Twenty Sūrahs given at al-Madīnah.
Chapter XCVIII.
Sūratu ʾl-Baiyinah.
The Chapter of the Manifest Sign.
Rebuke to Jews and Christians for doubting the manifest sign of Muḥammad’s mission.
Chapter II.
Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah.
The Chapter of the Heifer.
The Qurʾān a guidance.
A parable of one who kindles fire.
God is not ashamed of trifling similitudes.
The creation of man.
Adam taught the names.
Iblīs refuses to adore him.
The temptation and fall.
The Children of Israel.
Their trials in Egypt.
The golden calf.
The manna and quails.
Bidden to enter the city and say, “Ḥit̤t̤atun.”
Moses strikes the rock.
He bids the people slaughter a dun cow to discover a murder.
Charge against the Jews of corrupting the Scriptures.
The golden calf.
The mountain held over them.
Gabriel reveals the Qurʾān.
Hārūt and Mārūt.
Believers are not to say “Rāʿinā,” but “Unz̤urnā.”
Verses which are annulled will be replaced by better ones.
Paradise not exclusively for Jews and Christians.
Mosques to be free.
Story of Abraham.
He rebuilds the Kaʿbah.
Was a Ḥanīf.
The qiblah free.
Aṣ-Ṣafā and al-Marwah may be compassed.
Proofs of God’s unity.
Lawful and unlawful food.
The law of retaliation for homicide.
Testators.
The fast of Ramaẓān.
Rites of the pilgrimage.
Its duration.
Fighting for religion lawful during the sacred months.
Wine and gaming forbidden.
Marriage with idolaters unlawful.
The law of divorce.
Of suckling children.
The Muhājirūn to be rewarded.
The Children of Israel demand a king.
Saul (T̤ālūt).
The shechina.
The ark.
Saul and Gideon confounded.
Goliath.
Jesus.
The Āyatu ʾl-kursī (verse of the throne), asserting the self-subsistence and omnipresence of God.
Nimrod and Abraham.
Almsgiving.
No compulsion in religion.
Proofs of the Resurrection.
Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones referred to.
Abraham and the birds.
Almsgiving recommended.
Usurers denounced.
Laws relating to debt and trading.
Persons mentally incapable are to act by agents.
The believer’s prayer.
Chapter III.
Sūratu Āli ʿImrān.
The Chapter of ʿImrān’s Family.
God’s unity and self-subsistence.
The Qurʾān confirmatory of previous scripture.
The verses are either decisive or ambiguous.
Example of Pharaoh’s punishment.
The battle of Badr.
Islām the true religion.
Future torment eternal.
Obedience to God and the Apostle enjoined.
Conception of the Virgin Mary.
She is brought up by Zachariah.
Birth of John.
The annunciation of the Virgin.
Birth and infancy of Jesus.
The miracle of the birds of clay.
The disciples.
Allusion to Muḥammad’s dispute with a Christian deputation from Najrān.
Abraham a Ḥanīf.
Reproof to Jews who pretend to believe and then recant, and who pervert the scriptures.
No distinction to be made between the prophets.
The Jews rebuked for prohibiting certain kinds of food.
The foundation of the Kaʿbah.
Abraham’s station.
Pilgrimage enjoined.
Schism and misbelief reproved.
Battle of Uḥud referred to.
The victory at Badr due to angelic aid.
Usury denounced.
Fate of those who rejected the prophets of old.
Muḥammad’s death must not divert the believers from their faith.
Promise of God’s help.
Further account of the battle of Badr.
The Muslim martyrs to enter Paradise.
The victory of Badr more than counterbalanced the defeat at Uḥud.
The hypocrites detected and reproved.
Death the common lot, even of apostles.
Prayer for the believers.
Exhortation to vie in good works and be patient.
Chapter VIII.
Sūratu ʾl-Anfāl.
The Chapter of the Spoils.
Spoils belong to God and the Apostle.
Who are the true believers?
The expedition of Muḥammad against the caravan from Syria under Abū Sufyān.
The miraculous victory at Badr.
Address to the Makkans who, fearing an attack from Muḥammad, took sanctuary in the Kaʿbah, and prayed to God to decide between themselves and him.
Exhortation to believe and avoid treachery.
Plots against Muḥammad frustrated by Divine interference.
The revelation treated as old folks’ tales.
Rebuke of the idolaters for mocking the Muslims at prayer.
Offer of an amnesty to those who will believe.
Exhortation to fight the infidels.
Division of the spoils.
Description of the battle.
The enemy made to seem few in the Muslim’s eyes, while they seemed more numerous than they really were.
The infidels forsaken by Satan, their leader, on the day of battle.
Fate of the hypocrites.
Warning from Pharaoh’s fate.
The infidels who break their treaty.
Treachery to be met with the like.
God will help the Prophet against the traitors.
