ISLAMIC SURVEYS 8

BELL’S
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
QUR’ĀN

completely revised
and enlarged by
W. M O N T G O M E R Y WATT

EDINBURGH
at the University Press
© W. Montgomery Watt 1970
Edinburgh University Press
22 George Square, Edinburgh
First published 1970
Paperback edition 1977,
reprinted 1990, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003,
2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2 0 1 1 , 2015
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4Y Y
British Library Cataloguing
In Publication Data
Watt, W. Montgomery (William Montgomery) 1909—
Introduction to the Qur’an.
1. Islam. Koran. Critical studies
I. Title. II. Bell, R. III. Series
297'.1226
ISBN 978 0 7486 0597 2
ISBN 978 1 4744 9700 8 (EPDF)
 FOREWORD TO THE REVISED EDITION

When the suggestion o f a revised edition o f Richard Bell’s

Introduction to the Q u r'ān was first made in discussions with
the Secretary o f Edinburgh University Press, I was attracted
by the idea o f doing something to maintain the influence o f a
great scholar, and was emboldened by the success o f Theodor
N öldeke’s pupils in revising and continuing his work. The
task, however, as I soon realized, is not without its difficulties.
Richard Bell was my greatly respected teacher under whom I
did much o f my study o f Arabic and who guided me in the
preparation o f the thesis which eventually appeared as Free
W ill and Predestination in E a rly Islam . On one or two points,
however, I am unable to accept his theories about the Qur’ān,
as I indicated in the article ‘ The Dating o f the Qur’an: a re­
view o f Richard Bell’s Theories’ (Journal o f the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1957, 46-56). Consequently it seemed best that, fol­
lowing the example o f Friedrich Schwally (see p. 175 below),
I should speak in my own name throughout and refer to Bell
in the third person, especially where I disagreed with him.
The sincerest tribute to such a scholar is to take his views
seriously and criticize them frankly. It is my hope that the
present revision will enable a new generation o f scholars to
appreciate the importance o f Bell’s painstaking analysis o f
the Qur’ān.
Despite the fact that I speak in my own name and that there
are few paragraphs without some slight changes, the core o f
the book is still essentially Bell’s work. Though I have studied
parts o f the field in connection with the biography o f Muḥ am­
mad, and have here and there looked at some o f the issues
raised by Bell, I have undertaken no special research in the
preparation o f this revision. The additions are mostly elemen­
tary matters that seemed appropriate to an ‘ introduction’,
such as a more extensive bibliography. I have also tried to
arrange the material more logically. I believe Bell’s original
text to have been based on his lectures to students, which he
brought together and lightly revised shortly before his death
v
FOREWORD

when literary activity was becoming difficult.

One major change in the form o f expression has seemed
desirable. Bell followed his European predecessors in speaking
o f the Qur’ān as Muḥ ammad’s own, at least in his Introduction.
Various remarks he made to me, however, lead me to think
that he would have had a considerable measure o f sympathy
with the views I have expressed about Muḥ ammad’s prophet­
hood, most recently in Islamic Revelation in the Modern
World. With the greatly increased contacts between Muslims
and Christians during the last quarter o f a century, it has
become imperative for a Christian scholar not to offend
Muslim readers gratuitously, but as far as possible to present
his arguments in a form acceptable to them. Courtesy and an
eirenic outlook certainly now demand that we should not
speak o f the Qur’ān as the product o f Muḥ ammad’s conscious
mind; but I hold that the same demand is also made by sound
scholarship. I have therefore altered or eliminated all expres­
sions which implied that Muḥ ammad was the author o f the
Qur’ān, including those which spoke o f his ‘ sources’ or o f the
‘ influences’ on him. On the other hand, I believe we are justi­
fied in speaking o f the ‘influences’ o f the external world on
the Arabian environment (cf. p. 1 85); and that we are likewise
justified in noticing a ‘ development’ in the outlook o f the
community o f believers; and such a development presumably
requires to be met by a change o f emphasis in the revelation.
A novel feature is the Index to the Qur’ān. In my own work
I have found o f great value the index included in H. U.
Weitbrecht Stanton’s Teaching o f the Q u r'ān (London, 19 19 ),
and I have attempted to produce something similar, but more
in accordance with the outlook and interests o f today.
The transliteration o f Arabic words is essentially that o f the
second edition o f The Encyclopaedia o f Islam (London, 1 960,
continuing) with three modifications. Tw o o f these are
normal with most British Arabists, namely, q for “ḳ, and j for
dj. The third is something o f a novelty. It is the replacement
o f the ligature used to show when two consonants are to be
sounded together by an apostrophe to show when they are
to be sounded separately. This means that dh, gh, kh, sh, th
are to be sounded together; where there is an apostrophe, as
in ad’ham, they are to be sounded separately. The apostrophe
vi
 FOREWORD

in this usage represents no sound, but, since it only occurs

between two consonants (o f which the second is h ), it cannot
be confused with the apostrophe representing the glottal stop
( hamɀ a), which never occurs between two consonants.
In the Qur’ānic references, where the verse-number in
F lügel's edition differs from that in the standard Egyptian
edition, that o f Flügel is given after a stroke. Identical digits
are not repeated except in the case o f numbers from 10o to 19
(where one must distinguish 12/8 from 12 /18 ).
I am indebted to Mr Alford T. Welch for revising the Table
o f Suras and for many valuable general comments; and to
Miss Helen Pratt for typing with great accuracy a large part
o f the text and not least the Index to the Qur’ān.
It has seemed appropriate to include this Introduction in the
Islamic Surveys Series since their aims are very similar.

W . Montgomery Watt

vii
 THE CONTENTS

Introduction xi
CHAPTER ONE. The Historical Context
1. The international situation 1
2. Life in Arabia 3
3. Muḥ ammad’s career 9
Annex A. Chronology o f Muḥ ammad’s career 15
Annex B. Ḥ anīf 16
CHAPTER TWO. Muḥ ammad’s Prophetic Experience
1. Criticisms o f the claim to prophethood 17
2. Qur’ānic descriptions o f revelation and
prophethood 18
3. The conception o f the prophetic function 25
4. The writing down o f the Qur’ān 30
CHAPTER THREE. The History o f the Text
1. T h e ‘ collection’ o f the Qur’ān 40
2. The pre-‘ Uthmānic codices 44
3. The writing o f the Qur’an and early textual studies 47
4. The authenticity and completeness o f the Qur’ān 50
CHAPTER FOUR. The External Form o f the Qur’ān
1. Its name and liturgical divisions 57
2. The suras and verses 57
3. The mysterious letters 61
4. The dramatic form 65
CHAPTER FIVE. Features o f Qur’ānic Style
1. Rhymes and strophes 69
2. Various didactic forms 75
3. The language o f the Qur’ān 82
CHAPTER SIX. The Shaping of the Qur’ān
1. The theory o f abrogation and the
possibility o f revision 86
2. Evidences o f revision and alteration 89
3. Bell’s hypothesis o f written documents 101
ix
CONTENTS

CHAPTER SEVEN. The Chronology o f the Qur’ān

1. Traditional Islamic views o f dating 108
2. European theories o f dating 109
3. The sequence o f ideas as a guide to chronology 114
CHAPTER EIGHT. The Names o f the Revealed Message
1. Signs 12 1
2. Stories o f punishment; al-mathānī 127
3. The Qur’ān 135
4. The Book 14 1
5. Other names 144
CHAPTER NINE. The Doctrines o f the Qur’ān
1. The doctrine o f God 148
2. Other spiritual beings 153
3. Prophethood; other religions 156
4. The doctrine o f the Last Judgement 158
5. Regulations for the life o f the community 162
CHAPTER TEN. Muslim Scholarship and the Qur’āN
1. Interpretation and exegesis 167
2. The theologians 170
CHAPTE ELEVEN. The Qur’ān and Occidental Scholarship
1. Translations and studies 173
2. Problems facing the non-Muslim scholar 18 1
Abbreviations 187
Notes 189
Table for converting verse-numbers 202
Table o f suras with chronology, etc. 205
Index to the Qur’ān 215
Index to the Introduction 241

x
 INTRODUCTION

Few books have exercised a wider or deeper influence upon

the spirit o f man than the Qur’ān. By Muslims it is regarded
as a revelation from God. It is used in their public and private
devotions, and is recited at festivals and family occasions. It is
the basis o f their religious beliefs, their ritual, and their law;
the guide o f their conduct, both public and private. It moulds
their thought, and its phrases enter into literature and daily
speech. A book thus held in reverence by over four hundred
millions of our fellow-men is worthy o f attention. It also de­
mands serious study; for it is by no means an easy book to
understand. It is neither a treatise on theology, nor a code o f
laws, nor a collection o f sermons, but rather a medley o f all
three, with other things thrown in. Its ‘ revelation’ was spread
over a period o f some twenty years, in the course o f which
Muḥ ammad rose from the position o f an obscure religious re­
former in his native Mecca to that o f virtual ruler o f Medina
and most o f Arabia. As it reflects the changing circumstances,
needs and purposes o f the Muslims during these years, it natur­
ally varies much in style and content, and even in teaching. Its
arrangement is unsystematic, and though the Arabic in which
it is written is, on the whole, intelligible, there are difficult pas­
sages whose meaning, as the Arabs say, is known to God alone.
One o f the features o f the second half o f the twentieth
century is the great increase in contacts between adherents o f
different religions. A consequence o f this is that it is no longer
possible for the occidental scholar to pontificate about the
religions o f Asia as he did in the nineteenth century. The ad­
herents o f these religions now belong to the same intellectual
world as the occidental scholar, and will criticize him if he
fails to understand and appreciate their religion as a religion.
The term ‘ dialogue’ is often applied to this new relationship
between adherents o f different religions. Though the term is
vague, it implies, with reference to the Qur’ān in particular, a
reverent attitude towards it as a holy book and respect for
Muslim beliefs about it, even if these are not shared.
xi
 ONE

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

1 . The international situation

The Qur’ān was ‘ revealed’ in the early part o f the seventh
century AD in the towns o f Mecca and Medina in west-central
Arabia. About the same time the missioners o f Columba were
bringing the Christian faith to Scotland and northern England,
while those o f Augustine o f Canterbury were spreading north­
wards and westwards from Kent. In France the Merovingian
kings exercised a largely nominal rule. The Roman empire o f
the West had succumbed to the barbarians, but the Eastern
Roman or Byzantine empire, with its capital at Constantinople,
had escaped their ravages. Under Justinian (528– 65) the
latter had attained a position o f settled power and civilization,
but in the half-century following his death it had fallen into
confusion, partly owing to attacks from without by other bar­
barians, and partly because o f internal troubles and incompe­
tent rulers.1
In the east Byzantium had a serious rival in the Persian
empire o f the Sassanids, which stretched from Iraq and Meso­
potamia in the west to the eastern frontiers o f modern Iran
and Afghanistan. Its capital was at Ctesiphon (al-M adā’in),
some twenty miles south-east o f the site o f the later city o f
Baghdad. The history o f the Middle East in the later sixth and
early seventh centuries is dominated by the struggle between
these two giants. Towards the end o f the reign o f Justinian a
fifty years’ peace had been agreed on, but this had not been
kept, and the long final war to the death began in 602. Taking
advantage o f the weakness o f the Byzantines, Khosrau 11 o f
Persia commenced hostilities alleging as his pretext revenge
for the murder o f the emperor Maurice, from whom he had, at
the beginning o f his reign, received aid. Phocas (602– 1 0 ),
1
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

who had displaced Maurice, was beset by apathy and active

revolt at home and was in no position to ward off the Persian
attack. Asia Minor was overrun. At the lowest ebb o f the
fortunes o f Byzantium in 610, Heraclius, son o f the governor
o f North Africa, appeared with a fleet before Constantinople.
Phocas was deposed and Heraclius crowned emperor. The
tide might be said to have turned.
Nevertheless there were still troubles ahead for the Byzan­
tines. Their European provinces had been overrun by bar­
barians from the north, and years passed before Heraclius
could make headway against the Persians. These meanwhile
turned southwards, and conquered Syria and Egypt in 614.
The sack o f Jerusalem after a revolt against the Persian garrison,
the slaughter o f the inhabitants, and the carrying off o f what
was believed to be the true Cross, stirred the emotions o f
Christians throughout the Byzantine empire, and enabled
Heraclius to reorganize his forces. After dealing with the
Avars, who threatened Constantinople from the north, he
turned in 622 against the Persians. In a series o f campaigns in
Asia Minor he met with some success, but in 626 the Persians
were besieging Constantinople though briefly and unsuccess­
fully. A bold invasion o f Iraq by Heraclius in 627 was crowned
by the defeat o f a Persian army. Though Heraclius withdrew
soon afterwards, the strains produced in the Persian empire by
the long series o f wars now made themselves felt. In February
628 Khosrau 11 was murdered, and the son who succeeded
him had many opponents and wanted peace. The great
struggle was virtually ended, and the Byzantines had had the
best o f it. The negotiations for the evacuation o f the Byzantine
provinces dragged on until June 629, and it was September
before Heraclius entered Constantinople in triumph. The
Holy Rood was restored to Jerusalem in March 630.
The struggle o f the two great powers had more relevance
to Arabian politics than is immediately obvious. The struggle
was indeed comparable to that between the Soviet bloc and
the Atlantic powers in the decades after the Second World
War. As each side in the latter tried to gain the support o f
relatively small neutral states, so in the sixth and seventh
centuries each side sought to extend its own sphere o f influ­
ence in Arabia and to reduce that o f the other side. Not much
2
 THE H I S T O R I C A L C ON TE XT

could be done with the nomads o f the desert except contain

them, and this was done by paying semi-nomadic groups on
the borders o f the desert to stop nomadic raids into the settled
country – the Ghassanids on the Byzantine border at Petra
and other places, and Lakhmids on the Persian border with
their centre at Hira. On the periphery o f Arabia, however,
there were many possibilities o f gaining influence. About 521
the Christian empire o f Abyssinia or Ethiopia occupied the
fertile highlands o f the Yemen in south-west Arabia; and this
was done despite theological differences, with the full support
and perhaps encouragement o f the Byzantine empire. The
Yemen remained under the Abyssinians until about 575, when
they were expelled by a sea-borne expedition from Persia.
Persia also gained control o f a number o f small towns on the
eastern and southern coasts o f Arabia. This was normally done
by supporting a pro-Persian faction. The incident about 590
associated with the name o f 'Uthmān ibn-al-Ḥ uwayrith is to
be regarded as an attempt by the Byzantines to gain control o f
Mecca by helping this man to become a puppet ruler there.
Meccan interest in the struggle o f the two empires is reflected
in a passage o f the Qur’ān [30 .2 /1-5 /4 ], usually taken to be a
prophecy o f the final victory o f the R ūm or Byzantines2; and
there may be one or two other references to the war. Some o f
the later successes o f Muḥ ammad in Arabia may be due to the
fact that, with the decline o f Persia about 628, most o f the pro-
Persian factions turned to Muḥ ammad for support and became
Muslims.

2. Life in Arabia
The religion o f Islam is popularly associated with life in the
desert, and, though there is an element o f truth in this idea, it
is misleading unless properly qualified. Islam has nearly always
been first and foremost a religion o f townsmen paying little
attention to the special needs o f agriculturists or pastoral
nomads. The first home o f Islam was Mecca, then an extremely
prosperous commercial centre; and its second home was
Medina, a rich oasis with some commerce also. Yet both
Mecca and Medina stood in close relationship to the surround­
ing nomads.
By the end o f the sixth century the great merchants o f

3
 THE H I S T O R I C A L C ON TE XT

could be done with the nomads o f the desert except contain

them, and this was done by paying semi-nomadic groups on
the borders o f the desert to stop nomadic raids into the settled
country – the Ghassanids on the Byzantine border at Petra
and other places, and Lakhmids on the Persian border with
their centre at Hira. On the periphery o f Arabia, however,
there were many possibilities o f gaining influence. About 521
the Christian empire o f Abyssinia or Ethiopia occupied the
fertile highlands o f the Yemen in south-west Arabia; and this
was done despite theological differences, with the full support
and perhaps encouragement o f the Byzantine empire. The
Yemen remained under the Abyssinians until about 575, when
they were expelled by a sea-borne expedition from Persia.
Persia also gained control o f a number o f small towns on the
eastern and southern coasts o f Arabia. This was normally done
by supporting a pro-Persian faction. The incident about 590
associated with the name o f 'Uthmān ibn-al-Ḥ uwayrith is to
be regarded as an attempt by the Byzantines to gain control o f
Mecca by helping this man to become a puppet ruler there.
Meccan interest in the struggle o f the two empires is reflected
in a passage o f the Qur’ān [30 .2 /1-5 /4 ], usually taken to be a
prophecy o f the final victory o f the R ūm or Byzantines2; and
there may be one or two other references to the war. Some o f
the later successes o f Muḥ ammad in Arabia may be due to the
fact that, with the decline o f Persia about 628, most o f the pro-
Persian factions turned to Muḥ ammad for support and became
Muslims.

