Bronze-level articleQur'an

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The Qur'an (Arabic: القرآن‎ or al-qur’ān; lit. "the recitation";[1] also romanized Koran, Alcoran, or Al-Qur’ān; also known as The Big Book of Islamic Myths and Legends) is a book held by the Islamic religion to be the final revealed word of God to mankind.

Islamic theology views the Jewish prophets from Adam to Jesus as a series of people who have received God's message via revelation and passed it on to God's people. The Prophet Muhammad is held to be the last prophet to receive God's word as a consequence of "miraculous" revelations over a span of many years. The Qur'an is considered by Muslims to be a restatement and completion of the story and teachings of the Bible.

Unlike the Bible, the Qur'an is weighted far more heavily towards theology and morality than towards recitation of stories or history. Much of the Qur'anic text is in the form of dialog or commands from God to Muhammad, instructing him on what to say. The Qur'an is similar to the Q gospel, in that it is almost entirely composed of Muhammad's sayings, rather than additional stories.

Contents

[edit] Composition

Like most people who founded a religion, Muhammad never wrote anything down himself; his teachings were written down by his followers much later, based on oral tradition, and then consolidated in the form of one "holy book". The study of the compilation and composition of the Qur'an as a work of literature is not as advanced as similar efforts in the case of the Bible, partly because (mostly Western) literary scholars have historically been more interested in the Bible and partly because Muslims themselves have strongly discouraged any study of the Qur'an as a text made by humans. Even so, it is nonetheless clear that the Qur'an is an amalgamated literary product of its time(s) and culture, containing traces of earlier works (cf. the documentary hypothesis). For example, the text seems to draw on pre-existing non-canonical stories about the life and crucifixion of Jesus, perhaps passed on by heterodox Christian sects in the Arabian peninsula.

[edit] Translation

The Arabic that the Qur'an is written in is the basis for the modern standard language. Therefore, most educated Arabs have little difficulty reading the Qur'an as it was originally written, albeit assisted by centuries of exegesis that deals with the many disputed meanings and obscure phrasings in the text. However, the text itself, 1300 years old, frequently uses archaic or obscure vocabulary. Diametrically opposed interpretations of certain sura are not uncommon. Qur'anic Arabic is widely taught in non-Arab speaking portions (i.e. the majority) of the Muslim world.

The Qur'an is fairly widely available in translation; however, unlike the Christian Bible,[2] it is considered a point of faith that the Qur'an is valid only in the original Arabic. According to Islamic tradition, the Qur'an was jotted down in an ad hoc fashion by Muhammad's companions on whatever writing materials were close to hand, but mainly kept in memory, and only put to paper as a cohesive text after his death. The earliest complete copies we have date from more than a century after Muhammad's death;[3] and while the early manuscripts do have interesting differences, there isn't the same amount of textual variation that is associated with New Testament manuscripts.

[edit] Structure

The Qur'an has 114 suras, or chapters.

Because of the Qur'an's lack of a "storyline", the work itself has only a loose structure. Each sura is independent of the others, rarely if ever making reference to any other sura. Topics in any given sura may be repeated in some other sura and the suras are not grouped into some kind of "logical" structure like "Sura on Family", "Sura on Business", etc.

Conveniently, the ordering system of the suras is instead based on their length, from long to short, with the first being a notable exception for being quite brief. The 2nd one is the longest one though and from there on they get shorter. Of course this makes total sense, if we do not understand this it is only because we can never fully understand the mind and will of Allah (however, it must be noted that the present arrangement of the Qur'an is not identical to the order it was allegedly revealed in).

Each sura is named for either an important figure or topic in the sura. For example, Sura 16 is "the Bee", because Qur'an 16:68-69 talks about Allah telling the bees what to do.

Each sura was written in either Medina or Mecca, and the Qur'an tells which sura was written where.

Individual verses are usually cited either (1) by name then by verse number or (2) by traditional sura order number then by verse number. For example, "We will not believe in thee till we see Allah plainly" could be cited as The Cow, 53 or as Qur'an 2:53.

[edit] Islamic views on the Qur'an

As with Christianity and Judaism, there are many views about the Holy Book that supposedly represents Islam's foundation, which depend on the particular sect or the individual themself.