A few enduring believers shall conquer a multitude of infidels.
The Muslims are reproved for accepting ransom for the captives taken at Badr.
The spoils are lawful.
The Muhājirūn who fled with Muḥammad, and the inhabitants of al-Madīnah who gave him refuge, are to form ties of brotherhood.
Chapter XLVII.
Sūratu Muḥammad.
The Chapter of Muḥammad.
Promise of reward to believers.
Exhortation to deal severely with the enemy.
Description of Paradise and of Hell.
Reproof to some pretended believers and hypocrites who hesitate to obey the command to make war against the unbelievers.
Their secret malice shall be revealed.
Exhortation to believe, and to obey God and the Apostles, and sacrifice all for the faith.
Chapter LXII.
Sūratu ʾl-Jumaʿah.
The Chapter of the Congregation.
God has sent the illiterate prophet.
The Jews rebuked for unbelief.
Muslims are not to leave the congregation during divine service for the sake of merchandise.
Chapter V.
Sūratu ʾl-Māʾidah.
The Chapter of the Table.
Believers are to fulfil their compacts.
Brute beasts, except those hereafter mentioned, are lawful, but chase during the pilgrimage is unlawful.
The rites and sacrifices of the Pilgrimage are lawful.
The Muslims are not to bear ill-will against the Quraish, who prevented them at Ḥudaibiyah from making the Pilgrimage.
Forbidden meats.
The food of Jews and Christians is lawful to Muslims.
So, too, their women.
Ablutions before prayers.
Rules for purification in cases of pollution.
The Muslims are bidden to remember the oath of fealty (at ʿAqabah), and how God made a similar covenant with the children of Israel, and chose twelve wardens.
Muḥammad is warned against their treachery, as well as against the Christians.
Refutation of the doctrine that Christ is God, and of the idea that the Jews and Christians are the sons of God and His beloved.
Muḥammad sent as a warner and herald of glad tidings.
Moses bade the children of Israel invade the Holy Land, and they were punished for hesitating.
Story of the two sons of Adam.
The crow shows Cain how to bury the body of Abel.
Gravity of homicide.
Those who make war against God and His Apostle are not to receive quarter.
Punishment for theft.
Muḥammad is to judge both Jews and Christians by the Qurʾān, in accordance with their own Scriptures, but not according to their lusts.
Or would they prefer to be judged according to the unjust laws of the time of the pagan Arabs?
The Muslims are not to take Jews and Christians for patrons.
The hypocrites hesitate to join the believers.
They are threatened.
Further appeals to the Jews and Christians.
Fate of those before them who were transformed for their sins.
The Jews reproved for saying that God’s hand is fettered.
Some of them are moderate, but the greater part are misbelievers.
The Prophet is bound to preach his message.
Sabians, Jews, and Christians appealed to as believers.
Prophets of old were rejected.
Against the worship of the Messiah and the doctrine of the Trinity.
Jews and idolaters are the most hostile to the Muslims, and the Christians are nearest in love to them.
Expiation for an inconsiderate oath.
Wine and gambling forbidden.
Game not to be hunted or eaten during pilgrimage.
Expiation for violating this precept.
Fish is lawful at this time.
Rites of the Ḥajj to be observed.
Believers must not ask about painful things till the whole Qurʾān is revealed.
Denunciation of the superstitious practices of the Pagan Arabs with respect to certain cattle.
Witnesses required when a dying man makes his testament.
The mission of Jesus.
The Apostles ask for a table from heaven as a sign.
Jesus denies commanding men to worship him and his mother as gods.
Chapter LIX.
Sūratu ʾl-Ḥashr.
The Chapter of Assembly.
The chastisements of the Jews who would not believe in the Qurʾān.
The divisions of the spoils.
The treacherous conduct of the hypocrites.
Chapter IV.
Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ.
The Chapter of Women.
God creates and watches over man.
Women’s dowries.
Administration of the property of orphans and idiots.
Distribution of property among the heirs.
Witnesses required to prove adultery.
Believers are not to inherit women’s estates against their will.
No false charge of adultery to be made with a view of keeping a woman’s dowry.
Women whom it is unlawful to marry.
Men are superior to women.
Punishment of refractory wives.
Arbitration between man and wife.
Duty towards parents, kinsmen, orphans, the poor, neighbours, &c.
Almsgiving for appearance sake a crime.
Believers must not pray when drunk or polluted.
Sand may be used for purification when water is not to be had.
Charge against Jews of perverting the Scriptures and saying, “Rāʿinā.”
They are threatened with transformation, like those who broke the Sabbath, for their unbelief.
Idolatry the unpardonable sin.
Some who have Scriptures believe.
Trusts to be paid back.
Quarrels to be referred to God and the apostles only.
The Apostle will intercede for the believers.
Muḥammad commanded to settle their differences.
Believers to take precautions in sallying forth to battle.