2. Life in Arabia
The religion o f Islam is popularly associated with life in the
desert, and, though there is an element o f truth in this idea, it
is misleading unless properly qualified. Islam has nearly always
been first and foremost a religion o f townsmen paying little
attention to the special needs o f agriculturists or pastoral
nomads. The first home o f Islam was Mecca, then an extremely
prosperous commercial centre; and its second home was
Medina, a rich oasis with some commerce also. Yet both
Mecca and Medina stood in close relationship to the surround­
ing nomads.
By the end o f the sixth century the great merchants o f

3
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

Mecca had gained a monopolistic control o f the trade passing

up and down the western coastal fringe o f Arabia to the
Mediterranean. The winter and summer caravans are referred
to in 106.2 and traditionally went southwards and northwards
respectively. The route southwards went to the Yemen, but
there was an extension to Abyssinia, and goods were probably
also transported to and from India by sea. This route had
probably become important because the alternative route
from the Persian G u lf to Aleppo had been made dangerous
by the war between the Byzantines and the Persians. In order
to be able to use these long caravan routes safely the Meccans
had to be on good terms with nomadic tribes capable o f pro­
tecting the caravans over the various sections o f the route.
The guarantors were o f course paid for their trouble; but the
prestige and military power o f the Meccans, together with
their diplomatic skill, seem to have ensured the smooth
working o f the system.
The fact that the Qur’ān was first addressed to people
engaged in commerce is reflected in its language and ideas.
A reference to Mecca’s commercial prosperity and its caravans
has just been mentioned. An American scholar, C.C . Torrey,
made a special study o f The Commercial-Theological Terms in
the Koran,3 and came to the conclusion that they were used to
express fundamental points o f doctrine and not simply as
illustrative metaphors. Among the Qur’ānic assertions o f this
kind are the following: the deeds o f men are recorded in a
book; the Last Judgement is a reckoning; each person re­
ceives his account; the balance is set up (as for the exchange
o f money or goods) and a man’s deeds are weighed; each soul
is held in pledge for the deeds committed; if a man’s actions
are approved he receives his reward, or his hire; to support
the Prophet’s cause is to lend a loan to God.4
While the Meccans were in constant business relations with
the nomads, they also had a deeper connection with the
desert. It was only a generation or two since they had given up
nomadic life to settle in Mecca. In many ways the people o f
Mecca still retained the outlook o f the nomads. The malaise
and discontent in Mecca may be largely traced to the tension
and even conflict between nomadic mores and the new way o f
life which commercial activity fostered. It is this nomadic way

4
 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

o f life above all which is presupposed in the Qur’ān. Nomad­

ism is one o f the great achievements o f the human spirit.
Arnold Toynbee has spoken o f it as a tour de force; it presup­
poses the domestication o f animals, especially the camel, and
this must have taken place when men were living in oases and
partly dependent on agriculture; thus, presumably when con­
ditions in the oases grew more difficult, the owner o f camels
leaves this for the even more difficult life o f the desert or
steppe.5 Only a high degree o f excellence in the art o f living in
community will enable men to make a success o f life in the
desert. One o f the claims to greatness o f Islam as a religion is
that it took the human virtues or excellences, tempered in the
fire o f desert life, and made them accessible to other men.
The basis o f life in the desert is the pasturing and breeding
o f camels. The staple food o f the nomad is the milk o f the
camels. It is only occasionally that their flesh is eaten. By
selling surplus camels or by receiving fees for guaranteeing
the safety o f caravans the nomads may become able to pur­
chase dates from the oases, and even luxuries like wine. Sheep
and goats were also kept, but these had to remain on the edge
o f the desert where there were wells. The camel-nomad, on
the other hand, could at certain seasons o f the year go into
the sandy desert ( nafūd ) where there were no wells. In the
rainy season or spring ( rabī῾ ) there were many valleys and
hollows with plentiful but short-lived vegetation. From this
the camels could gain sufficient food and liquid to keep them­
selves and their owners well fed and free from thirst. Arabian
rainfall is erratic, however, and the nomad has to vary his
movements according to its incidence in any particular season.
Once the spring vegetation has disappeared, the nomad has to
go to other tracts o f land where there are wells and perennial
shrubs. Since the camel is thus so basic to life in Arabia,
references in the Qur’ān to ‘ cattle’ (an῾ ām) should primarily
be understood o f camels.
Because o f the constant pressure o f population on food-
supplies, the struggle to maintain existence against rivals was
unending. For mutual defence against enemies and for
mutual help against nature, men banded themselves together
in groups, usually based on kinship. Raids by one group upon
another were almost a national sport among the Arabs. A

5
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

favourite practice was to appear unexpectedly with over­

whelming force at some point where the other party was
weak; the men in charge o f the camels would flee – without
losing face, since the enemy had overwhelming force – and
the raiders would make off with the camels. The size o f the
effective groups was relatively small; but for certain purposes
small groups would act together with other groups on the
basis o f a real or feigned kinship through descent from a
common ancestor. Groups o f different sizes are roughly indi­
cated in English by such terms as ‘ fam ily’, ‘ clan’, ‘ tribe’,
‘federation o f tribes’. A tribe or clan, besides those who were
full members by birth, usually had attached to it various other
persons who looked to it for protection. This attachment took
several forms, such as ‘ confederate’ (ḥ a lif), ‘ protected neigh­
bour’ (j ār ) and ‘ client’ ( mawlā ). The confederate had made
an alliance with an individual or group on terms o f at least
nominal equality, whereas the other attached persons were in
some sense inferior.
Protection by the group was an essential feature o f life not
only in the deserts o f Arabia but also in a town like Mecca and
an oasis settlement like Medina. It was linked with the idea o f
retaliation or ‘ an eye for an eye’ – the lex talionis o f the Old
Testament [ Exodus, 21.24f., etc.]. The principle o f retaliation,
coupled with corporate responsibility, was a relatively effec­
tive way o f keeping peace in the desert and preventing wanton
crime. According to primitive ideas there was no need or
obligation to respect human life as such; but a man would
avoid injuring or killing another if the latter was o f the same
tribe, or an allied tribe, or if he belonged to a group that was
powerful and certain to exact vengeance. An understanding o f
this system and its ramifications is necessary for a proper
appreciation o f many incidents in Muḥ ammad’s career. He
was able to continue in Mecca despite opposition because his
own clan o f Hāshim, though many members o f it disapproved
o f his new religion, was in honour bound to avenge any injury
to him. At the same time the system prevented punishment, as
now understood, by the executive body o f the municipality o f
Mecca or Medina. I f the head o f the council in Mecca, even
with the consent of the whole council, had tried to punish an
offender, the latter’s clan would have felt justified in taking
6
 THE H I S T O R IC A L CO N TE XT

vengeance. In such a case only the head o f the offender’s own

clan could punish him. At various points in the Qur’ān con­
cepts from this sphere are applied metaphorically to God. He
does not fear the consequences (sc. retaliation) o f his punish­
ing the tribe o f Thamūd [9 1.15 ]; he gives ‘ neighbourly
protection’ (yujīr ) to all, but ‘ neighbourly protection’
against him is never given (sc. because no one is strong
enough’ [23.88/90].
The extent o f the sense of unity among the Arabs before
Islam is a point about which there has been some dispute.
There cannot have been anything comparable to Arab national­
ism as now understood, since the Arab’s basic attachment was
to the tribe or clan. There were, however, widely accepted
common customs, such as those connected with retaliation.
Above all, however, there seems to have been some feeling o f
having a common language, Arabic; there are several refer­
ences to the revelations to Muḥ ammad as ‘ an Arabic Qur’ān ’
[12 .2 ; etc.] or as being ‘ in an Arabic tongue’ [4 6 .12 / 11].
Difficulties implicit in these statements will be considered in a
later chapter. It would seem that there were various mutually
intelligible dialects, and that the people who spoke them re­
garded themselves as ‘ clear-speakers’ in contrast to a foreigner
who was a ‘ confused speaker’ ( ῾ajamī ). There were also
theories o f a common descent, or rather o f two groups, some­
times distinguished as northern and southern Arabs, each
descended from a common ancestor, though the two were not
related.6 Whatever the truth behind these accounts, it seems
clear that some o f the ‘ southern’ tribes had taken to nomadic
life after being settled in the Yemen. There had been in South
Arabia for a thousand years a great civilization based partly on
trade and partly on elaborate irrigation. The breakdown o f the
irrigation system, often called the bursting o f the dam o f
Ma’rib (and referred to in 34 .16 /15 ), is now known from
inscriptions to have been rather a series o f events, extending at
least from 451 to 542, and may have been the result rather
than the cause o f economic decline.7 South Arabian influences
on Mecca in Muḥ ammad’s time may have been important, but
there is little agreement on this point.
Apart from the Yemen there were a number o f oases in
western Arabia where agriculture was practised. The chief o f

7
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ AN

these was Medina (literally ‘ the town’ ), previously known as

Yathrib. The main crop was dates, but cereals were also
grown. In agricultural development at Medina and elsewhere
a leading part had been played by Jews – an unusual rôle in
the light o f medieval European conceptions o f the Jew as a
trader and financier. Certain Arabs had settled in the oasis o f
Medina at some time after the Jewish settlement, and these
Arabs had become politically dominant. In other oases –
Taymā’, Fadak, W ādi l-Qurā, Khaybar– the settlers were pre­
dominantly Jewish. The ultimate ethnic origin o f these Jewish
tribes and clans is not clear. They had adopted the social forms
and customs o f the Arabs, and differed only in religion; some
may have been Arab groups who had adopted Judaism, and in
any case there had been much intermarriage.8
The religious situation in Arabia about AD 6 0 0 was com­
plex. The presence o f these settlements o f Jews in oases and
o f a considerable number o f Jews in the Yemen led to a
gradual spread o f some Jewish ideas. There was also much
Christian influence, though it was more diffuse. Trade had
brought the Meccans into contact with the Byzantine and
Abyssinian empires, which were Christian. Christianity had
spread in the Yemen, especially when the country was under
Abyssinian control. Sections o f some o f the nomadic tribes
had become Christian. Apart from this we hear o f only isolated
individuals like Waraqa ibn-Nawfal at Mecca, the cousin o f
Muḥ ammad’s first wife Khadīja. This was sufficient, however,
to ensure that there was some penetration o f Christian ideas
into intellectual circles in Arabia. On the other hand, the
reason why more Arabs did not become Christian is doubtless
in part the fact that Christianity had political implications; the
Byzantine and Abyssinian empires were officially Christian
(Orthodox or Monophysite), and Nestorian Christianity was
strong in the Persian empire.9
Apart from Judaism and Christianity, there are traces in the
Qur’ān and elsewhere o f forms o f the old Semitic religion.
Names o f particular deities are mentioned [53.19 f .; 71.2 3/2 ].
These were not comparable to the Greek gods, but were
rather local forms taken by the general Semitic worship o f
male and female powers.10 In so far as these deities had
primarily belonged to an agricultural phase in the life o f the
8
 THE H IS T O R I C A L CO N TE X T

Arabs, they were hardly relevant to nomadic society; and

stories o f the period suggest that the nomads had no profound
respect for them. The chief driving power in nomadic life
came from what may be called ' tribal humanism',11 that is, a
belief in the virtues or human excellence o f a tribe or clan
(and its members) and in the transmission o f these qualities
by the tribal stock. For men whose effective belief was this,
the motive behind most actions was the desire to maintain the
honour o f the tribe. The question o f honour is omnipresent
in the numerous examples o f pre-Islamic poetry that have been
preserved.
Apart from tribal humanism and the old paganism, there
appears to have been present among some Arabs a form o f
belief in which a supreme deity or ‘ high go d ' was acknow­
ledged in addition to the lesser deities. This may be inferred
from a number o f passages where polytheists are depicted as
admitting that God is creator and provider and as praying to
him in a moment o f crisis.12 It is probable that such a belief
was widespread, and also that a few people were moving on
from this to belief in one God only. In later Muslim works it
is assumed that there were a number o f such persons – some
names are given – and that they used the name o f ḥ a n īf
(singular). In the Qur’ān this word is applied primarily to
those who professed what is called ‘ the pure religion o f
Abraham' – a pure monotheism which was later allegedly
corrupted by Jews and Christians. The matter is complex,13
but the point to be emphasized here is that any ‘ pure mono­
theist’ prior to Muḥ ammad – and there may well have been
some – did not call himself a ḥ anīf. In the Qur’ān the word
belongs to the teaching about the relation o f Islam to Judaism
and Christianity and not to affairs about AD 600. Nevertheless
the Qur’ān also gives hints o f much religious ferment at that
period.

3. Muḥ ammad’s career14

The career o f Muḥ ammad is a subject o f study in itself and
will only be briefly sketched here so as to indicate its main
phases in so far as some knowledge o f them is necessary for
the understanding o f the Qur’ān. Not surprisingly there are
virtually no references to the period o f Muḥ ammad’s life prior

9
 THE H IS T O R I C A L CO N TE X T

Arabs, they were hardly relevant to nomadic society; and

stories o f the period suggest that the nomads had no profound
respect for them. The chief driving power in nomadic life
came from what may be called ' tribal humanism',11 that is, a
belief in the virtues or human excellence o f a tribe or clan
(and its members) and in the transmission o f these qualities
by the tribal stock. For men whose effective belief was this,
the motive behind most actions was the desire to maintain the
honour o f the tribe. The question o f honour is omnipresent
in the numerous examples o f pre-Islamic poetry that have been
preserved.
Apart from tribal humanism and the old paganism, there
appears to have been present among some Arabs a form o f
belief in which a supreme deity or ‘ high go d ' was acknow­
ledged in addition to the lesser deities. This may be inferred
from a number o f passages where polytheists are depicted as
admitting that God is creator and provider and as praying to
him in a moment o f crisis.12 It is probable that such a belief
was widespread, and also that a few people were moving on
from this to belief in one God only. In later Muslim works it
is assumed that there were a number o f such persons – some
names are given – and that they used the name o f ḥ a n īf
(singular). In the Qur’ān this word is applied primarily to
those who professed what is called ‘ the pure religion o f
Abraham' – a pure monotheism which was later allegedly
corrupted by Jews and Christians. The matter is complex,13
but the point to be emphasized here is that any ‘ pure mono­
theist’ prior to Muḥ ammad – and there may well have been
some – did not call himself a ḥ anīf. In the Qur’ān the word
belongs to the teaching about the relation o f Islam to Judaism
and Christianity and not to affairs about AD 600. Nevertheless
the Qur’ān also gives hints o f much religious ferment at that
period.

3. Muḥ ammad’s career14

The career o f Muḥ ammad is a subject o f study in itself and
will only be briefly sketched here so as to indicate its main
phases in so far as some knowledge o f them is necessary for
the understanding o f the Qur’ān. Not surprisingly there are
virtually no references to the period o f Muḥ ammad’s life prior

9
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

to his call to be a prophet. The chief exception is the passage

in 93.6-8, which speaks o f his orphanhood and poverty. This
is explained more fully by the Traditions. When Muḥ ammad
was born in Mecca about AD 570 his father was already dead,
and his mother died when he was about six. He was then under
the care o f his grandfather 'Abd-al-Muṭṭalib, and, when he in
turn died, o f his uncle A bū-Ṭ ā lib, who lived until a year or
two before Muḥ ammad’s Hijra or emigration to Medina in
622. His poverty may be ascribed to the fact that by Arab
customary law a minor could not inherit, so that nothing
came to Muḥ ammad from either his father or his grandfather.
The fortunes o f the clan as a whole may have been in decline,
since A bū-Ṭ ā lib, for long head o f the clan, was apparently not
a wealthy man. He did, however, undertake trading journeys
to Syria, and Muḥ ammad is said to have been to Syria with
him. Later he was commissioned by a woman o f moderate
means, called Khadīja, to take charge o f her goods on a trading
journey of this type, and he was so successful that she married
him, she then being about forty and he twenty-five. He pre­
sumably continued to trade with their joint capital for the
next fifteen years or longer.
The next phase o f Muḥ ammad’s career began when he was
about forty. His years o f poverty must have made him fully
aware o f the spiritual malaise affecting Mecca as a result o f its
material prosperity. He is said to have been in the habit of
meditating on such matters. About 610 in the course o f his
meditations he had some strange experiences, and came to the
conclusion that he was receiving messages from God to com­
municate to the people o f Mecca. At first the messages were
simply remembered by Muḥ ammad and his friends, though
later some may have been written down by Muḥ ammad’s
secretaries. After his death all that was extant, written or
remembered, was collected and written down to constitute
the Qur’ān as we know it. This simple statement covers many
disputed points which will be dealt with later. For a few years
after receiving the first revelation Muḥ ammad made no public
proclamations, but communicated the messages privately to
friends sympathetic to the outlook and attitude prescribed in
them. The main emphasis was on a call to worship God in
gratitude for his goodness to the Meccans as a whole and to
10
 THE H I S T O R I C A L CO N TEX T

each individual. Many o f the revealed passages spoke o f

various natural events as signs o f God’s goodness.
In due course, however, Muḥ ammad had to pass over to a
public proclamation o f the Qur’ānic message, and this led
sooner or later – the chronology o f the Meccan period is un­
certain – to opposition from the richest merchants in Mecca.
Probably even during the phase o f private communication the
messages had contained a warning that those who disregarded
the divine messages would inevitably be punished either in this
life or in the life to come. After opposition appeared these
warnings became more frequent. Stories o f previous mes­
sengers or prophets were recounted or alluded to in the
messages in order to convince the audience o f the certainty o f
punishment. Presumably because the opposition to Muḥ am­
mad was associated with a recrudescence o f the old religion
with its idol-worship, the Qur’ānic messages now include a
vigorous attack on idols and an insistence on monotheism.
The stories of previous messengers also gave encouragement
to Muḥ ammad and the band o f followers that had gathered
round him. It is difficult to assess the extent of persecution,
but it was bitterly resented by the Muslims, as those eventu­
ally came to be known who accepted the Qur’ānic messages.
By a process of inference it appears that on the death o f Abū-
Ṭ ā lib the new chief o f Muḥ ammad’s clan, Abū-Lahab (another
uncle), withdrew the protection o f the clan from Muḥ ammad,
alleging that he had forfeited the right to it by asserting that
the ancestors o f the clan were in Hell. This is doubtless the
reason for the fierce attack on Abū-Lahab in sura 1 1 1 .
Persecution and withdrawal o f protection made it impos­
sible for Muḥ ammad to continue his mission in Mecca. An
opportunity presented itself o f migrating to the oasis o f
Medina some two hundred miles to the north, and Muḥ am­
mad and seventy o f his followers decided to go there. This
event was the Hijra (latinized as ‘ Hegira’ ) or Emigration; and
the Islamic era begins with the beginning o f the Arabian year
in which it took place, viz. 16 July 622.15 Most o f the Arabs o f
Medina made an agreement with Muḥ ammad, accepting his
claim to be a prophet and recognizing him as chief o f the
‘ clan’ o f Emigrants. For the first few years at Medina Muḥ am­
mad was far from being ruler o f the oasis, since there were
11
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R’ ĀN

eight other clan chiefs o f roughly equal status. In time, how­

ever, through the military success o f the expeditions or
razzias undertaken by the Emigrants assisted by the men o f
Medina, Muḥ ammad’s power greatly increased.
The first eighteen months or so after the Hijra were occu­
pied not merely with a general adjustment to the new situation
by all concerned but more especially by attempts on Muḥ am­
mad’s part to gain the support o f the Jewish clans and small
groups in Medina. Time and again he is instructed in the
Qur’ān to appeal to them in various forms. Then, when it
appears that few o f them are going to respond to his appeals,
he is told to criticize them, and shown that the religion he is
proclaiming is the pure religion o f Abraham which the Jews
and Christians have corrupted. What is found in the Qur’ān
is mainly evidence for the intellectual aspects o f the dispute
between Muḥ ammad and the Jews, but there are also a few
references to the expulsion o f Jewish clans. There are also
places where both Jews and Christians are attacked. There
was no active hostility against Christians until the last two or
three years o f Muḥ ammad’s life, and so it would seem that the
criticisms o f the Jews were sometimes continued into this
period. What is known as ‘ the break with the Jew s’ occurred
about March 624, shortly before the battle o f Badr. The chief
outward mark o f this realignment o f forces in Medina was
that the Qibla or direction faced in prayer was changed from
being towards Jerusalem, like the Jews, to being towards
Mecca. This was an indication that the new religion was to be
specifically Arab, and that Muḥ ammad was going to rely
more on the ‘ arabizing’ party among his followers than upon
the ‘ judaizing’ party.
The same month o f March 624 also saw the throwing down
o f the gauntlet by the Muslims to the power o f Mecca. Already
in January 624 a handful o f Muslims had captured a small
Meccan caravan from under the noses o f the Meccans, as it
were. In March, however, a band o f just over three hundred
Muslims led by Muḥ ammad himself won a surprise victory at
Badr over a much larger force from Mecca and killed about
half the leading men o f Mecca. This was a challenge to the
Meccan commercial empire which the great merchants could
not ignore. About a year later they invaded the Medinan oasis
12
 THE H IS T O R I C A L CO N TE X T

and had the better o f the fighting near mount Uḥ ud, but
failed to inflict very heavy losses on Muḥ ammad, far less to
dislodge him. The Qur’ān reflects both the exhilaration o f the
Muslims after the victory o f Badr, which seemed to them
God’s vindication o f their cause, and their dismay after Uḥ ud
when they feared that he had abandoned them. There are
rather fewer references in the Qur’ān to the later incidents in
Muḥ ammad’s struggle with the Meccans. In 627 they be­
sieged Medina for a fortnight along with nomadic allies, but
had no success. In March 628 Muḥ ammad attempted to per­
form the pilgrimage to Mecca with 1,600 men; though he was
stopped by the Meccans and had to postpone his pilgrimage
to the next year, he signed a treaty with them at al-Ḥ udaybiya
which put an end to hostilities. An incident between nomads
allied to the two sides was construed by Muḥ ammad as a
breach o f the treaty, and he marched on Mecca with 10,000
men in January 630 and entered the city as conqueror with
virtually no fighting. He showed great leniency to his former
enemies, the Meccans, and most o f them became his associates
in the final phase o f his career and acknowledged him as the
Messenger o f God.
This final phase was constituted by the expansion o f
Muḥ ammad’s authority into most regions o f Arabia, and his
‘ reconnaissance in force’ o f one o f the routes used in the sub­
sequent Arab expansion beyond Arabia. Even before 630 a
few nomadic tribes had become Muḥ ammad’s allies and had
recognized his political as well as his religious authority. Tw o
or three weeks after his victorious entry into Mecca Muḥ am­
mad took his 10,000 Muslims and also 2,000 Meccans to a
place towards the east called Ḥ unayn, and there met a con­
centration o f nomads hostile both to himself and to the
Meccans. For some time the issue o f the battle hung in the
balance, but it ended in the absolute rout o f Muḥ ammad’s
opponents. After this there was no possible concentration o f
nomads in Arabia (apart from the north) which could take
the field against the Muslims. Soon most o f the tribes o f
Arabia began sending deputations to Medina to seek alliance
with Muḥ ammad. By the time o f his death on 8 June 632 he
was effective ruler o f most o f Arabia, though in the case o f
several tribes there was also a strong faction hostile to him,

13
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

who were biding their time to throw off the yoke o f Medina.
It would seem, however, that for some years before his death
Muḥ ammad had realized that the extension o f his rule and o f
what may be called the p ax islamica over the nomadic tribes
o f Arabia must go hand in hand with an outlet for their
energies into regions beyond Arabia. In this connection it is
to be noted that the greatest o f all Muḥ ammad’s expeditions,
that to Tabūk in the north, seems to have had as its strategic
aim the opening o f the route for expansion into Syria. This
expedition, which is mentioned at several points in sura 9,
lasted from October to December 630 and comprised 30,000
men. On the whole, however, the Qur’ān has few references
to this last phase.

