization, as we know it today, seems to have been introduced towards the end of the ninth century. Since it would have been too costly for most Muslims to purchase a manuscript, copies of the Quran were held in mosques in order to make them accessible to people.
In terms of productivity, the Ottoman copyists provide the best example. This was in response to widespread demand, unpopularity of printing methods and for aesthetic reasons. Folio from the "Blue" Quran. Wood-block printing of extracts from the Quran is on record as early as the 10th century.
Arabic movable type printing was ordered by Pope Julius II r. Printed copies of the Quran during this period met with strong opposition from Muslim legal scholars: Very few books, and no religious texts, were printed in the Ottoman Empire for another century. A Quran was printed with this press in , reprinted in and in Saint Petersburg, and in in Kazan. This edition was the result of a long preparation as it standardized Quranic orthography and remains the basis of later editions.
The Quran's statements on the creation of the universe and earth, the origins of human life, biology, earth sciences and so on have been criticized by scientists as containing fallacies, being unscientific, and likely to be contradicted by evolving scientific theories. The Quran speaks well [ citation needed ] of the relationship it has with former books the Torah and the Gospels and attributes their similarities to their unique origin and saying all of them have been revealed by the one God.
In fact, Moses is mentioned more in the Quran than any other individual. Some non-Muslim groups such as Baha'is and Druze view the Quran as holy. Unitarian Universalists may also seek inspiration from the Quran. After the Quran, and the general rise of Islam, the Arabic alphabet developed rapidly into an art form.
Although Arabic, as a language and a literary tradition, was quite well developed by the time of Muhammad's prophetic activity, it was only after the emergence of Islam, with its founding scripture in Arabic, that the language reached its utmost capacity of expression, and the literature its highest point of complexity and sophistication. Indeed, it probably is no exaggeration to say that the Quran was one of the most conspicuous forces in the making of classical and post-classical Arabic literature.
The main areas in which the Quran exerted noticeable influence on Arabic literature are diction and themes; other areas are related to the literary aspects of the Quran particularly oaths q. As far as diction is concerned, one could say that Quranic words, idioms and expressions, especially "loaded" and formulaic phrases, appear in practically all genres of literature and in such abundance that it is simply impossible to compile a full record of them. For not only did the Quran create an entirely new linguistic corpus to express its message, it also endowed old, pre-Islamic words with new meanings and it is these meanings that took root in the language and subsequently in the literature From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
List English translations by Ahmadis. Abrogation Biblical narratives Esoteric interpretation Hermeneutics Persons related to verses. History of the Quran , Sana'a manuscript , and Birmingham Quran manuscript. Profession of faith Prayer Fasting Alms-giving Pilgrimage. I'jaz and Challenge of the Quran. Esoteric interpretation of the Quran. List of translations of the Quran. Criticism of the Quran. Biblical narratives and the Quran and Tawrat.
- Quran - Wikipedia.
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Quran portal Islam portal. A Christian View, Liturgical Press , p. The Leaders Are Coming! The Words and Will of God. Wheeler 18 June Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis. Retrieved 31 August The Qur'an in Islam: Archived from the original on 26 August Bell's introduction to the Qur'an. Lambton and Bernard Lewis The Cambridge history of Islam Reprint. Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says.
Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the Sweat dropping from his forehead as the Inspiration was over. Journal of Quranic Studies.
- Religion: The Koran (Qur'an).
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- BBC - Religions - Islam: The Qur'an!
Retrieved 16 February The Blackwell companion to the Qur'an [2a reimpr. For eschatology, see Discovering final destination by Christopher Buck, p. For literary structure, see section Language by Mustansir Mir, p. For the history of compilation see Introduction by Tamara Sonn p.
Oxford University Press, pp. Peters , pp. For eschatology, see Eschatology by Zeki Saritoprak, p. For searching the Arabic text on the internet and writing, see Cyberspace and the Qur'an by Andrew Rippin, p. For calligraphy, see by Calligraphy and the Qur'an by Oliver Leaman, p For translation, see Translation and the Qur'an by Afnan Fatani, p. For recitation, see Art and the Qur'an by Tamara Sonn, p. Basic Mechanics of Islamic Capitalism. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Variants, Manuscript, Linguistics , pg. Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book". Archived from the original on 18 May Retrieved 15 March Journal of Qur'anic Studies.