They are exhorted to fight, and promised Paradise if they fall.
Obedience to the Prophet is obedience to God.
Salutation to be returned.
The hypocrites.
Deserters are to be slain, unless they have taken refuge with a tribe in league with the Muslims.
Penalty for killing a believer by mistake.
Believers are not to plunder others on the mere pretence that they are infidels.
Fate of the half-hearted Muslims who fell at Badr.
Precautions to be taken against an attack during prayers.
Exhortation to sincerity in supporting the faith.
Rebuke to the pagan Arabs for their idolatry and superstitious practices.
Islām the best religion, being that of Abraham the Ḥanīf.
Laws respecting women and orphans.
Equity and kindness recommended.
Partiality to one wife rather than another reproved.
Fear of God inculcated.
God does not pardon the unstable in faith or the hypocrites.
No middle course is allowed.
The Jews were punished for demanding a book from heaven.
Of old they asked Moses to show them God openly, and were punished.
They are reproached for breaking their covenant with God, for calumniating Mary, and for pretending that they killed Jesus, whereas they only killed his similitude, for God took him to Himself.
Certain lawful foods forbidden the Jews for their injustice and usury.
Muḥammad is inspired in the same manner as the other apostles and prophets.
Jesus is only an apostle of God and His Word, and a spirit from Him.
Doctrine of the Trinity denounced.
God has not begotten a son.
The law of inheritance in the case of remote kinship.
Chapter LVIII.
Sūratu ʾl-Mujādilah.
The Chapter of the Disputer.
Abolition of the idolatrous custom of divorcing women with the formula, “Thou art to me as my mother’s back.”
God’s omniscience and omnipresence.
He knows the secret plottings of the disaffected.
Discourse on the duties of true believers.
Denunciation of those who oppose the Apostle.
Chapter LXV.
Sūratu ʾt̤-T̤alāq.
The Chapter of Divorce.
The laws of divorce.
The Arabs are admonished by the fate of former nations to believe in God.
The seven stories of heaven and earth.
Chapter LXIII.
Sūratu ʾl-Munāfīqīn.
The Chapter of the Hypocrites.
The treacherous designs of the hypocrites revealed.
Chapter XXIV.
Sūratu ʾn-Nūr.
The Chapter of Light.
(This chapter deals with the accusation of unchastity against ʿĀyishah.)
Punishment of the whore and the whoremonger.
Witnesses required in the case of an imputation of unchastity to a wife.
Vindication of ʿĀyishah’s character and denunciation of the accusers.
Scandalmongers rebuked and threatened with punishment at the Last Day.
Believers are not to enter other persons’ houses without permission, or in the absence of the owners.
Chastity and modest deportment enjoined, particularly upon women.
Those by whom women may be seen unveiled.
Slaves to be allowed to purchase their freedom.
Slave-girls not to be compelled to prostitute themselves.
God the Light of the Heavens.
Nothing keeps the believers from the service of God, but the unbeliever’s works are like the mirage on a plain, or like darkness on a deep sea.
All nature is subject to God’s control.
Reproof to a sect who would not accept the Prophet’s arbitration.
Actual obedience required rather than an oath that they will be obedient.
Belief in the unity of God, steadfastness in prayer, and the giving of alms enjoined.
Slaves and children not to be admitted into an apartment without asking permission, when the occupant is likely to be undressed.
Rules for the social intercourse of women past child-bearing, and of the blind, lame, or sick.
Persons in whose houses it is lawful to eat food.
Salutations to be exchanged on entering houses.
Behaviour of the Muslims towards the Apostle.
He is to be more respectfully addressed than other people.
Chapter XXXIII.
Sūratu ʾl-Aḥzāb.
The Chapter of the Confederates.
Muḥammad is warned against the hypocrites.
Wives divorced by the formula, “Thou art henceforth to me like my mother’s back,” are not to be considered as real mothers, and as such regarded as unlawful.
Neither are adopted sons to be looked upon as real sons.
The real ties of kinship and consanguinity are to supersede the tie of sworn brotherhood.
God’s covenant with the Prophet.
Miraculous interference in favour of the Muslims when besieged by the confederate army at al-Madīnah.
Conduct of the hypocrites on the occasion.
Departure of the invaders.
Siege and defeat of the Banū Quraiz̤ah Jews.
The men are executed.
Their women and children are sold into slavery and their property confiscated.
Laws for the Prophet’s wives.
They are to be discreet and avoid ostentation.
Encouragement to the good and true believers of either sex.
Vindication of Muḥammad’s conduct in marrying Zainab, the divorced wife of his freed man and adopted son Zaid (who is mentioned by name).
No term need be observed in the case of women divorced before cohabitation.
Peculiar privileges granted to Muḥammad in the matter of women.
Limitation of his licence to take wives.
Muslims are not to enter the Prophet’s house without permission.