14
 THE H I S T O R I C A L C O N TE XT

ANNEX A

Chronology o f Muḥ ammad’s career

c.570 birth at Mecca
c.595 marriage to Khadīj a
c.610 first revelation
c.613 beginning o f public preaching
c.619 deaths o f Khadīja and Abū- Ṭ ā lib
16 Ju ly 622 beginning o f era o f H ijra
September 622 arrival in Medina
c.February 624 change o f qibla
March 624 battle o f Badr
March 625 battle o f Uḥ ud
April 627 siege o f Medina
March 628 treaty o f al-Ḥ udaybiya
January 630 conquest o f M ecca; battle o f Ḥ unayn
October-December 630 expedition to Tabūk
March 632 pilgrim age o f farew ell
8 June 632 death

15
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

ANNEX B

Ḥ a n īf
The word Ḥ anīf occurs twelve times in the Qur’ān, two o f
these instances being o f the plural ḥ unafā '. The basic usage is
doubtless that in 3.67/0, where it is said that Abraham was
neither a Jew nor a Christian but a Ḥ anīf a muslim, not one o f
the ‘ idolaters’. There are similar historical statements about
Abraham worshipping God as a Ḥ a n īf in 6.79 and 16 .12 0 /1,
but the word muslim is not used there. Next there are a num­
ber o f explicit or implicit commands to Muḥ ammad and the
Muslims to follow the creed or religion o f Abraham as a Ḥ a n īf
[2 .135 /2 9 ; 3.95/89; 4 .125/4 ; 6 .16 1/ 2 ; 16 .123/4 ]. In the re­
maining passages [10 .10 5 ; 2 2 .3 1/2 ; 30.30/29; 98.5/4] there
is no mention o f Abraham, but the command is given to
Muḥ ammad (or the Muslims or the people o f the Book) to
serve God ‘ as a Ḥ anīf, not one o f the idolaters’. Thus the
word is connected solely with Abraham himself or with ‘ the
religion o f Abraham’ as that is conceived in the Qur’ān and,
as applying to Islam, contrasted with Judaism and Christianity
as well as with paganism.
Later Muslim scholars always take the word in this sense,
sometimes also using Ḥ an īf as equivalent o f ‘ Muslim’, and
the Ḥ anīfiyya as equivalent o f ‘ Islam’. The latter word was
found instead o f Islam in Ibn-Masʽ ūd’s copy o f the Qur’ān at
3 .19 /17 . Muslim scholars also tried to show that there were
men just before Muḥ ammad who were seeking the Ḥ anīfiyya
or pure monotheism. There certainly appear to have been men
seeking a purer or more adequate religion, but they cannot
have called themselves by the name o f Ḥ a n īf since, had they
done so, the name could not have been equated with ‘ Muslim’.
It seems that pre-Islamic Arab poets used Ḥ a n īffor ‘ pagan’ or
‘ idolater’, and this was certainly the Christian usage, derived
from Syriac by taking the plural Ḥ unafā’ to represent the
Syriac plural ḥ anpé. Christians used this point in mocking
criticism o f Muslims, and the latter seem eventually to have
abandoned calling themselves ḥ unafā ’. A much fuller discus­
sion will be found in E I 2, art. ‘ḥ anīf ’.
16
 TWO

MUḤ AMMAD’S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

1 . Criticisms o f the claim to prophethood

Muḥ ammad’s claim to be a prophet and messenger and to
receive messages from God to be conveyed to his fellow Arabs
has been criticized and attacked almost from the day it was
first put forward. From the Qur’ān itself we learn that the
pagan Meccans called the messages ‘ old-world tales’ ( asāṭ īr
al-awwalīn),1 while the Jews o f Medina mocked Muḥ ammad’s
claims. These criticisms were taken up by Christian scholars.
In medieval Europe there was elaborated the conception o f
Muḥ ammad as a false prophet, who merely pretended to
receive messages from God2; and this and other falsifications
o f medieval war-propaganda are only slowly being expunged
from the mind o f Europe and o f Christendom.
The first step towards a more balanced view was taken by
Thomas Carlyle when he laughed out o f court the idea o f an
impostor being the founder o f one o f the world’s great
religions.3 Various later scholars followed this with attempts
to save Muḥ ammad’s sincerity, but sometimes at the expense
o f his sanity. Gustav Weil sought to prove that he suffered
from epilepsy.4 Aloys Sprenger went further and suggested
that in addition Muḥ ammad suffered from hysteria.5 Sir
William Muir retained something o f the false-prophet idea;
he pictured Muḥ ammad as an earnest and high-souled mes­
senger and preacher while at Mecca, who, when he went to
Medina, succumbed to the wiles o f Satan for the sake o f
worldly success.6 D. S. Margoliouth had no qualms about
accusing him o f having deliberately mystified the people,
and pointed to the history o f spiritualism as showing how
easily human beings with unusual powers fall into dis­
honesty.7 Theodor Nöldeke, while insisting on the reality o f

17
IN T R O D U C T IO N T O T H E Q U R ’Ā N

Muḥ ammad’s prophetic inspiration, and rejecting the idea that

he suffered from epilepsy, thought that he was subject to over­
powering fits o f emotion which led him to believe that he was
under divine influences.8 Recent writers have on the whole
been more favourable and have taken the view that Muḥ am­
mad was absolutely sincere and acted in complete good faith.
Frants Buhl emphasized the far-reaching historical significance
o f the religious movement he inaugurated9; while Richard
Bell spoke o f the eminently practical character o f his activity
even as a prophet.10 Tor Andrae examined Muḥ ammad’s
experience from a psychological standpoint and found it
genuine, and also held that he had a prophetic message for his
age and generation.11
In the adverse opinions more attention was paid to certain
Traditions than to the evidence o f the Qur’ān itself. Too little
allowance also was made for the fact that the Muḥ ammad
whom we know best was to all appearance healthy both in
body and in mind. It is incredible that a person subject to
epilepsy, or hysteria, or even ungovernable fits o f emotion,
could have been the active leader o f military expeditions, or
the cool far-seeing guide o f a city-state and a growing religious
community; but all this we know Muḥ ammad to have been.
In such questions the principle o f the historian should be to
depend mainly on the Qur’ān and to accept Tradition only in
so far as it is in harmony with the results o f Qur’ānic study.
The Qur’ān, however, though it apparently chronicles with­
out reserve the gibes and reproaches o f his opponents, men­
tions nothing that would support the belief in some diseased
condition in Muḥ ammad. The opponents indeed said he was
majnūn, but that meant either simply that they thought his
conduct crazy, or that they regarded his utterances as inspired
by jinn, as those o f soothsayers were supposed to be. Had they
been able to point to any evident signs o f disease in him we
should almost certainly have heard o f this. Medieval concep­
tions must therefore be set aside, and Muḥ ammad regarded
as a man who sincerely and in good faith proclaimed messages
which he believed came to him from God.

2. Qur’ānic descriptions o f revelation and prophethood

One o f the latest and clearest descriptions o f revelation in the
18
IN T R O D U C T IO N T O T H E Q U R ’Ā N

Muḥ ammad’s prophetic inspiration, and rejecting the idea that

he suffered from epilepsy, thought that he was subject to over­
powering fits o f emotion which led him to believe that he was
under divine influences.8 Recent writers have on the whole
been more favourable and have taken the view that Muḥ am­
mad was absolutely sincere and acted in complete good faith.
Frants Buhl emphasized the far-reaching historical significance
o f the religious movement he inaugurated9; while Richard
Bell spoke o f the eminently practical character o f his activity
even as a prophet.10 Tor Andrae examined Muḥ ammad’s
experience from a psychological standpoint and found it
genuine, and also held that he had a prophetic message for his
age and generation.11
In the adverse opinions more attention was paid to certain
Traditions than to the evidence o f the Qur’ān itself. Too little
allowance also was made for the fact that the Muḥ ammad
whom we know best was to all appearance healthy both in
body and in mind. It is incredible that a person subject to
epilepsy, or hysteria, or even ungovernable fits o f emotion,
could have been the active leader o f military expeditions, or
the cool far-seeing guide o f a city-state and a growing religious
community; but all this we know Muḥ ammad to have been.
In such questions the principle o f the historian should be to
depend mainly on the Qur’ān and to accept Tradition only in
so far as it is in harmony with the results o f Qur’ānic study.
The Qur’ān, however, though it apparently chronicles with­
out reserve the gibes and reproaches o f his opponents, men­
tions nothing that would support the belief in some diseased
condition in Muḥ ammad. The opponents indeed said he was
majnūn, but that meant either simply that they thought his
conduct crazy, or that they regarded his utterances as inspired
by jinn, as those o f soothsayers were supposed to be. Had they
been able to point to any evident signs o f disease in him we
should almost certainly have heard o f this. Medieval concep­
tions must therefore be set aside, and Muḥ ammad regarded
as a man who sincerely and in good faith proclaimed messages
which he believed came to him from God.

2. Qur’ānic descriptions o f revelation and prophethood

One o f the latest and clearest descriptions o f revelation in the
18
 MUḤ AMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE
Qur’ān is in 2.97/1, where Gabriel is said to have brought it
(the message) down upon the Prophet’s heart by God’s per­
mission. That this was the account accepted by Muḥ ammad
and the Muslims in the Medinan period is certain. Tradition is
unanimous on the point that Gabriel was the agent o f revela­
tion. When Tradition carries this back to the beginning,
however, and associates Gabriel with the original call to
prophethood, the scholar’s suspicions are aroused since
Gabriel is only twice mentioned in the Qur’ān, both times in
Medinan passages. The association o f Gabriel with the call
appears to be a later interpretation o f something which
Muḥ ammad had at first understood otherwise.
It is to be noted that in 2.97/1 there is no assertion that
Gabriel appeared in visible form ; and it may be taken as cer­
tain that the revelations were not normally mediated or
accompanied by a vision. The Qur’ān indeed mentions two
occasions on which Muḥ ammad saw a vision [5 3 .1-12 , 13 -18 ].
Strictly read, these verses imply that the visions were of God,
since the word ‘abd, ‘ slave’ or ‘ servant’, describes a man’s
relation to God and not to an angel; this interpretation is
allowed by some Muslim commentators. In 8 1.15-25, how­
ever, the vision is re-interpreted as that o f an angel. This
indicates a growing and changing understanding o f spiritual
things in the minds o f Muḥ ammad and the Muslims. At first
they assumed that he had seen God himself, but later they
realized that that was impossible, and therefore concluded
that the vision was o f a messenger o f God, that is, an angel.
Similarly the experience o f receiving messages or revelations
may have been interpreted differently at the beginning o f his
mission and at the close o f the Medinan period. Yet, however
the visions are interpreted or explained, to Muḥ ammad they
were undoubtedly real. At the same time they were unique;
there is no mention o f any other visions, if we except that
before the expedition to al-Ḥ udaybiya [48.27]. There is just
a little in the Qur’ān to support the hypothesis adopted by Tor
Andrae12 that Muḥ ammad actually heard voices; but the fact
that the revelations took the form o f words might be held to
show that Muḥ ammad was closer to the auditory than to the
visual type o f inspiration. Both the visible appearance o f God
and the hearing o f his voice are excluded by 42.51/0 : ‘ it is not

19
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN
fitting for any human being that God should speak to him
except by “ revelation" or from behind a veil, or by sending
a messenger to “ reveal” by his permission what he will’.
What then is meant by ‘reveal’ and ‘revelation’, or, as they
are rendered intheBell translation, ‘suggest’ and‘suggestion’ ?
The Arabic verb and noun, awḥ ā and waḥ y, have become the
technical terms of Islamic theology for the communication of
the messages or revelations to Muḥ ammad. In accordance
with 2.97/1 they have come to imply the recitation of the
words of the Qur’ān to him by the angel Gabriel. In the
Qur’ān itself the words are commonly used of this special
form of communication, but they are not confined to it.
There are several examples of their use in a more general
sense. Thus the word awḥ ā is used in 19.11/12 of Zechariah
(Zacharias), after he had become dumb, ‘making a sign’ or
‘indicating’ to the people that they should glorify God.
Satans (or demons) of jinn and men ‘suggest’ specious ideas
to one another [6.112]. The recipient of waḥy, even from God,
is not always a prophet, or even a human being. God ‘sug­
gests’ to the bee to take houses for herself in the hills and trees
and the arbours which men erect [16.68/70]. At the Last Day
the earth will give up its burdens because its Lord has ‘sug­
gested’ to it to do this [99.2-5]. God ‘suggested’ to each of
the seven heavens its special function [41.12/11].
Even when the recipient is a prophet what is communicated
is usually not the words of a revelation but a practical line of
conduct, something to do, not to say. Thus it is ‘suggested’
to Noah to build the ark, and he is to build it under God’s
eyes and at his ‘suggestion’ [11.36/8f.; 23.27]. To Moses it is
‘suggested’ to set out with his people by night [20.77/9;
26.52], to strike the sea with his staff [26.63], to strike the
rock with his staff [7.160]. To Muḥ ammad himself it is
‘suggested’ that he should follow the religion of Abraham
[16.123/4]. These practical ‘suggestions’ are often formulated
in direct speech, as if a form of words had been put into a
person’s mind [cf. 17.39/41 and previous verses].
There are cases too in which the formula has reference to
doctrine rather than to conduct; for example, ‘your God is
One God’ [18.100; 21.108; 41.6/5]. Usually the formula is
short, the sort of phrase which after consideration of a matter
20
 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

might flash into a person’s mind as the final summing up and

solution o f it. There are indeed a few passages in which the
verb seems to mean the communication o f somewhat lengthy
pieces to the Prophet; for example in 12.10 2/3, ‘ stories of
what is unseen (or absent)’ may refer to the whole story o f
Joseph.13 Even in such passages, however, the actual verbal
communication o f the stories is not certainly implied. The
fundamental sense o f the word as used in the Qur’ān seems to
be the communication o f an idea by some quick suggestion or
prompting, or, as we might say, by a flash o f inspiration. This
agrees with examples given in the dictionaries (such as L isān
al-ʽ Arab, s.v.) where it is implied that haste or quickness is
part o f the connotation o f the root.
An explanation o f the frequent use o f this term in connec­
tion with the Prophet’s inspiration might be that there was
something short and sudden about it. I f Muḥ ammad was one
o f those brooding spirits to whom, after a longer or shorter
period o f intense absorption in a problem, the solution comes
in a flash, as if by suggestion from without, then the Qur’ānic
use o f the word becomes intelligible. Nor is this merely a sup­
position. There is evidence to show that the Prophet, acces­
sible enough in the ordinary intercourse o f men, had something
withdrawn and separate about him. In the ultimate issue he
took counsel with himself and followed his own decisions.
If decisions did come to him in this way, it was perhaps
natural that he should attribute them to outside suggestion.
The experience was mysterious to him. He had before him
the example o f the soothsayer ( kāhin) who probably claimed
that he spoke by outside prompting. Once or twice, probably
near the beginning o f his mission, when his hesitations had
caused him more than usually intense and long-continued
mental exertion, the decision had come to him accompanied
by a vision. He has assumed that it was God who had appeared
to him and ‘ suggested’ that he should speak to the people in
public. It is to be noted that in the passage where these
visions are described, nothing is said about the Qur’ān.
A ‘ suggestion’ came to him, but this was simply that he
should speak – at least such is the natural interpretation –
and it is his ‘ speaking’ which is explained and defended
[53.4, 10].
21
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN
These considerations to some extent justify the hypothesis
favoured by Richard Bell that originally the waḥy was a
prompting or command to speak. The general content of the
utterance was perhaps ‘revealed’ from without, but it was left
to Muḥ ammad himself to find the precise words in which to
speak. Sura 73.1-8 was interpreted by Bell of the Prophet
taking trouble over the work of composing the Qur’ān,
choosing the night-hours as being ‘strongest in impression
and most just in speech’, that is, the time when ideas are
clearest and when fitting words are most readily found.14
A similar experience when after effort and meditation the
words in the end came easily as if by inspiration, may well
have led him to extend to the actual words of his deliverances
this idea of suggestion fromwithout.A curiousisolatedpassage
[75.16-19] seems toencouragehimtocultivate thisdeliberately:
‘ Move not thy tongue that thou mayest do it quickly; ours it
is to collect it and recite it; when we recite it follow thou the
recitation; then ours it is to explain it’. This has always been
taken as referring to the reception of the Qur’ān, and if we
try to get behind the usual mechanical interpretation we can
picture Muḥ ammad in the throes of composition. He has been
seeking words which will flow and rhyme and express his
meaning, repeating phrases audibly to himself, trying to force
the continuation before the whole has become clear. He is
here admonished that this is not the way; he must not ‘press’,
but wait for the inspiration which will give the words without
this impatient effort to find them. When his mind has calmed,
and thewhole has taken shape, the words will come; and when
they do come, he must take them as they are given him. If
they are somewhat cryptic – as they may well happen to be –
they can be explained later. If that be the proper interpreta­
tion of the passage, it throws light on a characteristic of the
Qur’ān which has often been remarked on, namely, its dis­
jointedness. For passages composed in such fashion must
almost of necessity be comparatively short.
In some such way, then, Muḥ ammad’s claim to inspiration
might be understood. It has analogies to the experience which
poets refer to as the coming of the muse, or more closely to
what religious people describe as the coming of guidance
after meditation and waiting upon God. ‘ Guidance’ is in fact
22
 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

one of the Qur’ān’s favourite words for the message. Muḥ am­
mad’s experience was interpreted in various ways. At first he
assumed that it was God who spoke to him, just as he had
assumed that it was God who had appeared to him in his
visions. Then, according to 42.51/0 ff., this idea was rejected
in favour o f the idea o f a spirit implanted within him. Later,
when through increasing familiarity with Jewish and Christian
ideas he had learned o f angels as messengers o f God, he
assumed that it was angels who brought the message. Finally,
he adopted Gabriel as the special angel who prompted him on
God’s behalf. There are passages in the Qur’ān illustrating all
these various ideas. Yet always the essence o f the experience
is the same: he was prompted, ‘ suggestions’ were made to
him, the message was brought down upon his heart. That
these promptings, however mediated, came ultimately from a
divine source, he was convinced. He may, indeed, have had
occasional doubts. He realized, perhaps as a result o f the false
step which he made in recognizing the pagan deities as inter­
cessors, and o f other mistakes which he may have made, that
Satan sometimes took a hand in the prompting.15 From the
assurances that he was not mad, nor prompted by jinn, it may
perhaps be inferred that he sometimes wondered if this was
the case. In general, however, he was convinced that the
‘ suggestions’ were from God.
That this experience o f 'suggestion’ or ‘ guidance’ is a real
one, no one who has ever become deeply absorbed in a diffi­
cult problem will deny. But the habit o f expecting such
experiences, and the attempt to induce them, are not without
their dangers. We cannot force the answer which we wish, or
indeed any answer, at the time we wish it. Muḥ ammad seems
to have experienced this also, 18.24/23. It is when the mind
is more or less passive that such ‘ suggestions’ come, but it
makes a great difference whether this passive attitude is the
result o f a heavy strain upon the mental and spiritual powers,
or is cultivated as a state o f more or less mental vacancy.
Between these two poles there is the danger that meditation
becomes a brooding over passing troubles, or that it allows
too easy a response to external stimuli. O f some o f these
dangers Muḥ ammad seems at times to have been conscious, as
is shown by 5 .10 1; 22.52/1. In later life when events pressed
2 3
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

upon him and decisions were imperative, and when questions

arose which he could not avoid answering, he no doubt
tried to force the revelation, though there is no proof that this
in fact happened. After a revelation about special marriage
privileges for himself, his young wife ' Ā ’isha is said to have
remarked sarcastically, ‘ Your Lord hastens to do your
pleasure'.16 I f this story is true, it shows that there was a con­
scious rectitude in Muḥ ammad not to be perturbed by such
an insinuation. Actually, even in his later days, there were
revelations which were contrary to his own natural desires.
He was exhorted to steadfastness when his inclination was to
compromise, he was urged to policies which he felt to be
difficult, and he was taken to task for things he had done or had
omitted to do. In all this Muḥ ammad must have been, as he
claimed, a passive recipient.
About the details o f Bell’s theory there is an element o f
conjecture, and one may be justified in maintaining an attitude
o f reserve towards them. One difficulty which he does not
meet is that awḥ ā is not the only verb in the Qur’ān commonly
used for ‘ reveal’. There are also naɀ ɀ ala and anɀ ala; and these
two words in their various forms occur about three times as
often as the derivatives o f awḥ ā (about 250 instances as
against 78). N aɀ ɀ ala and anɀ ala, however, both mean ‘ to send
down’ ; and it may be that Muḥ ammad and the Muslims were
content with a naïve view o f the process o f revelation. The
central point, however, which is not meant to be contradicted
by Bell’s theory, is that the ultimate source o f the Qur’ānic
messages is God. O f this Muḥ ammad was utterly convinced
and on this conviction he built up his claims to authority. At
the same time he was also modest about himself. He was only
a human being to whom ‘ suggestions’ came, a channel
through whom divine messages were communicated to the
Arabs [18 .1 1 0 ; 4 1.6 /5]. The guidance by waḥ y, however,
was all that the long line o f previous prophets had experi­
enced; the one exception was Moses, to whom God had
spoken directly [7 .14 4 / 1; 19.52/3].
Finally, it should be added that neither a psychological
account o f the precise nature o f Muḥ ammad’s prophetic
experience nor an insistence on his sincerity, answers the final
question, ‘ Is the Qur’ān true? Is it really a message from
24
 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