Retrieved 22 July Quran Fragments Perhaps as Old as Islam". Retrieved 28 July Corbin , p. Islam and Indian Muslims. General Trajectories and Individual Approaches". What's the right way to dispose of a Quran? Dutch and Their Gods. Number of Unique Words in the Quran". Retrieved 29 October Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world [Online-Ausg. Ethico-religious concepts in the Qur'an Repr. Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science. God's words must not in any way be distorted or sullied by human intervention. For this reason, no serious attempt, apparently, was made to edit the numerous revelations, organize them into thematic units, or present them in chronological order This has given rise in the past to a great deal of criticism by European and American scholars of Islam, who find the Quran disorganized, repetitive and very difficult to read.
Retrieved 30 September Brown, "The Apocalypse of Islam". Self-referentiality in the Qur'an. Archived from the original on 8 June Archived from the original on 1 May Retrieved 26 April The Blackwell companion to the Qur'an Pbk. Sufi commentaries on the Qur'an in classical Islam 1. Exploring the Development of a Genre". Retrieved 17 December Retrieved 21 November Archived from the original on 29 April A Thousand Years of Faith and Power.
Archived from the original on 18 November The art of reciting the Qur'an New ed.
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Textual Criticism and Qur'an Manuscripts. The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Quran: The Problem of Tawatur and the Emergence of Shawdhdh. Manuscripts and Printed Books". Petersburg; a domestic scholar, Mullah Osman Ismail, was responsible for the manufacture of the types. Through the doctor and writer, Johann Georg v. Its director, the philologist Christian Gottlob Heyne d. To the Arabic text marginal glosses have been added that consist predominantly of reading variants. The imprint was reproduced unchanged in and in St.
Schnurrer, Bibliotheca arabica, no. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Brill, , p. For the Kazan edition: X, 95; Schnurrer, C. The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History: From the midth century to the present day. Granta, , p. The Koran Predicted the Speed of Light? Archived from the original on 9 February Images of Jesus Christ in Islam: Bloomsbury Academic ; 2nd edition. But if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn't make sense In Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Entry on Qur'an, Alleged Divine Origin of. The Syro-Aramaic reading of the Koran: Jews, Christians and Muslims in conversation , by.
The Future of Islam. Oxford University Press US, Oxford English Dictionary 3rd ed. Subscription or UK public library membership required. The Blackwell companion to the Qur'an.
In an effort to keep women shielded from public view, the lives and works of learned women were simply left unrecorded. Archived from the original on 29 April During his lifetime, Muhammad would have individual verses revealed to him; these revelations occurred unexpectedly and in surprising places. A rescension is a version of a text that is assembled from all the variant versions of that text. Afghan women outside one of Kabul's widows bakeries, set up by the World Food Program, in
Tabatabae, Sayyid Mohammad Hosayn Its Impact and Influence on the Life of Muslims. Bell, Richard ; William Montgomery Watt Rahman, Fazlur []. Major Themes of the Qur'an Second ed. University Of Chicago Press. International Journal of Middle East Studies. Jews, Christians and Muslims in Conflict and Competition. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein Religion, History and Civilization. Certain verses revealed to Muhammad were later repudiated by him as "satanic" verses revealed not by Gabriel but by Satan.
These verses were expunged from the text that so many had memorized. After the death of Muhammad, the text of the Qur'an was written down in the caliphate of Abu Bakr. Until 'Uthman, one and only one written text existed. For more than a decade after the death of Muhammad, the Qur'an remained primarily an oral text in the memories of the faithful. Nevertheless, the military expansion of Islam led to two direct consequences concerning the integrity of the Quranic text.
First, large numbers of the faithful were dying out in the various military expeditions. Each time someone died who had the Quranic text memorized, that meant that one copy of the Qur'an disappeared forever. Second, the expansion of Islam swelled the ranks of the faithful. Many of these new converts spoke other langagues and the original Arabic of the Qur'an began to corrupt. Faced with these two threats to the integrity of the Qur'an , 'Uthman orderd a rescension of the text to be made and to serve as the definitive written version of the text.
A rescension is a version of a text that is assembled from all the variant versions of that text. In Islamic history, there is no variation between these two sources, so the Uthmanic "rescension" is largely a codifying of a single version of a text. This version, the 'Uthmanic rescension , is the version of the Qur'an that has remained, unchanged, the central holy text of Islam.
The Qur'an has one overriding theme, endlessly repeated and elaborated throughout the text: The God of Islam is both a stern judge and endlessly forgiving; obedience to God wipes away all transgression. This submission, however, must be fully and rationally given; faith iman is a rational consent to the truth of the word of God. Therefore, much of the Qu'ran concerns the word of God and how it is received and believed, or not received and believed as the case may be.