After, they are to retire without inconveniencing him by familiar discourse.
Are to be very modest in their demeanour to his wives.
Are not to marry any of his wives after him.
Those relations who are permitted to see them unveiled.
God and His angels bless the Prophet.
Slander of misbelievers will be punished.
The women are to dress modestly.
Warning to the hypocrites and disaffected at al-Madīnah.
The fate of the infidels at the Last Judgment.
Man alone of all creation undertook the responsibility of faith.
Chapter LVII.
Sūratu ʾl-Ḥadīd.
The Chapter of Iron.
God the controller of all nature.
Exhortation to embrace Islām.
Those who do so before the taking of Makkah are to have the precedence.
Discomfiture of the hypocrites and unbelievers at the Last Day.
The powers vouchsafed to former apostles.
Chapter LXI.
Sūratu ʾṣ-Ṣaff.
The Chapter of the Ranks.
Believers are bidden to keep their word and to fight for the faith.
Moses was disobeyed by his people.
Jesus prophesied the coming of Aḥmad.
The Christians rebuked.
Chapter XLVIII.
Sūratu ʾl-Fatḥ.
The Chapter of Victory.
Announcement of a victory.
God comforts the believers and punishes the hypocrites and idolaters.
The oath of fealty.
The cowardice and excuses of the desert Arabs.
Those left behind wish to share the spoil gained at K͟haibar.
The incapacitated alone are to be excused.
The oath of fealty at the tree.
God prevented a collision between the Makkans and the Muslims, when the latter were prohibited from making the pilgrimage.
Prophecy of the pilgrimage to be completed the next year.
Chapter LX.
Sūratu ʾl-Mumtaḥinah.
The Chapter of the Tried.
Exhortations to the Muslims not to treat secretly with the Quraish.
Abraham’s example.
Other idolaters who have not borne arms against them may be made friends of.
Women who desert from the infidels are to be tried before being received into Islām.
If they are really believers, they are, ipso facto, divorced.
The husbands are to be recompensed to the amount of the women’s dowries.
Chapter LXVI.
Sūratu ʾt-Taḥrīm.
The Chapter of Prohibition.
The Prophet is relieved from a vow he had made to please his wives.
The jealousies in his ḥaram occasioned by his intrigue with the Coptic slave-girl, Mary.
Exhortation to hostilities against the infidels.
The example of the disobedient wives of Noah and Lot.
And of the good wife of Pharaoh.
And of the Virgin Mary.
Chapter IX.
Sūratu ʾt-Taubah.
The Chapter of Repentance.
(This chapter is without the initial formula, “In the name of the Merciful,” &c.)
An immunity for four months proclaimed to such of the idolaters as have made a league with the Prophet, but they are to be killed wherever found when the sacred months have expired.
An idolater seeking refuge is to be helped, in order that he may hear the word of God.
None are to be included in the immunity but those with whom the league was made at the Sacred Mosque.
They are not to be trusted.
Exhortation to fight against the Makkans.
Idolaters may not repair to the mosques of God.
Reproof to al-ʿAbbās, the Prophet’s uncle, who, while refusing to believe, claimed to have done enough in supplying water to the pilgrims and in making the pilgrimage himself.
Chapter XLIX.
Sūratu ʾl-Ḥujurāt.
The Chapter of the Inner Chambers.
Rebuke to some of the Muslims who had presumed too much in the presence of the Apostle, and of the others who had called out rudely to him.
Also of a man who had nearly induced Muḥammad to attack a tribe who were still obedient.
Of certain Muslims who contended together.
Of others who use epithets of abuse against each other.
Who entertain unfounded suspicions.
Exhortation to obedience and reproof of the hypocrites.
The Muhājirūn are to hold the first rank.
Infidels are not to be taken for patrons, even when they are fathers or brothers.
Religion is to be preferred to ties of kinship.
The victory of Ḥunain.
The idolaters are not to be allowed to enter the Sacred Mosque at Makkah another year.
The infidels are to be attacked.
The Jews denounced for saying that Ezra is the son of God.
The assumption of the title Rabbi reproved.
Diatribe against Jewish doctors and Christian monks.
Of the sacred months and the sin of deferring them.
Exhortation to the Muslims to march forth to battle.
Allusions to the escape of Muḥammad and Abū Bakr from Makkah, and their concealment in a cave.
Rebuke to those who seek to be excused from fighting and to those who sought to excite sedition in the Muslim ranks.
Reproof to the hypocrites and half-hearted and to those who found fault with the Prophet for his use of the alms (zakāt).
Proper destination of the alms.
Hypocrites and renegades denounced.
They are warned by the example of the people of old who rejected the Prophets.
Rewards promised to the true believers.
Continued denunciation of the hypocrites and of those who held back from the fight.
Muḥammad is not to pray at the grave of any one of them who dies.