G od ?’ This point will be touched on again at the end o f the

concluding chapter. Muḥ ammad surrounded his experiences
with some degree o f awe and mystery. This does not detract
from the sincerity o f his own belief in them. They were
mysterious to himself, and, if they were what he believed them
to be, they were worthy o f awe. He regarded them always as
something separate and distinct; and, as just noted, they often
conflicted with his own desires and inclinations. The claim
that they were from beyond himself could not have been
altogether a pose.
O f the essential sincerity o f Muḥ ammad, then, there can
be no question. We need not, however, go to the other
extreme and picture him as a modern saint. The age was a rude
one to our ideas, even in the most enlightened parts o f the
world, and Arabia was not one o f these.

3. The conception o f the prophetic function

Closely connected with this question o f the precise form o f
Muḥ ammad’s experience o f revelation is the further question
o f how the prophetic function is to be conceived. The
changing circumstances o f his life – the transition from the
preacher o f Mecca to the statesman o f Medina and then to the
ruler o f much o f Arabia – necessarily affected the use o f his
time. The changes are reflected in the Qur’ān; and indeed it
must in large part have been the Qur’ān which made Muḥ am­
mad consciously aware o f the new aspects o f his function, and
even directed the development o f the function.
Although in English and other European languages it is
usual to speak o f Muḥ ammad as ‘ prophet’ or its equivalent,
the word commonly applied to him in the Qur’ān is rasūl or
‘ messenger’ (also translated ‘ apostle’ ). This is likewise the
word used in the Shahāda, or confession o f faith: ‘ there is no
deity but God, Muḥ ammad is the messenger o f G o d ’. The
word rasū l can be applied to anyone who is sent with a
message. In 81.19 it is used o f an angel bearing a message to
Muḥ ammad (which is specially appropriate, since angel comes
from the Greek word for ‘ messenger’ ). It is insisted that there
had been a long line o f messengers before Muḥ ammad, and
that therefore there was nothing novel in his position [46.9/8].
The obvious fact was admitted, o f course, that for some time

25
 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

G od ?’ This point will be touched on again at the end o f the

concluding chapter. Muḥ ammad surrounded his experiences
with some degree o f awe and mystery. This does not detract
from the sincerity o f his own belief in them. They were
mysterious to himself, and, if they were what he believed them
to be, they were worthy o f awe. He regarded them always as
something separate and distinct; and, as just noted, they often
conflicted with his own desires and inclinations. The claim
that they were from beyond himself could not have been
altogether a pose.
O f the essential sincerity o f Muḥ ammad, then, there can
be no question. We need not, however, go to the other
extreme and picture him as a modern saint. The age was a rude
one to our ideas, even in the most enlightened parts o f the
world, and Arabia was not one o f these.

3. The conception o f the prophetic function

Closely connected with this question o f the precise form o f
Muḥ ammad’s experience o f revelation is the further question
o f how the prophetic function is to be conceived. The
changing circumstances o f his life – the transition from the
preacher o f Mecca to the statesman o f Medina and then to the
ruler o f much o f Arabia – necessarily affected the use o f his
time. The changes are reflected in the Qur’ān; and indeed it
must in large part have been the Qur’ān which made Muḥ am­
mad consciously aware o f the new aspects o f his function, and
even directed the development o f the function.
Although in English and other European languages it is
usual to speak o f Muḥ ammad as ‘ prophet’ or its equivalent,
the word commonly applied to him in the Qur’ān is rasūl or
‘ messenger’ (also translated ‘ apostle’ ). This is likewise the
word used in the Shahāda, or confession o f faith: ‘ there is no
deity but God, Muḥ ammad is the messenger o f G o d ’. The
word rasū l can be applied to anyone who is sent with a
message. In 81.19 it is used o f an angel bearing a message to
Muḥ ammad (which is specially appropriate, since angel comes
from the Greek word for ‘ messenger’ ). It is insisted that there
had been a long line o f messengers before Muḥ ammad, and
that therefore there was nothing novel in his position [46.9/8].
The obvious fact was admitted, o f course, that for some time

25
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

before Muḥ ammad there had been no messengers o f this kind;

this was described by saying that he came after a ‘ break’ or
‘ gap’ (fa tra ) in the series [5.19/22]. After his initial experi­
ences o f ‘ suggestion’ or ‘ revelation’, Muḥ ammad may well
have been puzzled to know what to make o f them. There is a
story in the Traditions (though not referred to in the Qur’ān)
that in this situation he was encouraged by Waraqa ibn-
Nawfal to regard his experiences as similar to those o f prophets
in the past; Waraqa was a cousin o f Muḥ ammad’s wife
Khadīja and was also a Christian. On such a point the Tradi­
tions may not be wholly reliable, but it is certain from the
Qur’ān that from an early date the Muslims assumed an
identity in essentials between Muḥ ammad’s experiences and
those o f previous prophets and messengers. The stories of
such persons in the Qur’ān show that Muḥ ammad had a dis­
tinguished spiritual ancestry.
Those ‘ sent as messengers’ ( mursalīn, roughly equivalent
to the plural rusul ) are also described in 6.48 as ‘ announcers’
and ‘ warners’ ( mubashshirīn, mundhirīn) ; and likewise in
33.45/4, 48.8 and 35.24/2 Muḥ ammad himself is spoken o f as
an ‘ announcer’ and ‘ warner’ ( bashīr, nadhīr ). The idea that
the function o f the messenger is to warn his own people is
frequent in the earlier passages o f the Qur’ān. Sometimes the
word ‘ w arn’ is used absolutely without an object, though one
may gather from other passages the kind o f object implied;
in 92.14 it is the fire, that is, Hell, and in 78.40 it is punishment
in the life to come. There are also passages in which a mes­
senger has to warn his people that they will be punished by a
temporal calamity (as Ḥ ū d warned ' Ā d in 46.21/0). It has
sometimes been held, especially by European scholars, that
the earliest message o f the Qur’ān was a warning o f either
eschatological or temporal punishment.17 This theory would be
supported by the view held by a few Muslim scholars but not
the majority, that the first passage o f the Qur’ān to be revealed
was the beginning o f sura 74, for this contains the words
‘ rise and w arn’ [74.2]. On the other hand, it would seem that
the more positive message o f sura 106 – to be grateful to God
and worship him – also belongs to a very early period. It
would thus be mistaken to restrict the earliest message to
‘ warning ’.
26
 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

The word bashīr, also used o f Muḥ ammad, has been rend­
ered ‘ announcer’. When it is coupled with ‘ warner’, some
contrast may be intended; the warner tells men o f possible
punishment, while the announcer informs them o f the rewards
o f the upright. It is sometimes thought that the corresponding
verb bashshara means ‘ to announce good news’ ; and in
Christian Arabic the noun bishāra is used for ‘ good news’ or
‘ gospel’. In a number o f places, however, the Qur’ān uses
bashshara o f punishment.18 While this might be understood
as ‘ giving good tidings’ in an ironical sense, it seems better to
take it simply as ‘ announce’ . The dictionaries suggest that the
basic meaning o f the word is to announce something which
produces a change in a man’s bashra or complexion; mostly
this is done by good news, such as the birth o f a child, but it
might also be done by very bad news. The word bashīr, how­
ever, seems to indicate that Muḥ ammad’s function is not con­
fined to ‘ warning’.
Another word used o f Muḥ ammad is mudhakkir, which is
normally ‘ one who reminds, admonishes, exhorts’, and cor­
respondingly the message is referred to as a tadhkira, ‘ re­
minder, admonition’. The root, however, has a rich semantic
development in Arabic which makes it impossible in English
to indicate all its connotations. Although the first stem o f the
verb, dhakara, is usually translated ‘ remember’ or ‘ mention’,
there is often no special emphasis on calling to mind some­
thing that was previously known and has been forgotten.
The thought seems to be rather that o f keeping something
before the mind, and also adopting an appropriate attitude.
Thus the second stem dhakkara (o f which mudhakkir is the
participle) would mean ‘ to put something before a person’s
mind in such a way that he adopts an appropriate attitude’,
and this may be approximately rendered by ‘ admonish’ or
‘ exhort’. In the Qur’ān the meaning is in fact very close to
‘ w arn’, as in 50.45 where Muḥ ammad is instructed to ‘ ad­
monish by the q u r’ān (revealed messages) whoever will fear
God’s threat’. Even the simple word dhikr, often ‘ remem­
brance ’ or ‘ mention ’, takes on a suggestion o f ‘warning’ in
7.63/1 and 69/7 where groups are told that ‘a dhikr from their
Lord ’ comes upon their messengers so that they may warn
( andhara) them.

27
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

The primary function o f a ‘ warner’ is to convey a message

to his people; but, since the warning is aimed at a redirection
o f the activity o f the whole community, it may be said to have
a political aspect. It would certainly appear that some o f
Muḥ ammad’s opponents were afraid o f a growth o f his politi­
cal influence, for it is insisted in 88.21 f. that he is ‘ only a
warner ( mudhakkir), not an overseer ( musayṭir) '. In this
connection it is interesting to note that in 7.188 Muḥ ammad is
told to make it clear to his opponents that his function is only
to convey specific messages which are given to him; he has no
general knowledge o f the ‘ unseen’ (including the future) o f
which he could make use to his own advantage. As already
noted it is insisted that Muḥ ammad is truly human, like all the
previous messengers sent to different peoples; and like them
also he has a wife and children.19 Such statements are designed
to correct a misapprehension which must have been current
among some o f the people, namely, that a messenger from
God must be an angelic or semi-divine being. On the contrary,
the warner is an ordinary human being without special powers,
but one who has been selected by God to perform this func­
tion o f warning [40 .15; etc.].
The Arabic word properly translated ‘ prophet’ is nabī,
which is derived from Aramaic or Hebrew.20 It occurs more
frequently than the words just considered, but much less
frequently than rasūl. According to N öldeke’s chronology it
first occurs in the second Meccan period, but by Bell’s dating
all the instances are Medinan with the possible exception o f
17.55/7. This might indicate that the Muslims became familiar
with the word through their contacts with the Jews o f Medina.
It is further to be noted that nabī is not applied to any o f the
messengers in the Arabian tradition, such as Ḥ ū d and Ṣ āliḥ ,
but only to personages mentioned in the Old or New Testa­
ments (assuming that Idrīs may be identified with Ezra or
Enoch).21 By way o f exception, however, Muḥ ammad himself
is regarded as a prophet in the Qur’ān and often addressed as
such [e.g. 3 3 .1, 6, 7 ; 66.1, 8f.]. In 33.40 he is spoken o f as
‘ the seal o f the prophets’ ( khātam an-nabiyyīn), a phrase
which perhaps originally meant ‘ the one confirming previous
prophets’, though it has also been given other interpretations.
Later Muslim scholars debated at length whether the rank o f
28
 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

nabī or rasūl was higher, and whether every prophet had to be

a messenger or vice versa; but these questions have little rele­
vance to the study o f the Qur’ān itself.22 In the Qur’ān the
chief difference between the two words is that nabī is only
applied to men connected with the Judaeo-Christian tradition,
for Muḥ ammad was regarded as continuing and reforming
that tradition.
The new functions which devolved upon Muḥ ammad as
messenger and prophet after he went to Medina are reflected
in a number o f Qur’ānic passages. The responsibilities which
fell to him as chief o f the ' clan’ o f Emigrants could have been
interpreted in a purely secular way. The clearest statement is
perhaps that in 4.105/6 (dated by Bell shortly after Uḥ ud):
‘ We have sent down to you the Book with the truth in order
that you may judge between the people on the basis o f what
God has shown y o u ’. Similarly in 5.42/6 (perhaps a little
earlier) Muḥ ammad is told that, if Jews come to him to settle
a dispute, and if he agrees to do so, ‘ he is to judge between
them fairly’ ; the following verse with a reference to the Jew s’
rejection o f the Torah might be taken to imply that judgement
was on a basis o f scripture. In the light o f these verses two
other passages [6.89; 3.79/3] which speak o f men receiving
the Book, the ḥ ukm and prophethood, are probably to be
interpreted in the same w ay; ḥ ukm is from the same root as
the word translated ‘ judge’ in 5.42/6, and may be rendered
‘ judgement’ or ‘ jurisdiction’. With this may be compared
2.151/4 6 in which the Muslims o f Medina are told: ‘ we have
sent a messenger among you, one o f yourselves, to recite to
you our verses (or signs), to cleanse you (from the impurity
o f paganism), and to teach you the Book and ḥ ikma. . . ’ ; the
last word normally means ‘ wisdom’ and is regarded as o f
foreign origin,23 but one wonders if here it has been influ­
enced by the Arabic root.
Another interesting passage is 4.59/62-64/7 where the
believers are told to obey God and the Messenger and to bring
matters o f dispute to God and the Messenger for decision.24
Decision by God and the Messenger is probably meant to
describe decision by Muḥ ammad on the basis o f a revealed
text. It also seems probable that obedience to God and the
Messenger does not mean direct obedience to the Messenger,

29
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

but only obedience to him in so far as he is proclaiming the

divine message; so this would be primarily obedience to
the message. I f people disobey and then repent, however, the
Messenger may ask pardon for them [4.64/7]. This last point
is probably to be understood eschatologically, since the
picture normally given by the Qur’ān is that, when men are
judged on the Last Day, the Messenger to their community
will be present to bear witness against them (presumably to
testify that they have duly had the message communicated to
them).25
In a sense, then, there has been development in the Qur’ān
but it is not really change. The new aspects are present from
the beginning in the conception o f the warner. It was the
change in the circumstances o f Muḥ ammad and the Muslims
that made it necessary for these aspects to become explicit.
The process o f development, therefore, is not to be taken as
exposing an inconsistency in the Qur’ān but as showing the
adaptation of its essential teaching to the changing ideas and
changing needs o f the Muslims.

4. The writing down o f the Qur’ān

It seems probable that for a time, perhaps for years, it was only
in their memories that Muḥ ammad and the Muslims retained
the passages revealed to him. This was the normal practice in a
predominantly oral culture; the pre-Islamic Arabic poems were
treated in the same way. It is also probable, however, that
much o f the Qur’ān was written down in some form during
Muḥ ammad’s lifetime. The problems involved in this matter,
however, are o f much greater complexity than might be
expected. This is because later apologetes for Islam, challenged
by Christians and others to point to a miracle o f Muḥ ammad’s
which would authenticate his claim to prophethood, asserted
that the Qur’ān itself was his miracle. The assertion has some
basis in the Qur’ān itself where the unbelievers are challenged
to produce a similar sura or suras or book [10 .38/9 ; 1 1 .1 3 / 1 6 ;
28.49]; but the apologetes went beyond this and interpreted
various verses in such a way as to enhance the miraculous
character o f the Qur’ān. One o f the chief points they made
was that Muḥ ammad could neither read nor write.
The same tendency may underly the taking o f 96.4 to
30
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

but only obedience to him in so far as he is proclaiming the

divine message; so this would be primarily obedience to
the message. I f people disobey and then repent, however, the
Messenger may ask pardon for them [4.64/7]. This last point
is probably to be understood eschatologically, since the
picture normally given by the Qur’ān is that, when men are
judged on the Last Day, the Messenger to their community
will be present to bear witness against them (presumably to
testify that they have duly had the message communicated to
them).25
In a sense, then, there has been development in the Qur’ān
but it is not really change. The new aspects are present from
the beginning in the conception o f the warner. It was the
change in the circumstances o f Muḥ ammad and the Muslims
that made it necessary for these aspects to become explicit.
The process o f development, therefore, is not to be taken as
exposing an inconsistency in the Qur’ān but as showing the
adaptation of its essential teaching to the changing ideas and
changing needs o f the Muslims.