[edit] Perfect

The Qur'an itself asserts that it is a divine work, incomparably better than any human composition, and Muslims generally uphold this proposition. While particular sects and individual Muslims vary on most aspects of the Qur'an, one thing virtually all Muslims share is the idea that the Qur'an represents the most perfect book ever written. It is the miracle of Muhammad, proof of his prophethood, and is considered a final proof of God's existence. The prophecies are considered accurate, and the poetry is considered the most beautiful words ever written.

[edit] Scientifically accurate

Some Muslims, such as Harun Yahya and Zakir Naik, claim that the Qur'an described modern scientific discoveries in the seventh century and that this proves the Qur'an's is from Allah. As with Biblical scientific foreknowledge, this idea is very interesting and relies entirely on redefining Qur'anic verses in light of recent scientific advances.

[edit] Criticism of the Qur'an

In the West, criticism of the Qur'an falls into two major categories. People who are critical of Islam (and therefore the Qur'an) because it's the intellectual successor of all the hatred and fear once reserved for commies and people who really find little to value in religion in general. Unsurprisingly, many of the same criticisms are found in both groups.

Opponents of Islam point to verses where disbelievers should eternally burn in Hell and verses that say that "people who make war against Allah and his prophet" have to be killed. They will find fault with historical recitations of the Qur'an's view on medicine and health and they will generally take up the cry of how unjustly women are treated in the Bible Qur'an, how generally violent it is, and how much time is spent telling others how to live.

To the rational, these are in no way dissimilar from similar consequences for disbelieving in other faiths.

Given the structure of the Qur'an, focused mainly on exhortations and instructions (not unlike the Book of Leviticus), it is easy to find attitudes or endorsement of cultural practices that the modern world would find repellent - certainly as easy as it is with even a cursory study of the Bible.

There is plenty of argument within the modern western world on whether the Qur'an is an "inherently violent" or "bloodthirsty" book, or whether it actually is full of charity and compassion. Such arguments perhaps miss the point - that we should not be particularly surprised that for better or worse it essentially functions to give divine sanction to the point of view and cultural practices of 7th-century desert dwellers.

Really, despite vehement protests otherwise, the Torah, Bible, and the Qur'an are largely the same in tone, style and message. At best, it boils down to something akin to a sports rivalry - "My god is the best!" "No, mine!" Except in this case, the God is exact same guy.

[edit] Violence in the Qur'an

The Qur'an contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.

The context of violent passages is more ambiguous than might be expected of a perfect book from a loving God, however this can work both ways. Most of today's Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book's call to arms according to their own moral preconceptions about justifiable violence. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.

Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy - and that of his companions - along with the remarkable stress on violence found in the Qur'an have produced a trail of blood and tears across world history.

[edit] Qur'an's vision and acceptance in modern society

Qur'an holds some archaic, primitive, barbaric and/or aggressive ideas (promoting the marriage of under-aged girls, capital punishment, forced marriage, anti-Semitism, violence, slavery and sexual slavery, etc.) — and even if it doesn't contain these messages, they are interpreted as such — which cannot be accepted into western post-Enlightenment progressive civilized society.

[edit] Christian apologetics and the Qur'an

Some Christians like to cherry-pick verses from the Qur'an that seem like they support the Bible.[4] However, as with the Bible, they take the Qur'an out of historical and textual context to support their views, and keep it in context when it does not.

[edit] See also

[edit] Suras

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Traditionally the Qur'an is a recited text, in preference to a written one. It is a mark of scholarship in Islam to commit the entirety of the book to memory. A person who has done this is known as a Hafiz[wp].
  2. See Bible translation and Guide to Bible translations.
  3. Although modern secular scholars disagree on how accurate the traditional accounts of the process are, and how old the actual written text itself is, the idea that the whole thing was kept in memory for decades isn't as far-fetched as it sounds; people of the period were well accustomed to memorising long texts, often since they were illiterate to begin with.
  4. http://www.apologia.50megs.com/Bible%20Support%20From%20The%20Quran.html


Articles in RationalWiki related to the Qur'an
 Allah • Burqa • Dhimmi • Hadith • Halal • Houri • Jihad • John the Baptist • Qur'anic analysis • Satanic Verses • Sharia • Suras • Taqiyya •
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