Their seeming prosperity is not to deceive him.
Happiness in store for the Apostle, the believers, and the Muhājirūn.
Those who may lawfully be excused military service.
The desert Arabs are among the worst of the hypocrites, though some believe.
Some people of al-Madīnah also denounced as hypocrites.
Others have sinned but confessed.
Others wait for God’s pleasure.
Denunciation of some who had set up a mosque from motives of political opposition.
Muḥammad is not to sanction this mosque, but rather to use that of Qubāʾ, founded by him while on his way from Makkah to al-Madīnah during the Flight.
God has bought the persons and wealth of the believers at the price of Paradise.
The Prophet and the believers must not ask forgiveness for the idolaters, however near of kin.
Abraham only asked pardon for his idolatrous father in fulfilment of a promise.
The three Anṣārs who refused to accompany Muḥammad to Tabūk are forgiven.
The people of al-Madīnah and the neighbouring Arabs blamed for holding back on the occasion.
All sacrifices for the sake of the religion are counted to them.
Exhortation to fight rigorously against the infidels.
Reproof to those who receive the revelation suspiciously.
God will stand by his Apostle.
Muḥammadanism owes more to Judaism (see a book by M. Geiger, entitled, Was hat Muhammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen, in which that learned Jew has traced all the leading features of Islām to Talmudic sources; also Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch, Essay on Islām; also article on JUDAISM in the present work) than it does to either Christianity or Sabeanism, for it is simply Talmudic Judaism adapted to Arabia, plus the Apostleship of Jesus and Muḥammad; and wherever Muḥammad departs from the monotheistic principles of Judaism, as in the idolatrous practices of the Pilgrimage to the Kaʿbah, it is evident that it is done as a necessary concession to the national feelings and sympathies of the people of Arabia, and it is absolutely impossible for Muḥammadan divines to reconcile the idolatrous rites of the Kaʿbah with that simple monotheism which it was evidently Muḥammad’s intention to establish in Arabia.
“The sources (says Mr. Rodwell) whence Muhammad derived the materials of his Korân, are, over and above the more poetical parts which are his own creation, the legends of his time and country, Jewish traditions based upon the Talmud, and the Christian traditions of Arabia and of S. Syria. At a later period of his career, no one would venture to doubt the divine origin of his whole book. But at its commencement the case was different. The people of Mecca spoke openly and tauntingly of it as the work of a poet, as a collection of antiquated or fabulous legends, or as palpable sorcery. They accused him of having confederates, and even specified foreigners who had been his coadjutors. Such were Salman the Persian (Salmān al-Fārisī), to whom he may have owed the descriptions of heaven and hell, which are analogous to those of the Zendavesta; and the Christian monk Sergius, or, as the Muhammadans term him, Boheira (Buḥairah). From the latter, and perhaps from other Christians, especially slaves naturalized at Mecca, Muhammad obtained access to the teaching of the Apocryphal Gospels, and to many popular traditions of which those gospels are the concrete expression. His wife Chadijah (K͟hadījah), as well as her cousin Waraka (Waraqah), a reputed convert to Christianity, and Muhammad’s intimate friend, are said to have been well acquainted with the doctrines and sacred books, both of Jews and Christians. And not only were several Arab tribes in the neighbourhood of Mecca converts to the Christian faith, but on two occasions Muhammad had travelled with his uncle Abu Talib, as far as Bostra, where he must have had opportunities of learning the general outlines of Oriental Christian doctrine, and perhaps of witnessing the ceremonial of their worship.
* * *
“It has been supposed that Muhammad derived many of his notions concerning Christianity from Gnosticism and that it is to the numerous Gnostic sects the Korân alludes when it reproaches the Christians with having ‘split up their religion into parties.’ But for Muhammad thus to have confounded Gnosticism with Christianity itself, its prevalence in Arabia must have been far more universal than we have reason to believe that it really was. In fact, we have no historical authority for supposing that the doctrines of these heretics were taught or professed in Arabia at all. It is certain, on the other hand, that the Basilidans, Valentinians, and other Gnostic sects had either died out, or been reabsorbed into the Orthodox Church, towards the middle of the fifth century, and had disappeared from Egypt before the sixth. It remains possible, however, that the Gnostic doctrine concerning the Crucifixion may have been adopted by Muhammad as likely to reconcile the Jews to Islam, as a religion embracing both Judaism and Christianity, if they might believe that Jesus had not been put to death, and thus find the stumbling-block of the Atonement removed out of their path. The Jews would, in this case, have simply been called upon to believe in Jesus as a divinely born and inspired teacher, who, like the patriarch Enoch, or the prophet Elijah, had been miraculously taken from the earth. But, in all other respects, the sober and matter-of-fact statements of the Korân, relative to the family and history of Jesus, are opposed to the wild and fantastic doctrines of Gnostic emanations, and especially to the manner in which they supposed Jesus, at his baptism, to have been brought into union with a higher nature. It is more clear that Muhammad borrowed in several points from the doctrines of the Ebionites, Essenes, and Sabeites. Epiphanius describes the notions of the Ebionites of Nabathæa, Moabites, and Basanites, with regard to Adam Jesus, almost in the very words of Sura iii. 52. He tells us that they observed circumcision, were opposed to celibacy, forbade turning to the sunrise, but enjoined Jerusalem as their Kebla (Qiblah), (as did Muhammad during twelve years), that they prescribed (as did the Sabeites) washings, very similar to those enjoined in the Korân, and allowed oaths (by certain natural objects, as clouds, signs of the Zodiac, oil, the winds, etc.), which also we find adopted therein. These points of contact with Islam, knowing as we do Muhammad’s eclecticism, can hardly be accidental.