4. The writing down o f the Qur’ān

It seems probable that for a time, perhaps for years, it was only
in their memories that Muḥ ammad and the Muslims retained
the passages revealed to him. This was the normal practice in a
predominantly oral culture; the pre-Islamic Arabic poems were
treated in the same way. It is also probable, however, that
much o f the Qur’ān was written down in some form during
Muḥ ammad’s lifetime. The problems involved in this matter,
however, are o f much greater complexity than might be
expected. This is because later apologetes for Islam, challenged
by Christians and others to point to a miracle o f Muḥ ammad’s
which would authenticate his claim to prophethood, asserted
that the Qur’ān itself was his miracle. The assertion has some
basis in the Qur’ān itself where the unbelievers are challenged
to produce a similar sura or suras or book [10 .38/9 ; 1 1 .1 3 / 1 6 ;
28.49]; but the apologetes went beyond this and interpreted
various verses in such a way as to enhance the miraculous
character o f the Qur’ān. One o f the chief points they made
was that Muḥ ammad could neither read nor write.
The same tendency may underly the taking o f 96.4 to
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 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

mean ‘ (G o d ) taught the use o f the pen’, which is the normal

interpretation of Muslim scholars. Partly on the basis o f this
interpretation European scholars for a time assumed that in
Muḥ ammad’s day writing was a recent introduction into
Arabia, was known to only a few and was still regarded as a
marvel. While many simple people still regarded it as some­
thing magical or supernatural, it is now known that it was by
no means a recent introduction. The verse, too, with the
following one, runs literally: ‘ who taught by the pen, taught
man what he did not know ’ ; and this may be interpreted:
‘ who taught man by the pen (that is, by books) what he did
not (otherwise) know ’, and referred in the first place to
previous revelations. Even with this interpretation, however,
writing is still regarded as something novel and wonderful.
However ordinary people in Mecca fe lt about writing,
archaeological evidence shows that some forms o f writing had
been known in Arabia for many centuries.26 There are in­
scriptions in the South Arabian language going back far
beyond the Christian era. Inscriptions found in north-west
Arabia in the Nabataean, Liḥ y ānic and Thamūdic alphabets
belong to the centuries preceding the appearance o f Muḥ am­
mad. For Classical Arabic and the Arabic script the earliest
instance is three graffiti on the wall o f a temple in Syria, which
are dated about AD 300, while four Christian inscriptions
have been found belonging to the sixth century. Though this
evidence is meagre, one is justified in assuming that, where
inscriptions on stone or metal occur, writing on some more
convenient material was also well known. When these various
scripts are compared with one another, it is clear that the
development is one o f written forms, which tend to grow
more cursive and so less suitable for inscriptional use.
No indisputably early inscriptions have yet been found in
the neighbourhood o f Mecca and Medina. Mecca, however,
was a mercantile town, dependent on its trade for its very
existence, and in regular communication with regions where
writing was commonly used. The Meccan merchants must
have kept some record o f their transactions, and it may be
assumed that writing was well enough known there. The
indirect evidence o f the Qur’ān confirms this. Its imagery is
steeped in a mercantile atmosphere,27and implies the keeping o f

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INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

accounts in writing. The Judgement-day is the day o f reckon­

ing, when the books will be opened, and when everyone
will be shown his account, or will be given his account to
read. The angels write the deeds o f men, and everything is
recorded in a book. Even if some o f these images were
previously used by Christians, they would not have been
adopted had they not been understood in Mecca. The
Qur’ānic regulation that debts should be recorded in writing
[2.282f.] shows that even in Medina (where this was revealed)
persons able to write were not difficult to find. It is reported in
Tradition that some o f the Meccans captured at Badr earned
their ransom by teaching Medinans to write.28
The report, widely accepted and found in many sources,
that the first ‘collection' o f the Qur’ān was made by Zayd
ibn-Thābit in the caliphate o f A bū-Bakr (632– 4), says that
it was collected not only from ‘ the hearts o f men’ but also
from pieces o f parchment or papyrus, flat stones, palm-leaves,
shoulder-blades and ribs o f animals, pieces o f leather and
wooden boards.29 This report is probably not authentic.
Apart from the general difficulty about the date (to be con­
sidered in the next chapter), it is likely that the report was
spread by people who wanted to contrast the relative poverty
o f Muḥ ammad and his Companions with the material luxury
o f Umayyad and early 'A bbāsid times. No doubt the things
mentioned were occasionally used for writing in Mecca and
Medina – as indeed most o f them are known to have been used
until recently by Muslims in East Africa – but there is no
reason why papyrus should not have been in normal use at
Mecca. For purposes o f book-production papyrus had by this
time given place in the Graeco-Roman world to pergament
or parchment, which was prepared from the skins o f animals,
was more enduring and afforded a better surface. The word
raqq in 52.3 probably refers to parchment, and in particular to
the Jewish Law given at Sinai.30 Perhaps the Torah was
written on parchment at this period. Papyrus, however, con­
tinued to be produced, and was largely used for business
purposes and private correspondence. It was made in rect­
angular sheets o f moderate size. In former times rolls for the
writing o f books had been produced by pasting a number o f
such sheets together. Long rolls had gone out o f fashion, but

32
 MU ḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

to a limited extent the sheets might still be pasted together or

folded to form a book. Probably it is this material which is
denoted by the word qirṭ ās in the Qur’ān [6.7, 9 1], for that is
derived from the Greek chartēs, meaning a leaf or sheet o f
papyrus. Since this is an early borrowing, and was probably
not taken directly from Greek, it is conceivable that it may
have undergone a change o f meaning; but this is unlikely,
since the word appears to have still had the significance o f
papyrus in the days o f the caliphs.31 The verse 6.91 may then
imply that the Jews used papyrus for writing out separate
portions o f the Torah, while 6.7 would indicate the possibility
o f a book being made of papyrus; this may be the kind o f
book intended when the Qur’ān speaks o f a book being sent
down to Muḥ ammad [e.g. 6.92].
What material was denoted by ṣ uḥ u f we have no means o f
knowing. The word occurs several times in the Qur’ān,
usually in connection with the revelation generally [20 .133;
80.13; 98-2], or w ith the revelation to Abraham and Moses
[53.36/7f .; 87.1 8f.]; in 8 1.10, however, and probably also in
74.52, it refers to the record o f man’s deeds. The word is from
ancient South Arabian, but occurs in Arabic poetry before
Muḥ ammad’s time.32 The singular ṣ aḥ īfa probably denotes a
sheet o f writing material, and so would not specify what it
consists of. The plural ṣ uḥ u f one would naturally take to
mean separate (unbound) sheets, but it is possible that the
ṣ uḥ uf o f Moses and Abraham mentioned in the Qur’ān implied
something in the nature o f a book. What the words conveyed
to the first hearers would depend on what they were familiar
with in Muḥ ammad’s practice or otherwise.
In the light o f this familiarity with writing and writing
materials at Mecca and elsewhere, we may turn to the question
whether Muḥ ammad himself could read and write. For Mus­
lims it has become almost a dogma that he could do neither.
It enhances the miracle o f the Qur’ān that it should have been
delivered by one entirely unlettered. Early Muslim opinion
was not so fixed, but on the whole it tended to the same con­
clusion. One o f the chief arguments was from the application
o f the adjective ummī to Muḥ ammad in 7.157/6, 158. The
word was alleged to mean ‘ unlettered’, and one could point
to 2.78/3, ‘ o f them are ummiyyūn who do not know the

33
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

book . . .’ , and argue that they did not know the book because
they could not read and write. I f the verse is carefully read,
however, without a preconceived idea o f its meaning, the
most natural way to take it is o f people without written
scriptures. This meaning fits the other instances o f the plural
found in the Qur’ān [3.20/19, (?) 75/69; 62.2]; in the first two
the ummiyyūn are associated with the Jews but distinct from
them, while in the last Muḥ ammad is spoken o f as a messenger
raised up ‘ among the ummiyyūn, one o f themselves’ . All these
facts make it virtually certain that ummī means ‘ non-Jewish’
or ‘ Gentile’ , and that it is derived from the Hebrew phrase
ummōt h a -'ōlām, ‘ the peoples o f the w orld’. The use o f the
word by Arabs could also be influenced by the possibility o f
taking it as meaning ‘ belonging to the umma or community’ ;
and in this case ummī could be rendered as ‘ native’, that is,
belonging to the Arab community. This gives a perfectly
good sense for ‘ the ummī prophet’ o f 2.157/6 and 158; he is
the Gentile or native prophet sent to the Arabs and sprung
from among themselves. Thus there is no argument here for
Muḥ ammad being completely unlettered, but at most for his
being ignorant o f the Jewish and Christian scriptures.33
A similar conclusion may be reached from examining
another verse sometimes interpreted to mean that he could
not write, namely, 29.48/7. Sale, following the Muslim
commentators, rendered it; ‘ thou couldest not read any book
before this, neither couldest write it with thy right hand’ ; but
a more accurate translation would be: ‘ you were not reciting
previously any book, not inscribing it with your right hand’.
The verb talā used –here like qara'a from which qur’ān is
derived —means both ‘ read’ and ‘recite’, and from what we
know o f the circumstances o f Muḥ ammad’s time, the render­
ing ‘ recite’ was more appropriate then. The verse simply
means that he had not been a reader or writer o f previous
scriptures (that is, as a priest or scribe). This is confirmed by
the following words: ‘ in that case those who invalidate (your
claims) would have doubted’ ; that is, would justly have
suspected that you were merely repeating what you had
learned from these scriptures. Here again there is nothing
which absolutely implies that Muḥ ammad had no knowledge
o f reading and writing.

34
 MUḤAMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

The evidence from Tradition is equally inconclusive. In

the story o f his Call to be a messenger, he is said to have
replied, when the angel said to him ‘ recite’ ( iq ra )' , mā aqra'u
which may mean either ‘ I do not (cannot) recite’ or ‘ what
shall I recite?’ This is presumably the earliest version o f the
Tradition.34 Those scholars who wanted to emphasize the
miraculous quality o f the Qur’ān naturally chose the first
interpretation, and there are also later forms o f the Tradition
where the words mā anā bi-qārin are substituted, and these can
only mean ‘ I am not a reciter or reader’. On the other hand
there are also versions o f the Tradition where Muḥ ammad’s
reply has the form mādhā aqra'u, which can only mean ‘what
shall I recite?’. The probability is that the latter was the ori­
ginal meaning, so that there is certainly no conclusive evidence
here that Muḥ ammad was unable to read and write.
Even if Tradition is accepted as generally reliable, it fails to
prove that Muḥ ammad could write. Frequently when it is
said that Muḥ ammad wrote, this only means that he gave
instructions for a written message to be sent, since it is well
known that, at least in his later years, he employed secretaries.
In some forms o f the story o f the conclusion o f the treaty of
al-Ḥ udaybiya in 628 he is stated to have written with his own
hand. The emissary o f the Meccans objected to the designa­
tion ‘ Messenger o f G od ’ in the heading o f the treaty, and
Muḥ ammad told 'A lī, who was acting as secretary, to sub­
stitute ‘ son o f 'Abd-A llāh ’. When 'A lī refused, Muḥ ammad
took the document and himself deleted the title, and some
versions add that he wrote the altered designation with his
own hand. The whole incident o f 'A lī’s refusal may be an
invention o f his partisans to make a political point. The objec­
tion to the title and the dropping o f it are perhaps indirectly
confirmed by the insistence that ‘ Muḥ ammad is the messenger
o f G o d ’ in 48.29; but some forms o f the story imply that the
objection was raised before the title was written, and mention
no change in the document.35 Thus the evidence here for
Muḥ ammad having written anything is weak.
A stronger, though indirect, argument may be drawn from
the story o f the expedition to Nakhla about two months
before the battle o f Badr. Previous expeditions had been un­
successful because some people in Medina seemed to be passing

35
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

on information to Muḥ ammad’s enemies. To guard against

such leakage, therefore, the leader o f the expedition to
Nakhla was given sealed orders – a written letter o f instruc­
tions – which he was not to open until he was two days’
march from Medina.36 It is not certain that at this early stage o f
his career in Medina Muḥ ammad employed secretaries, and in
any case the need for secrecy was such that the writing o f the
letter could only have been entrusted to someone o f the
greatest loyalty and discretion. It is therefore not impossible
that Muḥ ammad wrote the letter with his own hand.
While there is thus no convincing proof that Muḥ ammad
was able to write, it is not improbable that he could. He may
well have learned the art in Mecca itself. Since he conducted
business for Khadīja in his youth, and probably also on his
own behalf, he must surely have been able to keep accounts.
The Meccan gibe about ‘old-world tales, which he has written
for himself! they are recited to him morning and evening’,
even if ‘ has written’ means ‘ has had written’, at least shows
that the critics thought that he was working with written
material o f some sort [25.5/6]. The retort in the following
verse does not directly deny that this was so. Again the retort
in 18.109 to a presumed gibe about the verbosity o f the
revelation – 'were the sea ink for the words o f my Lord, the
sea would fail before the words o f my Lord would fail, though
we brought as much again’ – and the similar verse which
speaks o f all the trees o f the world as pens, must imply that
ink and pen was being used for the revelation [31.27/6 ].
An answer may now be given to the question whether
Muḥ ammad could read and write. On the whole it seems likely
that he could read and write as much as the average merchant
o f Mecca. On the other hand, from a general consideration o f
the form o f the Biblical stories in the Qur’ān, and because
ummī means one who does not know the previous scriptures,
it may be taken as certain that Muḥ ammad had never read the
Bible or even had it read to him [cf. 2.78/3]. These conclu­
sions do not seem to be contrary to the doctrine o f the
miraculous character o f the Qur’ān. A further point might be
added. Some educationists would hold that a person may be
illiterate and cultured and another person literate and un­
cultured; the first may have a rich store o f traditional cultural
36
 MUḤ AMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

lore, and the second may have lost all this in the process o f
learning to read cheap trash. It seems clear that, whether
literate or not, Muḥ ammad was a cultured person by the
standards o f Mecca in his time, and this point would have to
be noticed in any contemporary apologetic for the miraculous
character o f the Qur’ān. The point is also relevant to a
consideration o f the question o f sources (chapter 1 1 , section
2 below).
It remains to consider the state o f the Qur’ān at the time o f
Muḥ ammad’s death. Originally the revealed passages were
preserved in the memories o f Muḥ ammad and his Companions,
and after his death ‘ the hearts o f men’ continued to be a place
where the Qur’ān or parts o f it were found; since the Qur'ān
had not been ‘ collected’, no one could have memorized the
Qur’ān as a single whole, though a few might have memorized
most o f the parts. It is also known that parts o f the Qur’ān
had been written down. In the story o f the conversion o f
'Umar iṭb n-al-Khaṭ āb, this is said to have come about when
he found his sister and her husband, who were Muslims,
having sura Ṭ ā ’ hā’ [20] read to them by a friend from a
ṣ aḥ īfa (presumably a sheet o f parchment or papyrus); 'Umar
asked to see it, and is said to have been able to read it for him­
self.37 I f this story is to be trusted (which is not at all certain),
it shows that some revelations had been written down by the
middle o f the Meccan period.
After Muḥ ammad went to Medina his employment o f
secretaries is well attested. Among those used for the writing
down o f the revelations were 'Uthmān, M u'āwiya, Ubayy
ibn-Ka'b, Zayd ibn-Thābit and 'Abd-A llāh ibn-Abī-Sarḥ .38
A curious story is told about the last-named. While Muḥ am­
mad was dictating to him the passage beginning 23.12, he was
carried away by wonder at this description o f the creation o f
man; and, when Muḥ ammad paused after the words ‘ another
creature’, exclaimed ‘ blessed be God, the best o f creators’.
Muḥ ammad accepted this as the continuation o f the revela­
tion, and told him to write it down. This aroused doubt,
however, in Ibn-Abī-Sarḥ , and later he gave up Islam and
returned to Mecca; at the conquest o f Mecca he was one o f
those proscribed, but was pardoned on the intercession o f
'Uthmān.39 This is the sort o f story that could hardly have

37
INTRODUCTION TO THE Q UR’ĀN

been invented. Other Traditions speak o f Muḥ ammad telling

his secretary to place a newly revealed passage after such and
such an older passage. In the case o f the legislative revelations
at Medina it would be desirable to have them written down at
once.
Even if it is allowed that many revealed passages had been
written down in this way, it still remains to consider to what
extent the revelations had attained something like the form of
the Qur’ān as we know it. The solution o f the problem seems
to be largely a matter o f degree. On the one hand, Muḥ ammad
himself cannot have produced a complete recension of the
Qur’an. Had he done so, there would have been no need later
for a ‘ collection’ o f the Qur’ān. In the story o f the ‘ collection’
under Abū-Bakr the latter is said to have hesitated when the
suggestion was first made on the ground that this was some­
thing Muḥ ammad had never done; but this is a story on which
in general little reliance can be placed. On the other hand, if
different Companions had memorized different selections o f
passages, and had perhaps put short pieces together differently,
one would have expected greater divergences in the various
texts than in fact we find. There is therefore a presump­
tion that Muḥ ammad himself had brought together many re­
vealed passages and given them a definite order, and that this
order was known and adhered to by his Companions. There
is further support for this presumption in the Qur’ānic
conception o f ‘ the Book’ (to be discussed in chapter 8,
section 4).
It may further be suggested as a likely hypothesis that the
units in which the revelations were arranged were suras. This
is almost implied by the Qur’ānic challenges to opponents to
produce similar suras [10.38/9; 1 1 .13 / 16 ] . The suras in
Muḥ ammad’s time would not be identical with the present
suras, but might contain the main part o f each o f the present
suras. They may have had no fixed order. The work of the
‘collectors’ would therefore be to add to the embryonic suras
at appropriate points all the verses and short isolated passages
not already included somewhere but preserved in the hearts of
men or on some o f the miscellaneous writing materials on the
list. While this view is no more than a hypothesis, it accords
with most o f the data about which we are reasonably certain.

38
 MUḤ AMMAD'S PROPHETIC EXPERIENCE

What remains obscure is the relative amount o f the material

in Muḥ ammad’s suras and that which had to be added to
them. One would think that at most the material to be added
might be as much again, and at the least perhaps one-fifth o f
the bulk o f the suras.

39
 THREE

THE HISTORY OF THE TE X T

1 . The ‘ collection’ o f the Qur’ān

(a) The ' collection' under A bū-Bakr. There is a widespread
report, found in many slightly differing forms, telling o f a
‘ collection’ o f the Qur’ān in the caliphate o f A bū-Bakr
(6 32– 4). According to this report1 'Umar ibn-al-Khaṭ ṭ āb
(who succeeded as caliph in 634) was perturbed by the fact
that in the battle o f Yam āma during the ‘ wars o f the apostasy
( ridda)’ many o f the ‘ readers’ o f the Qur’ān were killed.
Since these were the men who had parts o f the Qur’ān by
heart, 'Umar feared that, if more o f them died, some o f the
Qur’ān would be irretrievably lost. He therefore counselled
A bū-Bakr to make a ‘ collection’ o f the Qur’ān. A t first A bū-
Bakr hesitated to undertake a task for which he had received
no authority from Muḥ ammad, but in the end he gave his
approval and commissioned Zayd-ibn-Thābit. The latter,
who had been one o f Muḥ ammad’s secretaries, had no illusions
about the difficulty o f the task, but at length agreed. As
mentioned above (p. 32), he then proceeded to ‘ collect’ the
Qur’ān ‘ from pieces of papyrus, flat stones, palm-leaves,
shoulder-blades and ribs o f animals, pieces o f leather and
wooden boards, as well as from the hearts o f men’. The last
passage to be found was 9.128/ 9f. – the two closing verses o f
sura 9. Zayd wrote what he ‘ collected’ on sheets ( ṣ uḥ u f) o f
equal size and gave them to A bū-Bakr. On the latter’s death
they passed to 'Umar, and on 'Umar’s death to his daughter
Ḥ afṣ a, a widow o f the prophet.
This tradition is open to criticism on a number o f grounds.
For one thing it seems to assume that up to the time o f
Muḥ ammad’s death there had been no authoritative record o f
the revelations and no attempt to bring some order into them;
40
 T H E H I S T O R Y OF T H E T E X T

but it has been already shown that this is unlikely. Then there
are many discrepancies between this tradition and others and
between the different versions o f this tradition. Thus there is
no unanimity about the originator o f the idea o f collecting the
Qur’ān; generally it is said to have been 'Umar, but sometimes
A bū-Bakr is said to have commissioned the ‘ collection’ on his
own initiative. On the other hand, there is a tradition which
says 'Umar was the first to ‘ collect’ the Qur’ān and com­
pletely excludes A bū-Bakr.2 Again, the reason given for the
step, namely the death o f a large number o f ‘readers’ in the
battle o f Yam āma has also been questioned. In the lists o f
those who fell in that campaign, very few are mentioned
who were likely to have had much o f the Qur’ān by heart.3
Those killed were mostly recent converts. Besides, accord­
ing to the tradition itself, much o f the Qur’ān was already
written in some form or other, so that the death o f some
o f those who could recite it from memory need not have
given rise to the fear that parts o f the Qur’ān would be
lost.
Perhaps the weightiest criticism o f the tradition is that an
official collection o f this kind might have been expected to have
had wide authority attributed to it, but o f this we find no
evidence. Other ‘ collections’ o f the Qur’ān seem to have been
regarded as authoritative in different provinces. The disputes
which led to the recension o f the Qur’ān under 'Uthmān
could hardly have arisen if there had been an official codex in
the caliph’s possession to which reference could have been
made. Again the way in which 'Umar himself is represented
elsewhere as insisting that the verse o f stoning4 was in the
Qur’ān, is hardly consistent with his having in his possession
an official collection. Lastly, and most significant o f all, the
ṣ uḥ u f on which Zayd wrote the Qur’ān were, at the time when
the revision came to be made, in the keeping o f Ḥ afṣ a. Now
Ḥ afṣ a was 'Umar’s daughter, and we are apparently to assume
that since 'Umar had become caliph by the time Zayd finished
his work, the ṣ uḥ uf were handed to him, and from him passed
to his daughter. I f Zayd’s collection was an official one, how­
ever, it is hardly probable that it would pass out o f official
keeping, even into the hands o f the caliph’s daughter. That
Ḥ afṣ a had a copy o f the Qur’ān on ṣ uḥ uf seems certain; but it

41
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

is unlikely that it was an official copy made in the official way

that tradition asserts.
It seems practically certain, then, that no complete ‘collec­
tion’ o f the Qur’ān was officially made during the caliphate o f
A bū-Bakr. The traditional account so far considered was
doubtless gradually elaborated to avoid the awkward fact that
the first ‘ collection’ o f the Qur’ān was made by 'Uthmān,
who was greatly disliked. On the other hand, there is no good
ground for doubting that Ḥ afṣ a possessed a Qur’ān written on
ṣ uḥ uf, whether this was written by herself, by Zayd, or by
someone else.
(b ) The ‘ collection under ' Uthmān. The traditional account
o f what led to the next step in the fixing of the form o f the
Qur’ān implies that serious differences o f reading existed in the
copies o f the Qur’ān current in the various districts. During
expeditions against Armenia and Azerbaijan, we are told,
disputes concerning the reading of the Qur’ān arose amongst
the troops, who were drawn partly from Syria and partly from
Iraq. The disputes were serious enough to lead the general,
Ḥ udhayfa, to lay the matter before the caliph, 'Uthmān
(644– 56), and to urge him to take steps to put an end to
these differences. The caliph took counsel with senior Com­
panions o f the Prophet, and finally commissioned Zayd ibn-
Thābit to ‘ collect’ the Qur’ān. With Zayd were associated
three members o f noble Meccan families, 'Abd-A llāh ibn-az-
Zubayr, Sa'īd ibn-al-'Āṣ and 'Abd-ar-Raḥ mān ibn-al-Ḥ ā rith.
One o f the principles they were to follow was that, in case of
difficulty as to the reading, the dialect o f Quraysh, the tribe
to which the Prophet belonged, was to be given the preference.
The whole Qur’ān was carefully revised and compared with
the ṣ uḥ uf, which had been in Ḥ afṣ a’s keeping and which were
returned to her when the work was finished. Thus an authori­
tative text o f the Qur’ān was established. A number o f copies
were made and distributed to the main centres o f Islam. As to
the exact number o f these standard codices, and the places
to which they were sent, the account varies; but probably
one copy was retained in Medina, and one was sent to
each o f the towns, Kufa, Basra and Damascus, and possibly
also to Mecca. Previously existing copies are said to have
been then destroyed, so that the text o f all subsequent
42
 T H E H I S T O R Y OF T H E T E X T

copies of the Qur’ān should be based upon those standard

codices.
This traditional account o f the ‘ collection’ o f the Qur’ān
under 'Uthmān is also open to criticisms, though they are not
so serious as in the case o f A bū-Bakr’s ‘ collection’. The most
serious difficulties are those connected with the ṣ uḥ uf o f
Ḥ afṣ a. Some versions o f the story suggest that the work o f the
commissioners was simply to make a fair copy, in the dialect
o f Quraysh, o f the material on these leaves. Some important
material, however, has come to light since the publication o f
Friedrich Schwally’s revised edition o f the second volume of
Nöldeke’s Geschichte des Q u r'āns in 1919. In particular there is
a story o f how the caliph Marwān when governor o f Medina
wanted to get hold o f the ‘ leaves’ o f Ḥ afṣ a to destroy them,
and eventually on her death persuaded her brother to hand
them over.5 Marwān was afraid lest the unusual readings in
them might lead to further dissension in the community. On
the whole it is unlikely that this story has been invented, for it
implies that the ‘ leaves’ of Ḥ afṣ a were unsuitable as a basis for
the official text. The ‘ leaves’ are not to be confused with a
codex o f the new official text said to have been given to Ḥ afṣ a.
The most likely solution o f the problem is to hold that, while
Ḥ afṣ a may well have had ‘ leaves’ on which she had written
down many sūras, hers was in no respect an official ‘ collec­
tion’ . It is perhaps specially mentioned to link up this account
with that o f the first ‘ collection’ under A bū-Bakr. On the
whole, then, it seems unlikely that the ‘ leaves’ o f Ḥ afṣ a were
of primary importance. They cannot have contained more
than what had been arranged in the ‘ book’ by Muḥ ammad at
the time o f his death; and they can hardly have been the sole
or main basis o f the 'Uthmānic text.
Other criticisms are minor. There are various lists o f the
persons who helped Zayd. Schwally shows that the suggested
names are all improbable.6 He also questions the instruction
to write the revelations in the dialect o f the Quraysh (the
tribe o f Mecca) on the ground that the Qur’ān is in a partly
artificial, literary language.7 Perhaps the function o f the com­
missioners was to help to ‘ collect’ revelations from sources
known to them. Schwally dismisses this possibility on the
ground that the commission was mainly concerned to produce

43
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

a fair copy o f Ḥ afṣ a’s ‘ leaves’ ; but since the new material
shows that Ḥ afṣ a’s ‘ leaves’ were unsuitable as a basis for the
new edition, Schwally’s objection falls. Indeed, there is no
reason now for rejecting two points in the traditional account:
( 1 ) the commissioners were to collect all the pieces o f revela­
tion they could find; (2 ) where men had remembered it with
dialectal variations o f the literary language, they were to make
the Meccan forms standard.
This establishment o f the text o f the Qur’ān under 'Uthmān
may be dated somewhere between 650 and his death in 656. It
is the cardinal point in what may be called the formation o f the
canon o f the Qur’ān. Whatever may have been the form o f
the Qur’ān previously, it is certain that the book still in our
hands is essentially the ‘ Uthmānic Qur’ān. 'Uthmān’s com­
mission decided what was to be included and what excluded;
it fixed the number and order of the suras, and the ‘outline’ of
the consonantal text (that is, its shape when the dots distin­
guishing letters are omitted). I f we remember that to preserve
every smallest fragment o f genuine revelation was an ineluc­
table requirement, the commission under Zayd must be
adjudged to have achieved a wonderful piece o f work.

2. The pre-'Uthmānic codices

While 'Uthmān’s effort to obtain uniformity throughout the
caliphate in the Qur’ānic text must on the whole have been
successful in practice, the pre-' Uthmānic or non-canonical
readings were by no means forgotten. Most o f the larger
commentaries on the Qur’ān such as those o f aṭ-Ṭ abarī and
az-Zamakhsharī refer to such non-canonical readings from
time to time. One or two Muslim scholars in the early tenth
century made a special study o f the early maṣ āḥ i f (sing.
muṣ ḥ a f ) . One such work, the K itāb al-maṣ āḥ i f o f Ibn-Abī-
D āwūd (d. 928), survives and was published in 1937. It con­
tains a note to the effect that he uses muṣ 'ḥ a f in the sense o f
‘ reading’ or ‘ set o f readings’, but the modern editor, Arthur
Jeffery, thinks that this is an interpolation, and that when the
author speaks o f ‘ the muṣ 'ḥ a f o f N ’ he means an actual
written codex.8 From the information given by Ibn-Abī-
D āwūd and from other sources Jeffery has drawn up a list o f
fifteen ‘ primary codices’ and almost as many ‘ secondary

44
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

a fair copy o f Ḥ afṣ a’s ‘ leaves’ ; but since the new material
shows that Ḥ afṣ a’s ‘ leaves’ were unsuitable as a basis for the
new edition, Schwally’s objection falls. Indeed, there is no
reason now for rejecting two points in the traditional account:
( 1 ) the commissioners were to collect all the pieces o f revela­
tion they could find; (2 ) where men had remembered it with
dialectal variations o f the literary language, they were to make
the Meccan forms standard.
This establishment o f the text o f the Qur’ān under 'Uthmān
may be dated somewhere between 650 and his death in 656. It
is the cardinal point in what may be called the formation o f the
canon o f the Qur’ān. Whatever may have been the form o f
the Qur’ān previously, it is certain that the book still in our
hands is essentially the ‘ Uthmānic Qur’ān. 'Uthmān’s com­
mission decided what was to be included and what excluded;
it fixed the number and order of the suras, and the ‘outline’ of
the consonantal text (that is, its shape when the dots distin­
guishing letters are omitted). I f we remember that to preserve
every smallest fragment o f genuine revelation was an ineluc­
table requirement, the commission under Zayd must be
adjudged to have achieved a wonderful piece o f work.

2. The pre-'Uthmānic codices

While 'Uthmān’s effort to obtain uniformity throughout the
caliphate in the Qur’ānic text must on the whole have been
successful in practice, the pre-' Uthmānic or non-canonical
readings were by no means forgotten. Most o f the larger
commentaries on the Qur’ān such as those o f aṭ-Ṭ abarī and
az-Zamakhsharī refer to such non-canonical readings from
time to time. One or two Muslim scholars in the early tenth
century made a special study o f the early maṣ āḥ i f (sing.
muṣ ḥ a f ) . One such work, the K itāb al-maṣ āḥ i f o f Ibn-Abī-
D āwūd (d. 928), survives and was published in 1937. It con­
tains a note to the effect that he uses muṣ 'ḥ a f in the sense o f
‘ reading’ or ‘ set o f readings’, but the modern editor, Arthur
Jeffery, thinks that this is an interpolation, and that when the
author speaks o f ‘ the muṣ 'ḥ a f o f N ’ he means an actual
written codex.8 From the information given by Ibn-Abī-
D āwūd and from other sources Jeffery has drawn up a list o f
fifteen ‘ primary codices’ and almost as many ‘ secondary

44
 T H E H I S T O R Y OF T H E T E X T

codices’ , and from most o f these he has collected at least a few

non-canonical readings. The presumption is that at an early
period certain Muslims began to write down as much as they
could o f the Qur’ān. At first these written collections would
not necessarily be o f interest to the Muslims in general, since
men accustomed to the dominance o f oral tradition tend to be
suspicious o f writing, and some Muslim scholars said the
phrase ‘ to collect the Qur’ān’ simply meant ‘ to remember the
whole o f the Qur’ān’. In the course o f time, however, some
o f the written collections came to have special authority in
various great centres o f the Islamic world. In particular that o f
' Abd-Allāh ibn-Mas'ūd was held in high regard in Kufa, and
that o f Ubayy ibn-Ka'b in most parts o f Syria.9
No copies exist o f any o f the early codices, but the list o f
variant readings from the two just mentioned is extensive,
running to a thousand or more items in both cases. Ibn-
Mas'ūd (d. 653 ) was for a time a personal servant o f Muḥ am­
mad’s, but eventually settled in Kufa where he became an
authority on religious matters on account o f his interest in the
subject and his close association with the Prophet. Ubayy
ibn-Ka'b was a Muslim from Medina who frequently acted as
secretary for Muḥ ammad. The variant readings in the codices
o f both these men chiefly affect the vowels and punctuation,
but occasionally there is a different consonantal text. For both,
too, we have lists o f the suras, and it is noteworthy that these
differ from each other and also from the 'Uthmānic list in the
order in which the suras are arranged. On the whole the longer
suras come first as in the standard order. The names o f the
suras, too, are mostly the same as those normally used al­
though in many cases alternatives exist (as will be explained in
the next chapter); but it is conceivable that this uniformity in
names is due to later transcribers o f the lists who substituted
the common names for unusual ones. There is, o f course, no
way o f being certain that the contents represented by the
names are identical; but on the other hand there is no indica­
tion that the contents were different except in respect o f the
variants noted.
Questions o f the omission or addition o f suras are also
specially connected with these two early codices. The lists
giving the order in which they placed the suras are not

45
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

complete, but it would be rash to infer from this that suras

absent from the list had been omitted from the codex. There
are explicit statements, however, that Ibn-Mas'ūd omitted
altogether the last two suras [ 1 1 3 , 114 ], the Mu'awwidhatān
or suras ‘ o f taking refuge with G o d ’ ; but these are a kind o f
charm or prayer o f commendation, and may not originally
have been regarded as part o f the Qur’ān. It is also doubtful
whether Ibn-Mas'ū d included the first sura or F ātiḥ a. This
also is a prayer, whose function is not unlike that o f the Lord’s
Prayer in Christianity. Some scholars have argued that, if it
were part o f the Qur’ān it should have been preceded by the
word qul, ‘ say’, that is, a command to use it as a prayer.
Ubayy seems to have included the three suras mentioned, and
also to have had two other suras which are not in the standard
text o f the Qur’ān. The text o f these suras has been preserved
by some Muslim scholars. They are short prayers and, as in
the case o f the F ātiha, one might have expected them to be
preceded by the word ‘ say’ . Short as the text o f them is, there
are a number o f points where the linguistic usage is not
paralleled in the Qur’ān. Schwally, while noting this, thought
they might nevertheless go back to Muḥ ammad,10 but this is
extremely doubtful. It is conceivable that they were used by
Muslims in Muḥ ammad’s time, but they cannot have been part
o f the Qur’ān. O f a different character are omissions o f parts
o f the text for dogmatic reasons. Such is the declaration o f the
Khārijite sub-sect o f the Maymūniyya that the sura o f Joseph
( 1 2 ) was not part o f the Qur’ān.11 Their reason for this,
however, seems to have been that it was not fitting that a love-
story should be included in the Qur’ān. This declaration, then,
hardly contributes to our knowledge o f the history o f the
text.
Thus on the whole the information which has reached us
about the pre-'Uthmānic codices suggests that there was no
great variation in the actual contents o f the Qur’ān in the
period immediately after the Prophet’s death. The order o f
the suras was apparently not fixed, and there were many slight
variations in reading; but o f other differences there is no
evidence. The modern scholar, familiar with the way in which
textual studies have elucidated the stages in the development
o f early European literary texts, would like to achieve some­
46
 THE H I S T O R Y OF THE TEX T

thing similar in the case o f the Qur’ān, but for this the avail­
able information is insufficient, except in respect o f the relation
o f the secondary codices to the primary codices.

3. The writing o f the Qur’ān and early textual studies

While the promulgation o f the 'Uthmānic text was a major
advance towards uniformity, its importance may easily be
exaggerated. For one thing, knowledge o f the Qur’ān among
the Muslims was based far more on memory than on writing.
For another thing the script in which the Qur’ān was originally
written was what is referred to as a scriptio defectiva in con­
trast to the scriptio plena in which it is now written. The nature
o f the early scripts is fairly well known from the study o f
early Qur’āns and fragments in some o f the great libraries.12
In the earliest examples only consonants are written, and even
these are not adequately distinguished from one another,
since the same written shape may sometimes indicate either
o f two consonants. One might say, then, that this scriptio
defectiva was little more than an elaborate mnemonic device.
It presupposed in the ‘ reader’ some degree o f familiarity with
the text. A man with no knowledge o f the Qur’ān but who
understood the script would have had great difficulty in
deciphering the writing, though not so much as a person
unaware o f the structure o f Arabic words might suppose.
Certainly, however, extensive memorization is presupposed,
and this is the background o f the improvement o f the writing
and the growth o f textual studies. There was a special class o f
men, the qurrā' or Qur’ān-reciters (sometimes called
‘ readers’ ), who specialized in memorizing the sacred text. As
the centuries passed their social character changed; eventually
we find that this study o f the text is chiefly associated with
philology, and is a regular part o f higher education.
By the time o f the caliph 'Abd-al-Malik (6 8 5– 705) the
inadequacy o f the existing script was clear to leading Muslims
and improvements began to be made. The problem o f the
incorrect copying o f the defective script had also to be dealt
with. The traditional accounts o f the passage to the scriptio
plena do not tally with one another, nor with the findings o f
palaeography. It is virtually certain that the scriptio plena did
not come into existence all at once, but only gradually by a

47
 THE H I S T O R Y OF THE TEX T

thing similar in the case o f the Qur’ān, but for this the avail­
able information is insufficient, except in respect o f the relation
o f the secondary codices to the primary codices.