“We have no evidence that Muhammad had access to the Christian scriptures, though it is just possible that fragments of the Old or New Testament may have reached him through Chadijah or Waraka, or other Meccan Christians, possessing MSS. of our sacred volume. There is but one direct quotation (Sura xxi. 105) in the whole Korân from the Scriptures; and though there are a few passages, as where alms, are said to be given to be seen of men, and as, none forgiveth sins but God only, which might seem to be identical with texts of the New Testament, yet this similarity is probably merely accidental. It is, however, curious to compare such passages as Deut. xxvi. 14, 17, and 1 Peter v. 2, with Sura xxiv. 50, and Sura x. 73—John vii. 15, with the ‘illiterate’ prophet—Matt. xxiv. 36, and John xii. 27, with the use of the word hour, as meaning any judgment or crisis, and the last Judgment—the voice of the Son of God which the dead are to hear, with the exterminating or awakening cry of Gabriel, etc. The passages of this kind, with which the Korân abounds, result from Muhammad’s general acquaintance with scriptural phraseology, partly through the popular legends, partly from personal intercourse with Jews and Christians. And we may be quite certain that, whatever materials Muhammad may have derived from our Scriptures, directly or indirectly, were carefully recast.
“It should also be borne in mind that we have no clear traces of the existence of Arabic versions of the Old or New Testament previous to the time of Muhammad. The passage of St. Jerome—‘Hæc autem translatio nullum de veteribus sequitur interpretem; sed ex ipso Hebraico, Arabicoque sermone, et interdum Syro, nunc verba, nunc sensum, nunc simul utrumque resonabit’ (Prol. Gal.), obviously does not refer to versions, but to idiom. The earliest Ar. version of the Old Testament of which we have any knowledge is that of R. Saadias Gaon, A.D. 900: and the oldest Ar. version of the New Testament is that published by Erpenius in 1616, and transcribed in the Thebais, in the year 1271, by a Coptic bishop, from a copy made by a person whose name is known, but whose date is uncertain. Michaelis thinks that the Arabic versions of the New Testament were made between the Saracen conquests in the seventh century and the Crusades in the eleventh century—an opinion in which he follows, or coincides with, Walton (Prol. in Polygl. § xiv.), who remarks—‘Plane constat versionem Arabicam apud eas (ecclesias orientales) factam esse postquam lingua Arabica per victorias et religionem Muhammedanicam per Orientem propagata fuerat, et in multis locis facta esset vernacula.’ If, indeed, in these comparatively late versions, the general phraseology, especially in the histories common to the Scriptures and to the Korân, bore any similarity to each other, and if the orthography of the proper names had been the same in each, it might have been fair to suppose that such versions had been made, more or less, upon the basis of others, which, though now lost, existed in the ages prior to Muhammad, and influenced, if they did not directly form, his sources of information. But this does not appear to be the case. The phraseology of our existing versions is not that of the Korân, and the versions as a whole appear to have been made from the Septuagint, the Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and Greek; Tischendorf, indeed, says that the four Gospels originem mixtam habere videntur; but the internal evidence is clearly in favour of the Greek origin of the Arabic Gospels. This can be seen in part even from the order of the words, which was retained, like that of the Greek, so far as possible, even in such constructions and transpositions of words as violate the rules of Arabic Syntax.