3. The writing o f the Qur’ān and early textual studies

While the promulgation o f the 'Uthmānic text was a major
advance towards uniformity, its importance may easily be
exaggerated. For one thing, knowledge o f the Qur’ān among
the Muslims was based far more on memory than on writing.
For another thing the script in which the Qur’ān was originally
written was what is referred to as a scriptio defectiva in con­
trast to the scriptio plena in which it is now written. The nature
o f the early scripts is fairly well known from the study o f
early Qur’āns and fragments in some o f the great libraries.12
In the earliest examples only consonants are written, and even
these are not adequately distinguished from one another,
since the same written shape may sometimes indicate either
o f two consonants. One might say, then, that this scriptio
defectiva was little more than an elaborate mnemonic device.
It presupposed in the ‘ reader’ some degree o f familiarity with
the text. A man with no knowledge o f the Qur’ān but who
understood the script would have had great difficulty in
deciphering the writing, though not so much as a person
unaware o f the structure o f Arabic words might suppose.
Certainly, however, extensive memorization is presupposed,
and this is the background o f the improvement o f the writing
and the growth o f textual studies. There was a special class o f
men, the qurrā' or Qur’ān-reciters (sometimes called
‘ readers’ ), who specialized in memorizing the sacred text. As
the centuries passed their social character changed; eventually
we find that this study o f the text is chiefly associated with
philology, and is a regular part o f higher education.
By the time o f the caliph 'Abd-al-Malik (6 8 5– 705) the
inadequacy o f the existing script was clear to leading Muslims
and improvements began to be made. The problem o f the
incorrect copying o f the defective script had also to be dealt
with. The traditional accounts o f the passage to the scriptio
plena do not tally with one another, nor with the findings o f
palaeography. It is virtually certain that the scriptio plena did
not come into existence all at once, but only gradually by a

47
INTRODUCTION TO THE Q UR’ĀN

series o f experimental changes. One o f the more probable

traditional accounts ascribes the introduction o f diacritical
marks and vowel points to the initiative o f al-Ḥ ajjāj, probably
during his governorship o f Iraq (694– 714 ). The actual work
is said to have been done by scribes such as Naṣ r ibn-'Āṣ im
(d. 707) and Y aḥ y ā ibn-Ya'mur (d.746). It is hardly possible
that the scriptio plena should have been introduced all at once
by A bū-1-Aswad ad-Du'ali (d. 688), as is sometimes sug­
gested. Existing copies o f the Qur’ān illustrate different
methods o f obviating deficiencies o f the script; e.g. dots o f
different colours for the vowels instead o f the signs now in
current use. The chief matters to be dealt with were: ( a ) dis­
tinguishing between consonants with a similar shape; ( b) the
marking o f long vowels, which eventually was mostly done
by adding the consonants alif, wa w, yā ; (c) the marking o f
short vowels; (d) certain other matters such as the doubling
o f consonants and the absence o f a vowel after a con­
sonant.
The process o f improving the script was completed towards
the end o f the ninth century. It now became possible to en­
force a greater measure o f uniformity than was conceivable
with the original script. It is not surprising, then, to find in the
early tenth century a series o f moves to ensure a measure o f
uniformity. These are chiefly associated with the name o f
Ibn-Mujāhid (859– 935 ).13 He was not, o f course, the first to
concern himself with securing uniformity in the text. Malik
ibn-Anas (d .795), the great scholar o f Medina and founder o f
the Malikite legal rite, had explicitly stated that the perform­
ance o f the worship behind someone who used the readings
o f Ibn-Mas'ūd was invalid.14 The more precise script, how­
ever, enabled Ibn-Mujāhid to make more exact regulations.
As a result o f his studies he wrote a book entitled ' The Seven
Readings’ (A l-qirā 'ā t as-sab'a). He based himself on a Tradi­
tion to the effect that Muḥ ammad had been taught to recite the
Qur’ān according to seven aḥ ruf, interpreted to mean ‘ seven
sets o f readings’, though aḥ ru f is the plural o f ḥ a r f which is
properly ‘ letter’.15 His conclusion was that the set o f readings
o f each o f seven scholars o f the eighth century was equally
valid, but that these seven sets alone were authentic.
The conclusions o f the scholar were made effective by the
48
 THE H I S T O R Y OF THE TEX T

action o f the courts. In 934 a scholar called Ibn-Miqsam16 was

forced to renounce the view that one was entitled to choose
any reading o f the consonantal outline that was in accordance
with grammar and gave a reasonable sense. This decision was
tantamount to an insistence that only the seven sets o f readings
were valid. In April 935 (about four months before the death
o f Ibn-Mujāhid) another scholar, Ibn-Shannabūdh, was simi­
larly condemned and forced to retract his view that it was
permissible to make use o f the readings o f Ibn-Mas'ūd and
Ubayy ibn-Ka'b. Up to this time some scholars had ap­
parently been in the habit o f making some use o f these read­
ings in commenting on and elucidating the Qur’ān. The
readings o f 'A lī ibn-Abī-Ṭ ā lib were also rejected by Ibn-
Mujāhid.
The seven sets o f readings accepted by Ibn-Mujāhid repre­
sented the systems prevailing in different districts. There was
one each from Medina, Mecca, Damascus and Basra, and three
from Kufa. For each set o f readings (qirā 'a ), there were two
slightly different ‘ versions’ (sing, riwāy a ). The whole may be
set out in tabular form.17

D istrict Reader First R āwī Second Rāw ī

Medina N āfi' (d.785) Warsh (8 12 ) Qālūn (835)
Mecca Ibn-Kathīr (737) al-BazzI (854) Qunbul (903)
Damascus Ibn-'Ā mir (736) Hishäm (859) Ibn-Dhakwān
(8 56)
Basra A bū-'A m r (770) ad-Dūrī (860) as-Sūsī (874)
Kufa 'Āṣ im (744) Ḥ afṣ (805) Shu'ba (809)
Kufa Ḥ amza (772) Khalaf (843) Khallād (835)
Kufa al-Kisā’ī ( 804) ad-Dūrī (860) A bū-l-Ḥ ā rith
(854)

While Ibn-Mujāhid’s system o f seven readings came after a

time to be generally accepted in theory, only one o f the
fourteen versions, that o f Ḥ afṣ from ' Āṣ im, is now widely used
in practice. The new standard Egyptian edition reproduces
this version and thus gives it a certain canonical supremacy.
The restriction to seven readers was not immediately approved
by all Muslim scholars. Some spoke o f ten readers (with two
versions each), while others had fourteen, though with only

49
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

one version o f at least the last four. The ‘ three after the seven'
were:
Medina A bū-Ja'far (d.747)
Basra Y a 'q ūb al-Ḥ aḍ ramī (820)
Kufa Khalaf (also rāwī o f Ḥ amza) (843).
The ‘ four after the ten’ were:
Mecca Ibn-Muḥ ayṣ in (740)
Basra al-Yazīdī (8 17 )
Basra al-Hasan al-Baṣ rī (728)
Kufa al-A'mash (765).
These different lists are a reflection o f fierce discussions
among scholars o f different schools and the struggle of
divergent tendencies in the Islamic community; but a detailed
history o f these matters from a modern standpoint remains to
be written. There have been Muslim scholars who prided
themselves on knowing the Qur’ān according to every one of
the seven readings. The existence o f variants, however, has
been found inconvenient, especially in modern times. The
ordinary Muslim is mostly unaware o f the existence o f the
seven sets o f readings; and the modern heretical sect o f the
A ḥ madiyya appears to deny, in the interests o f propaganda,
even the existence o f the pre-'Uthmānic variants.

4. The authenticity and completeness o f the Qur’ān

I f one asks what guarantee there is that the Qur’ān as ‘ col­
lected’ in the caliphate o f 'Uthām n is a correct record o f the
revelations as they were originally received and proclaimed by
Muḥ ammad, the modern scholar will seek an answer first o f all
in the Qur’ān itself and in a comparison o f its contents with
what he takes to be reliably known about the Prophet’s life.
It may be noted to begin with that 'Uthmān’s revision
was based on written documents previously existing. The
official collection by express authority o f the caliph Abū-Bakr
is, as has been seen, somewhat doubtful. A mass o f written
documents o f some kind, however, was in Ḥ afṣ a’s possession.
I f we reject the assumption that they were an official collection
made by Zayd, we must find some other explanation o f what
they were. It is clear that they were regarded as authoritative,

50
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

one version o f at least the last four. The ‘ three after the seven'
were:
Medina A bū-Ja'far (d.747)
Basra Y a 'q ūb al-Ḥ aḍ ramī (820)
Kufa Khalaf (also rāwī o f Ḥ amza) (843).
The ‘ four after the ten’ were:
Mecca Ibn-Muḥ ayṣ in (740)
Basra al-Yazīdī (8 17 )
Basra al-Hasan al-Baṣ rī (728)
Kufa al-A'mash (765).
These different lists are a reflection o f fierce discussions
among scholars o f different schools and the struggle of
divergent tendencies in the Islamic community; but a detailed
history o f these matters from a modern standpoint remains to
be written. There have been Muslim scholars who prided
themselves on knowing the Qur’ān according to every one of
the seven readings. The existence o f variants, however, has
been found inconvenient, especially in modern times. The
ordinary Muslim is mostly unaware o f the existence o f the
seven sets o f readings; and the modern heretical sect o f the
A ḥ madiyya appears to deny, in the interests o f propaganda,
even the existence o f the pre-'Uthmānic variants.

4. The authenticity and completeness o f the Qur’ān

I f one asks what guarantee there is that the Qur’ān as ‘ col­
lected’ in the caliphate o f 'Uthām n is a correct record o f the
revelations as they were originally received and proclaimed by
Muḥ ammad, the modern scholar will seek an answer first o f all
in the Qur’ān itself and in a comparison o f its contents with
what he takes to be reliably known about the Prophet’s life.
It may be noted to begin with that 'Uthmān’s revision
was based on written documents previously existing. The
official collection by express authority o f the caliph Abū-Bakr
is, as has been seen, somewhat doubtful. A mass o f written
documents o f some kind, however, was in Ḥ afṣ a’s possession.
I f we reject the assumption that they were an official collection
made by Zayd, we must find some other explanation o f what
they were. It is clear that they were regarded as authoritative,

50
 T H E H I S T O R Y OF T H E T E X T

and were used in producing ‘ Uthmān’s Qur’ān. Other ‘ col­

lections’ o f the Qur’ān were in existence, and there must have
been a considerable number o f people who knew these, or
parts o f them, by heart. I f any great changes by way o f addi­
tion, suppression or alteration had been made, controversy
would almost certainly have arisen; but o f that there is little
trace. ‘ Uthmān offended the more religious among Muslims,
and ultimately became very unpopular. Yet among the charges
laid against him, that o f having mutilated or altered the Qur’ān
is not generally included, and was never made a main point.
The Shī'a, it is true, has always held that the Qur’ān was muti­
lated by the suppression o f much which referred to 'A lī and
the Prophet’s family. This charge, however, is not specially
directed against ‘ Uthmān, but just as much against the first
two caliphs, under whose auspices the first collection is assumed
to have been made. It is also founded on dogmatic assump­
tions which hardly appeal to modern criticism. On general
grounds then, it may be concluded that the 'Uthmānic revision
was honestly carried out, and reproduced, as closely as was
possible to the men in charge of it, what Muḥ ammad had
delivered.
Modern study o f the Qur’ān has not in fact raised any
serious question of its authenticity. The style varies, but is
almost unmistakable. So clearly does the whole bear the stamp
o f uniformity that doubts of its genuineness hardly arise. The
authenticity o f a few verses has indeed been questioned. The
great French scholar Silvestre de Sacy expressed doubts re­
garding 3.144/38.18 This speaks o f the possible death o f
Muḥ ammad, and is the verse said in a well-known tradition to
have been quoted by A bū-Bakr, when ‘ Umar refused to
believe the report o f the death o f the Prophet, which had just
taken place. Gustav Weil extended these doubts to a number
o f other passages which imply the mortality o f the Prophet:
3.18 5 /2 ; 2 1.3 5 /6f.; 29.57; 39.30/1.19 A bū-Bakr, however, is
hardly likely to have invented 3.144/38 for the occasion; nor
does the statement that ‘ Umar and others professed never to
have heard such a verse, weigh very much. The complete
Qur’ān was not circulating among Muḥ ammad’s followers in
written form for them to study, and a verse once delivered
might easily have been forgotten in the course o f years, even

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INTRODUCTION TO THE Q UR’ĀN

by one who happened to hear it. I f the verse does not fit
smoothly into the context, that is probably because it is a
substitution for the one which follows, as the recurrence o f
the same rhyme-phrase suggests. It fits admirably into the his­
torical situation, for it is a reference, put into an address
delivered before Uḥ ud and re-delivered after the defeat, to
the report which had spread during the battle and had no
doubt contributed to the rout, that Muḥ ammad had been
killed. There is no reason to question the authenticity o f a
verse so suited to the circumstances.
As for the other verses which imply the mortality o f the
Prophet, Schwally20 has pointed out how they fit well into
their contexts and are quite in accord with the rest o f the
Qur’ān. The humanity and mortality o f the Prophet were
part o f the controversy between him and his opponents, and
to take that out o f the Qur’ān would be to remove some o f its
most characteristic portions.
Weil21 also questioned the authenticity o f the famous verse
in which reference is made to the night journey to Jerusalem
[1 7.1 ]. He argued that there are no other references to such a
night journey in the Qur’ān, that it is contrary to Muḥ am­
mad’s usual claim to be simply a messenger and not a wonder-
worker, that so far as there is any basis for the later legend in
Muḥ ammad’s life, it is merely a dream or vision, and that the
verse has no connection with what follows. As matters o f fact
these arguments are correct; but they hardly bear the inference
based on them. I f we take the verse by itself, without the struc­
ture o f later legend built upon it, there is nothing in it very
much out o f keeping with other claims made for Muḥ ammad;
and there are so many unconnected verses in the Qur’ān that
we can hardly make that an argument against this one in
particular.
Finally, Weil22 questioned 4 6 .15 /14 on the ground that
Tradition makes it refer to Abū-Bakr, and that presumably it
was invented in his honour. No one who knows the traditional
exegesis o f the Qur’ān, however, will pay much attention to
such a statement. Tradition is full o f guesses about the par­
ticular person to whom a verse refers. This verse is quite
general, and simply develops an injunction several times
repeated in the Qur’ān.

52
 T H E H I S T O R Y OF T H E T E X T

Hirschfeld23 has questioned the authenticity o f certain other

verses, in which the name Muḥ ammad occurs, on the ground
that this was not the Prophet’s real name but was bestowed
upon him later. There may be something suspicious in such
a name, meaning ‘ Praised’, being borne by the Prophet; but
even if it were an assumed name, it might have been adopted
in his own lifetime. It occurs, not only in the Qur’ān but in
documents handed down by Tradition, notably the constitu­
tion o f Medina,24 and the treaty o f al-Ḥ u daybiya25; in the
latter the pagan Quraysh are said to have objected to the title
rasūl A llāh, and to ar-R aḥ mān as a name o f God, but raised no
question about the name Muḥ ammad. Further, though it does
not appear to have been common, there is evidence that
Muḥ ammad was in use as a proper name before the time o f the
Prophet. There is therefore no reason to doubt that it was his
real name.
The most serious attack upon the reliability o f the book
and the good faith o f the collectors was that made by the
French scholar, Paul Casanova, in his book, Mohammed et la
fin du monde (Paris, 1 9 1 1 – 24). His thesis is a development o f
the view that Muḥ ammad was moved to undertake his mission
by the impression made on him by the idea o f the approaching
Judgement. Casanova thinks that he must have come under
the influence o f some Christian sect which laid great stress on
the near approach o f the end o f the world. He considers that
this formed the main theme o f his early deliverances and was
an essential part o f his message from beginning to end o f his
prophetic activity; but that when no event occurred to sub­
stantiate his prophecy, the leaders o f early Islam so manipu­
lated the Qur’ān as to remove that doctrine from it, or at
least conceal its prominence.
This thesis has not found much acceptance, and it is un­
necessary to refute it in detail. The main objection to it is that
it is founded less upon study o f the Qur’ān than upon in­
vestigation o f some o f the byways o f early Islam. From this
point o f view, the book still has value. When Casanova deals
with the Qur’ān itself, however, his statements often display
incorrect exegesis and a failure to appreciate the historical
development o f Qur’ānic teaching. As to his main thesis, it is
true that the Qur’ān proclaims the coming Judgement and the

53
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

end o f the world. It is true that it sometimes hints that this

may be near; for example, in 2 1.1 and 27.71/36 In other
passages, however, men are excluded from knowledge o f
times, and there are great differences in the urgency with
which the doctrine is proclaimed in different parts o f the
Qur’ān. All this, however, is perfectly natural if we regard
the Qur’ān as reflecting Muḥ ammad’s personal problems and
the outward difficulties he encountered in carrying out a task
to which he had set his hand. Casanova’s thesis makes little
allowance for the changes that must have occurred in Muḥ am­
mad’s attitudes through twenty years o f ever-changing cir­
cumstances. Our acceptance o f the Qur’ān as authentic is
based, not on any assumption that it is consistent in all its
parts, for this is not the case; but on the fact that, however
difficult it may be to understand in detail, it does, on the whole,
fit into a real historical experience, beyond which we discern
an elusive, but, in outstanding characteristics, intelligible
personality.
The question whether the Qur’ān, as we have it, contains
all that Muḥ ammad delivered, is more difficult to answer.
It is difficult to prove a negative; and we cannot be certain
that no part o f the Qur’ān delivered by Muḥ ammad has been
lost.
The Qur’ān itself speaks o f the possibility o f God causing
Muḥ ammad to forget some passages [87.6f.]; and further
states that when this happens other verses as good or better
will be substituted for those forgotten [2.106/0]. It should be
noted, however, that some Muslims found difficulties in such
an interpretation o f 2.106/0, and tried to avoid these by adopt­
ing other readings and interpretations.26 There would seem,
however, to be no good reason for rejecting the standard
reading and the obvious interpretation o f it, and this course
has the advantage o f giving an assurance that no revelation
o f permanent value has been omitted. There is also a Tradi­
tion which describes how Muḥ ammad heard a man reciting
the Qur’ān in a mosque, and realized that the passage recited
contained a verse (or verses) which he had forgotten.27
Tradition again gives a number o f verses as belonging to
the Qur’ān although they do not stand in our present book.28
The most famous o f them is the ‘ verse o f stoning’, a verse in

54
 T H E H I S T O R Y OF T H E T E X T

which stoning is prescribed as punishment for persons o f

mature age guilty o f fornication. The caliph 'Umar is said to
have been very positive that this was laid down in the Qur’ān,
until he was convinced o f the contrary by lack o f evidence to
support his opinion. The verse is assigned either to sura 24 or
to sura 33; but the rhyme does not fit sura 33, while the pre­
scription o f stoning contradicts 24.2 where flogging is ordered.
On the whole it seems unlikely that the punishment o f stoning
was ever prescribed in the Qur’ān, since in certain tribes in
pre-Islamic times loose forms o f polyandry appear to have
been normal practice, and it would have been difficult to
distinguish some o f these from fornication. The story about
'Umar and certain Traditions about Muḥ ammad himself are
probably attempts to meet the criticism that the Qur’ān differs
from the Old Testament on this point.29 Interesting also is the
addition to 98.2 said to have been read by Ubayy, which
began ‘ religion in God’s sight is the moderate Ḥ anīfiyya’.30
It is noteworthy that in 3 .19 /17 , which normally runs
‘ religion in God’s sight is Islam’, Ibn-Mas'ūd read ‘Ḥ anīfiyya’
instead o f ‘ Islam’.31 Since there appears to have been a time
when a follower o f Muḥ ammad was called a Ḥ a n īf by prefer­
ence, and his religion the Ḥ anīfiyya, it may well be that these
readings reflect an older form of the text.32 O f the other verses
preserved by Tradition, two or three may simply be variants
o f verses in the standard text; but apart from such variants
there are no good reasons for thinking any o f these verses from
Tradition belonged to the Qur’ān, while there are grounds
for holding that some did not belong.
In a different category are the so-called ‘ satanic verses’,
two (or three) verses which came after 53.19, 20 when these
were originally proclaimed in public in the precincts of the
Ka'ba at Mecca. Muḥ ammad is said to have been hoping for a
revelation which would have led the Meccan merchants to
accept his religion, when there came to him the passage:

Have you considered al-Lāt and al-'Uzzā

and Manāt, the third, the other?
These are the intermediaries exalted,
whose intercession is to be hoped for.
Such as they do not forget.33

55
INTRODUCTION TO THE Q UR’ĀN

Later – but it is not clear how much later – Muḥ ammad

realized that this could not have come from God, for he re­
ceived an emended revelation in which after the first two
verses there came the passage beginning
Is it the male for you and the female for him?
That would then be a crooked division.
The first passage permitted intercession to the local deities,
presumably regarded as a kind o f angelic being who could
plead with the supreme God on behalf o f their worshippers,
while what was substituted was an argumentum ad hominem
against the belief that such deities were ‘ daughters o f G od’,
and was understood as making such intercession impossible.
In essentials it would seem that this account is true, since no
Muslim could have invented such a story about Muḥ ammad.
The story has also some support from the Qur’ān, since
22.52/1 (which is said to refer to this incident) states that God
‘ never sent messenger or prophet before ( Muḥ ammad) but
that, as he desired, Satan threw (something) into his formula­
tion’, though the satanic addition was afterwards abrogated
by God.
Whatever view is taken o f the collection and compilation
o f the Qur’ān, the possibility remains that parts o f it may have
been lost. If, as Tradition states, Zayd in collecting the Qur’ān
was dependent on chance writings and human memories,
parts may easily have been forgotten. Yet the conjunction o f
apparently unrelated verses at certain points in the Qur’ān
suggests that the editors preserved absolutely everything they
came across which they had reason to believe had once been
part o f the Qur’ān. The hypothesis that Muḥ ammad had some
way o f obtaining a revised form o f a revelation would lead
one to suppose that he might then have discarded the older
form; and something similar might be inferred from the
Qur’ānic phrase about God causing him to forget. In this
way some revealed passages might be altogether lost. There is
no reason, however, to think that anything o f importance has
gone astray. The very fact that varying and even contradictory
deliverances have been preserved is strong proof that, with
perhaps minor exceptions, we have the whole o f what was
revealed to Muḥ ammad.