“From the Arab Jews, Muhammad would be enabled to derive an abundant though distorted knowledge of the Scripture histories. The secrecy in which he received his instructions from them and from his Christian informants, enabled him boldly to declare to the ignorant pagan Meccans that God had revealed those Biblical histories to him. But there can be no doubt, from the constant identity between the Talmudic perversions of Scripture histories and the statements of the Korân, that the Rabbis of Hejaz communicated their legends to Muhammad. And it should be remembered that the Talmud was completed a century previous to the era of Muhammad, and cannot fail to have extensively influenced the religious creed of all the Jews of the Arabian peninsula. In one passage, Muhammad speaks of an individual Jew—perhaps some one of note among his professed followers, as a witness to his mission; and there can be no doubt that his relations with the Jews were, at one time, those of friendship and intimacy, when we find him speaking of their recognizing him as they do their own children, and blaming their most colloquial expressions. It is impossible, however, for us at this distance of time to penetrate the mystery in which this subject is involved. Yet certain it is, that, although their testimony against Muhammad was speedily silenced, the Koreish knew enough of his private history to disbelieve and to disprove his pretensions of being the recipient of a divine revelation, and to accuse him of writing from the dictation of teachers morning and evening. And it is equally certain that all the information received by Muhammad was embellished and recast in his own mind and with his own words. There is a unity of thought, a directness and simplicity of purpose, a peculiar and laboured style, a uniformity of diction, coupled with a certain deficiency of imaginative power, which indicate that the ayats (signs or verses) of the Korân are the product of a single mind. The longer narratives were, probably, elaborated in his leisure hours, while the shorter verses, each proclaiming to be a sign or miracle, were promulgated as occasion required them. And, whatever Muhammad may himself profess in the Korân as to his ignorance even of reading and writing, and however strongly modern Muhammadans may insist upon the same point—an assertion, by the way, contradicted by many good authors—there can be no doubt that to assimilate and work up his materials, to fashion them into elaborate Suras, and to fit them for public recital, must have been a work requiring much time, study, and meditation, and presumes a far greater degree of general culture than any orthodox Muslim will be disposed to admit.” (The Preface to Rodwell’s El-Korân, p. xvi. et seq.)
Tilāwah (تلاوة), or “the recital of the Qurʾān,” has been developed into a science known as ʿIlmu ʾt-Tajwīd (علم التجويد), which includes a knowledge of the peculiarities of the spelling of many words in the Qurʾān; of the qirāʾāt (قراءات), or various readings; of the ejaculations, responses, and prayers to be said at the close of appointed passages; of the various divisions, punctuations, and marginal instructions; of the proper pronunciation of the Arabic words; and of the correct intonation of different passages.
The reading or recital of the Qurʾān should commence with legal ablution and prayer. The usual prayer is, “I seek protection from God against the cursed Satan!” which is followed by the invocation, “In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate!”
The mosque is considered the most suitable of all places in which to read the Qurʾān, and the most auspicious days of the week are Friday, Monday, and Thursday. The ordinary time allowed for reading the Qurʾān through is forty days, although by reciting a juzʾ or sīpārah daily, it can be done in thirty days, which is said to have been the custom of the Prophet. Some read it through by manzils, or stages, of which there are seven, which is done in a week. On no account should it be read through in less than three days, for which there is a three-fold division, known in Persian as the K͟hatam-i-Manzil-i-Fīl, the initial letters of each portion (فى ال) forming the word fīl.
Ejaculations, or responses, are made at certain places. For example, at the end of the Sūratu ʾl-Fātiḥah (i.) and of the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (ii.), say, “Amen!” At the end of the Sūratu Banī Isrāʾīl (xvii.), say, “God is great!” After the last verse of the Sūratu ʾl-Qiyāmah (lxxv.), say, “Is He not powerful enough to raise the dead? Say, Yes, for He is my Lord Most High!” At the end of the Sūratu ʾl-Mulk (lxvii.), say, “God brings it (clear water) to us and He is Lord of all the Worlds!”
In addition to responses to be made after each Sūrah, or Chapter, there are certain ejaculations to be made after certain verses, for example, after the sixteenth verse of the third Sūrah, “There is no God but He, the Mighty, the Wise!” say, “I am a witness to this!”
There are fourteen verses known as the Ayātu ʾs-Sajdah, after which a prostration is made. They are Sūrahs vii. 205; xiii. 16; xvi. 51; vii. 109; xix. 59; xxii. 19; xxv. 61; xxvii. 26; xxxii. 15; xxxviii. 24; xli. 38; liii. 62; lxxxiv. 20; xcvi. 18.
There are numerous instructions given as to pronunciation, and there have arisen seven schools of pronunciation, which are known as those of the Qurrāʾu ʾs-Sabʿah, or “seven readers” (for a list of these readers, see QARI). It is considered quite lawful to recite the Qurʾān according to the pronunciation established by any one of these seven worthies.
There are many marks and symbols on the margin of an Arabic Qurʾān. Mr. Sell, in his Ilm i Tajwid, gives them in detail. (Ilm i Tajwid, Keys & Co., Madras, 1852.) The symbol for full stop is o, when the reader should take breath. The word سكنة is written when a slight pause is made, but no breath taken. There are also signs which are known as waqf, or pause. They were originally of five kinds, but many more have been added in modern times. They are distinguished by letters and words. [WAQF.]
There are twenty-nine Sūrahs of the Qurʾān which begin with certain letters of the alphabet. These letters, the learned say, have some profound meaning, known only to the Prophet himself, although it seems probable that they are simply marks recorded by the amanuensis.
(1) Six Sūrahs begin with the letters Alif, Lām, Mīm. الم ALM, viz. Sūrahs al-Baqarah (ii.), Ālu ʿImrān (iii.), al-ʿAnkabūt (xxix.), al-Rūm (xxx.), Luqmān (xxxi.), as-Sajdah (xxxii.). Golius thinks that they probably stand for Amr li-Muḥammad, “At the command of Muḥammad,” and to have been written by the amanuensis. Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī says that Ibn ʿAbbās said that they stood for Anā ʾllāhu aʿlimu, “I, God, know” (that this is true). Al-Baiẓāwī thinks A stands for “Allāh,” L for “Gabriel,” and M for “Muḥammad.” Mr. Sale gives the meaning as Allāhu Lat̤ifun Majīdun, “God is gracious and exalted”; others have suggested Allāhu li-Muḥammad, “God to Muḥammad.” But the general belief is that the letters have a hidden meaning.
(2) At the commencement of Sūratu ʾl-Aʿrāf (vii.), there is Alif, Lām, Mīm, Ṣād. المص ALMṢ, which may mean: A, “Anā”; L, “Allāh”; M, “Raḥmān”; Ṣ, “Ṣamad”; i.e. “I am God, the Merciful, the Eternal.”
(3) The Sūratu ʾr-Raʿd (xiii.) begins with the letters Alif, Lām, Mīm, Rā. المر ALMR, which al-Baiẓāwī takes to mean, A, “Anā”; L, “Allāhu”; M, “Aʿlimu”; R, “Arā.” “I, God, both know and see.”
(4) Five Sūrahs begin with Alif, Lām, Rā. الر ALR, which some understand to mean Amara lī Rabbī, “My Lord hath said to me,” or Anā ʾllāhu arā, “I, God, see.” These Sūrahs are Yūnus (x.), Hūd (xi.), Yūsuf (xii.), Ibrāhīm (xiv.), al-Ḥijr (xv.).
(5) The Sūratu Maryam (xix.) begins with the letters Kāf, Hā, Yā, ʿAin, Ṣād. كهيعص KHYʿAṢ, which Ibn ʿAbbās says stand for five attributes of the Almighty: Karīm, “Gracious”; Hādi, “Guide”; Ḥakīm (taking the middle letter), “Wise”; ʿAlīm, “Learned”; Ṣādiq, “Righteous.”
(6) The Sūratu T̤H (xx.), as its title implies, begins with the letters T̤ā Hā طه, which Ḥusain says may signify T̤āhir, “Pure”; Hādi, “Guide”; being attributes of God.
(7) Six Sūrahs commence with the letters Ḥā Mīm حم, ḤM, namely, Sūrahs al-Muʾmin (xl.), Fuṣṣilat (xli.), az-Zuk͟hruf (xliii.), ad-Duk͟hān (xliv.), al-Jās̤iyah (xlv.), al-Aḥqāf (xlvi.). Ibn ʿAbbās says they indicate the attribute Raḥmān, “Merciful.”
(8) The Sūratu ʾsh-Shūrā (xlii.) begins with Ḥa Mīm ʿAin Sīn Qāf. حمعسق HMʿASQ, which Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb understood to mean Ḥ for Raḥmān, “Merciful”; M for Raḥīm, “Gracious”; ʿA, ʿAlīm, “Learned”; S, Quddūs, “Holy”; Q, Qahhār, “Dominant”; being attributes of God.
(9) The Sūratu YS (xxxvi.), as its title implies, begins with the letters Yā Sīn يس, which is supposed to stand for Yā insān, “O man!”
(10) The Sūratu Ṣ (xxxviii.), as its title signifies, begins with the letter Ṣād ص, which some say means Ṣidq, “Truth.”
(11) The Sūratu Q (l.), as its name implies, begins with the letter Qāf ق, which Jalālu ʾd-Dīn as-Suyūt̤ī says stands for Qādir, “Powerful,” an attribute of God. Others think it means the mountain of Qāf.
(12) The Sūratu ʾl-Naml (xxvii.) begins with the letters T̤ā Sīn طس, which Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb says stand for Ẕū ʾt̤-t̤aul, “Most Powerful,” and Quddūs, “Holy,” being attributes of the Almighty.
(13) Two Sūrahs, namely ash-Shuʿarāʾ (xxvi.), and al-Qaṣaṣ (xxviii.), begin with T̤ā Sīn Mīm طسم, which supplies the addition of the attribute Raḥmān, “Merciful,” to those of the former section, indicated by T̤S.
(14) The Sūratu ʾl-Qalam (lxviii.) begins with Nūn, ن N, which some say stands for an ink-horn, others for a fish, and some for the attribute of Nūr, or “Light.”