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 F OU R

THE EXTERNAL FORM OF THE QUR’ĀN

1 . Its name and liturgical divisions

The book as a whole is usually called (in strict transliteration)
al-qur'ā n. This was represented in Latin by Alcoranus, and in
English formerly by ‘ Alcoran’ and still popularly (as also in
German) by ‘ Koran’, while French prefers ‘ Coran’. Muslims
often out o f reverence speak o f al-qur'ā n al-karīm, ‘the noble
or glorious Qur’ān’. In English the title ‘ The Holy Qur’ān’
is sometimes used. This name for the book as a whole is not
itself part o f the revealed text, and so is often omitted in
written or printed copies. The word qur'ā n occurs in the text
o f the book in various senses, and these will be discussed later,
as will be the other words found in the text which are some­
times used o f the book as a whole (chapter 8, sections 3, 5).
For purposes o f recitation Muslims divide the Qur’ān,
which is o f comparable length to the New Testament, into
thirty approximately equal portions or ‘ parts’ ( ajɀ ā', sing.
ju ɀ ). This corresponds to the number o f days in Ramadān,
the month o f fasting, when one ‘ part’ is recited each day. The
‘parts’ are usually marked on the margin o f copies. A smaller
division is the ḥ iɀ b (plural aḥ ɀ āb) o f which there are two to
each ‘ part’. A yet smaller division is the ‘ quarter’ o f the ḥ iɀ b
(rub' a l-ḥ iɀ b). Even this may be marked on the margins. To
facilitate recitation in the course o f a week, there is also a divi­
sion into seven manā ɀ i l. All these are external divisions which
take little or no account o f the natural sections o f the Qur’ān,
the suras and groups o f suras.1

2. The suras and verses

The suras are real divisions in the body o f the Qur’ān. The
translation ‘ chapter’ is sometimes used, but this is not an

57
 F OU R

THE EXTERNAL FORM OF THE QUR’ĀN

1 . Its name and liturgical divisions

The book as a whole is usually called (in strict transliteration)
al-qur'ā n. This was represented in Latin by Alcoranus, and in
English formerly by ‘ Alcoran’ and still popularly (as also in
German) by ‘ Koran’, while French prefers ‘ Coran’. Muslims
often out o f reverence speak o f al-qur'ā n al-karīm, ‘the noble
or glorious Qur’ān’. In English the title ‘ The Holy Qur’ān’
is sometimes used. This name for the book as a whole is not
itself part o f the revealed text, and so is often omitted in
written or printed copies. The word qur'ā n occurs in the text
o f the book in various senses, and these will be discussed later,
as will be the other words found in the text which are some­
times used o f the book as a whole (chapter 8, sections 3, 5).
For purposes o f recitation Muslims divide the Qur’ān,
which is o f comparable length to the New Testament, into
thirty approximately equal portions or ‘ parts’ ( ajɀ ā', sing.
ju ɀ ). This corresponds to the number o f days in Ramadān,
the month o f fasting, when one ‘ part’ is recited each day. The
‘parts’ are usually marked on the margin o f copies. A smaller
division is the ḥ iɀ b (plural aḥ ɀ āb) o f which there are two to
each ‘ part’. A yet smaller division is the ‘ quarter’ o f the ḥ iɀ b
(rub' a l-ḥ iɀ b). Even this may be marked on the margins. To
facilitate recitation in the course o f a week, there is also a divi­
sion into seven manā ɀ i l. All these are external divisions which
take little or no account o f the natural sections o f the Qur’ān,
the suras and groups o f suras.1

2. The suras and verses

The suras are real divisions in the body o f the Qur’ān. The
translation ‘ chapter’ is sometimes used, but this is not an

57
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

exact equivalent. The word sūra (plural suwar) also occurs in

the text, but its derivation is doubtful. The most accepted
view is that it comes from the Hebrew shūrāh, ‘ a row ’, used
o f bricks in a wall and o f vines.2 From this the sense o f a series
o f passages, or chapter, may perhaps be deduced, but it is
rather forced. Besides, it hardly gives the sense in which the
word is used in the Qur’ān itself. In 10.38/9 the challenge
is issued: ‘ Do they say: “ He has devised it” ?; let them
come then with a sura like it’. In 1 1 . 1 3 / 1 6 it is a challenge
to bring ten suras like those which have been produced. In
28.49, however, where a similar challenge is given, it is to
produce a book, or writing, from God. Evidently the sense
required is something like ‘ revelation’ or ‘ Scripture’. The
most likely suggestion is that the word is derived from the
Syriac ṣ ūrṭ ā, which has the sense o f ‘ w riting’, ‘ text o f Scrip­
ture’, and even ‘ the Scriptures’. The laws which govern the
interchange o f consonants in Arabic and Syriac are against
that derivation, but in Syriac itself the spelling o f the word
varies to ṣ ūrthā, and even sūrthā; and in any case, in words
directly borrowed, these philological laws do not necessarily
hold.3
The suras number 114. The first, known as the F ātiḥ a, ‘ the
Opening’, is a short prayer, very much used in Islam. The
two last are short charms which, as already noted, Ibn-
Mas'ūd seems not to have included in his collection o f the
Qur’ān. The rest are arranged roughly in order o f length,
which varies from many pages to a line or two. Thus in
Redslob’s edition o f Flügel’s text sura 2, the longest, occupies
715 lines, or over 37 pages, while several suras near the end,
such as 108 and 112, occupy two lines or less. How far this
arrangement goes back to Muḥ ammad himself, and how far
it is due to the compilers, scholars will probably never be able
to elucidate completely; but, as will be seen later, there is
reason for holding that he had more to do with it than the
traditional account allows.
Each sura has a name or title, and this – and not the number
– is normally used by Muslim scholars in referring to the sura.
As a rule, the name has no reference to the subject-matter o f
the sura, but is taken from some prominent or unusual word
in it. Usually this word occurs near the beginning, but this is

58
 E X T E R N A L FORM OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

not always so. Thus sura 1 6 is entitled ‘The Bee’, but the bee
is not mentioned in it until v. 68/70, more than half-way
through; this is the only passage in the Qur’ān, however,
which speaks o f the bee. Similarly, sura 26 is entitled ‘ The
Poets’ ; but the only mention o f the poets is in v. 224 at the
very end o f the sura. Here again, however, this is the only
reference to poets in the Qur’ān, apart from those passages
which reject the suggestion that the Prophet is himself a poet.
This passage, too, is a striking one; no Arab who heard that
brief, but trenchant, description o f his much-belauded poets
would forget it. For the choice o f a name there seems to be no
general rule; men apparently used any word in the sura suffi­
ciently striking to serve as a means o f identification. (One
may compare the reference in the Gospels to Exodus 3 as
‘The Bush’ )4. Sometimes a sura has two such titles, both still
in use; for example, suras 9, 40, 4 1; and in early Islamic
literature there are references to other titles in use at one time,
but later dropped. All this supports the assumption that these
titles do not belong to the Qur’ān proper, but have been
introduced by later scholars and editors for convenience o f
reference.
In copies o f the Qur’ān, both written and printed, the com­
mencement o f each sura is marked by a heading. First comes
the name or title o f the sura, then a statement about its date,
and finally a note of the number o f verses. The dating does not
go beyond the bare description o f the sura as Meccan, or
Medinan; and these descriptions do not necessarily apply to
the sura as a whole. Muslim scholars have always been ready
to admit that suras are composite, and that one marked as
Meccan may contain one or more Medinan passages, and vice
versa. These descriptions, then, are to be regarded merely as
the judgements o f the compilers, or o f early scholars, about
the period at which the main content o f each sura was revealed.
The modern Egyptian printed edition specifies the verses
which are exceptions to the general description, and also indi­
cates the position o f the sura in order o f delivery. The heading
as a whole is thus a piece o f scholarly apparatus; and the
recent Egyptian additions are no more than the considered
views o f the most authoritative contemporary Muslim
scholars.

59
IN T R O D U C T I O N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

A fter the heading com es th e bismillāh. A t the b eg in n in g o f

all th e suras, except one, stan d s th e phrase, bi-sm i llāhi
r-raḥ māni r-raḥ īm, ‘In th e nam e o f G o d , th e M erciful, th e
C o m p assio n ate’. T h e exception is su ra 9. M uslim com m en ta­
tors say th a t the om ission is d ue to this su ra h av in g been
revealed sh o rtly before M uḥ am m ad’s death, so th a t he left no
in stru ctio n s o n the m atter. T h a t can n o t be correct, b u t it
im plies th a t in th e view o f M uslim scholars it w as M uḥ am m ad
h im self w h o w as responsible fo r the placing o f th e bismillāh
at th e head o f the suras. T h a t it belo n g s to th e o riginal fo rm
ra th e r th an to the later ed itin g o f th e suras is confirm ed b y th e
fact th a t in sura 27, w h ere S o lo m o n is represented as sending
a letter to th e Q ueen o f Sheba, th e letter begins w ith the
bismillāh (v . 3 0 ), as i f th a t w ere th e ap p ro p riate h ead in g fo r a
d o cu m en t com ing fro m a p ro p h e t (a s S o lo m o n is considered
in the Q u r ’ān ) . So also in sura 96, M uḥ am m ad is com m anded
to recite in th e nam e o f his L o rd . It has been suggested th a t
the om ission o f th e phrase at th e head o f 9 m ay be d ue to 8
and 9 hav in g originally form ed one sura. Sura 8 is sh o rt fo r
its p o sitio n ; o n th e o th e r han d 8 and 9 to g e th e r w o u ld m ake a
sura to o lo n g fo r th e po sitio n . T h e real reason fo r th e om ission
is th a t sura 9 begins w ith a proclam atio n w h ich is already
sufficiently attested as b eing issued in th e nam e o f G o d ; the
bismillāh w as therefore superfluous. T h e exception th u s co n ­
firm s the conclusion th a t th e bismillāh is n o t a m ere editorial
form ula b u t belongs to th e tim e o f M uḥ am m ad. T h a t need
n o t, o f course, be taken so strictly as to exclude th e p ossibility
o f its h av in g in som e cases been added b y th e com pilers o r
editors.
T h e suras are divided in to verses, w h ich are term ed āy āt,
singular āy a . T h is w o rd is also used in th e text. I t is o n ly in
passages o f later date, ho w ev er, if at all, th a t it has th e sense
o f ‘v e rse s’. M ore co m m o n ly it has th e sense o f ‘s ig n ’,
‘w o n d e r’. It is related to th e H eb rew ’ō th and Syriac ’ā thā ,
and ‘s ig n ’ is ev id en tly its basic m eaning. T h e v erse-division
is n o t artificially im posed, as th e v erse-d iv isio n s o f the
C hristian Bible freq u en tly are. I t belo n g s to th e o riginal fo rm
o f the Q u r ’ān, and the verses are d istin ctly m arked b y the
occurrence o f rh y m e o r assonance. D ifferences in th e division
in to verses, and th e co n seq u en t differences in th e n u m b erin g
6o
 E X T E R N A L F O R M OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

o f the verses, occur in th e v ario u s sets o f readings o f the

Q u r’ān ; and u n fo rtu n a te ly th e v erse-n u m b erin g o f F lü g el’s
edition, w hich is th e one g enerally used in th e W e st u n til
recently does n o t exactly co rresp o n d to th a t m o st generally
adopted b y M uslim s, o r in fact to th a t o f any o f the O rien tal
recensions. T h e differences are due to th e occurrence o f cases
in w h ich it can be d o u b te d w h e th e r the rh y m e m arks th e end
o f a verse o r com es in accidentally; and this results fro m the
fact th a t th e rhym es o r assonances are largely p ro d u ced b y
the use o f the sam e gram m atical form s o r term inations.
T h e length o f the verses, like the len g th o f the suras, varies
m uch. In som e suras, and these generally the lo n g er ones, the
verses are long and trailin g ; in oth ers, especially th e sh o rte r
ones near th e end o f th e b o o k , th e verses are sh o rt and crisp.
T h is, h ow ever, is n o t an invariable rule. Sura 98, w h ich is
com paratively sh o rt, consists o f 8 lo n g v erses; sura 26, w h ich
is long, has o v e r 200 sh o rt verses. It m ay be n o ted , ho w ev er,
th a t as a rule the verses in the sam e sura, o r at least in th e same
p a rt o f a sura, are o f ap p ro x im ately th e sam e len g th . T h ere are
exceptions even to this generalization, b u t o n the w h o le it
rem ains valid, particu larly w h ere th e verses are sh o rt.
T h e verses are in prose, w ith o u t m etre, th o u g h in som e
passages there is a k in d o f rh y th m o r m etre o f stresses [fo r
exam ple 74.1-7; 91.1-10]. T h is feature is due to th e shortness
o f th e rh y m in g verses and th e rep etitio n o f th e sam e form o f
phrase rath er than to an y effort to carry th ro u g h a strict
m etrical form . W h e re th e verses are o f any len g th , and th e form
o f phrase varies, n o fixed m etre, eith er o f syllables o r o f
stresses, can be traced. T h e Q u r ’ān is th u s w ritte n in rh y m ed
prose, in verses w ith o u t m etre o r definitely fixed len g th ,
w hose ends are m arked b y th e occurrence o f a rh y m e o r
assonance. ( T h e rhym es are discussed m o re fully in ch ap ter 5,
sectio n 1.)

3. T h e m y sterio u s letters
A t the b eg in n in g o f 29 suras fo llo w in g th e bismilläh stands a
letter, o r a g ro u p o f letters, w hich are sim ply read as separate
letters o f the alphabet. T h ese letters are a m ystery. N o satis­
facto ry explanation o f th eir m eaning, if th ey have one, has
ever been given, n o r has any co n v in cin g reason been fo u n d

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 E X T E R N A L F O R M OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

o f the verses, occur in th e v ario u s sets o f readings o f the

Q u r’ān ; and u n fo rtu n a te ly th e v erse-n u m b erin g o f F lü g el’s
edition, w hich is th e one g enerally used in th e W e st u n til
recently does n o t exactly co rresp o n d to th a t m o st generally
adopted b y M uslim s, o r in fact to th a t o f any o f the O rien tal
recensions. T h e differences are due to th e occurrence o f cases
in w h ich it can be d o u b te d w h e th e r the rh y m e m arks th e end
o f a verse o r com es in accidentally; and this results fro m the
fact th a t th e rhym es o r assonances are largely p ro d u ced b y
the use o f the sam e gram m atical form s o r term inations.
T h e length o f the verses, like the len g th o f the suras, varies
m uch. In som e suras, and these generally the lo n g er ones, the
verses are long and trailin g ; in oth ers, especially th e sh o rte r
ones near th e end o f th e b o o k , th e verses are sh o rt and crisp.
T h is, h ow ever, is n o t an invariable rule. Sura 98, w h ich is
com paratively sh o rt, consists o f 8 lo n g v erses; sura 26, w h ich
is long, has o v e r 200 sh o rt verses. It m ay be n o ted , ho w ev er,
th a t as a rule the verses in the sam e sura, o r at least in th e same
p a rt o f a sura, are o f ap p ro x im ately th e sam e len g th . T h ere are
exceptions even to this generalization, b u t o n the w h o le it
rem ains valid, particu larly w h ere th e verses are sh o rt.
T h e verses are in prose, w ith o u t m etre, th o u g h in som e
passages there is a k in d o f rh y th m o r m etre o f stresses [fo r
exam ple 74.1-7; 91.1-10]. T h is feature is due to th e shortness
o f th e rh y m in g verses and th e rep etitio n o f th e sam e form o f
phrase rath er than to an y effort to carry th ro u g h a strict
m etrical form . W h e re th e verses are o f any len g th , and th e form
o f phrase varies, n o fixed m etre, eith er o f syllables o r o f
stresses, can be traced. T h e Q u r ’ān is th u s w ritte n in rh y m ed
prose, in verses w ith o u t m etre o r definitely fixed len g th ,
w hose ends are m arked b y th e occurrence o f a rh y m e o r
assonance. ( T h e rhym es are discussed m o re fully in ch ap ter 5,
sectio n 1.)

3. T h e m y sterio u s letters
A t the b eg in n in g o f 29 suras fo llo w in g th e bismilläh stands a
letter, o r a g ro u p o f letters, w hich are sim ply read as separate
letters o f the alphabet. T h ese letters are a m ystery. N o satis­
facto ry explanation o f th eir m eaning, if th ey have one, has
ever been given, n o r has any co n v in cin g reason been fo u n d

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fo r th e ir occurrence in this p o sitio n . I f reference is m ade to

pp. 206-13, it w ill be seen th at som e occur once on ly , singly
o r in com bination, and before isolated suras, b u t th a t th ere are
o th e r com binations w h ich occu r before several suras, and
th a t the suras h av in g th e sam e co m b in atio n o f letters stand in
g ro u p s. T h u s the suras in fro n t o f w hich the letters ḥ ā , mīm
stand, including the one w h ere these letters are com bined w ith
others, form a solid b lo ck (4 0 -4 6 ) and are k n o w n in A rabic
as the ḥ awāmīm. T h e suras w ith a lif lām, rā ', inclu d in g 13
w hich has mīm in add itio n , form a b lo ck fro m 10 to 15. T h e
ṭ ā', sīn, and ṭ ā', sīn, mīm suras fo rm a n o th er little g ro u p , 26-28.
T h e a lif lāmy mīm suras are separated ; 2 and 3 stan d to g eth er,
sura 7, w hich has ṣ ād in ad d itio n , stands b y itself, su ra 13 is
included in the a lif, lām, rā' g ro u p , and th en th ere is th e b lo ck
29-32. A lto g eth er the im pression is g iv en th a t g ro u p s o f suras,
sim ilarly m arked, have been k e p t to g e th e r w h en th e Q u r’ān
was p u t in its present ord er.
C onsideration o f th e len g th s o f the suras ten d s to confirm
this. A glance at the table w ill sh o w th at o n the w h o le the suras
stand in o rd e r o f decreasing length, and this alm ost looks like
the principle o n w hich the suras have been arranged. It is
equally evident th at there are m any deviations fro m the strict
sequence, and it is necessary to g u ard against laying to o m uch
stress on a m echanical rule o f this kin d , w h ich is n o t likely to
have been carefully carried th ro u g h . Som e o f the deviations
from the rule o f decreasing len g th , h o w ev er, seem to b e co n ­
nected w ith these g ro u p s o f suras. T h u s, if w e take the g ro u p
40-46, w e find th a t the first is a little lo n g er th an 39, w hile 45,
and especially 44, are sh o rt fo r th eir p osition. I t looks as if the
o rd er o f decreasing len g th had been d eparted from in o rd er to
keep the ḥ awāmīm g ro u p as it sto o d before the final arran g e­
m en t w as un d ertak en . A gain, tak in g th e a lif lī m, rā', g ro u p ,
w e find th a t 10, 11, 12 stand ap p ro x im ately in th eir p ro p e r
p o sitio n according to the len g th , b u t 13, 14, 15 are sh o rt, and
w ith 16 w e re tu rn again to so m eth in g like the len g th o f 10. It
looks as if this g ro u p had been inserted as a solid block. O n
th e o th er hand, th e a lif lām, mīm suras are placed in different
positions, suras 2 and 3, the longest, at the v ery beg in n in g ,
29-32 in a g ro u p m uch farth er on, as if the d ev iatio n fro m the
rule w o u ld have been to o g reat, and the g ro u p had therefo re
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been b ro k en up. T hese facts give som e su p p o rt to the su p ­

p osition that, w hen the p resen t o rd er o f the suras w as fixed,
the g ro u p s m arked b y these m y sterio u s letters w ere already in
existence.
T h a t, o f course, th ro w s no lig h t o n the m eaning o f these
sym bols. B ut fo u n d in g o n this assum ption and o n the trad i­
tio n th at Zayd ib n -T h āb it collected the Q u r’ān after M uḥ am ­
m ad’s death, som e E u ro p ean scholars have regarded these
letters as abbreviations o f the nam es o f persons w h o had
prev io u sly fo r their o w n use collected, m em orized, o r w ritte n
d o w n certain suras, and from w h o m Zayd had ob tain ed them .
T h u s the ḥ awāmīm w o u ld have been o b tained from so m eb o d y
w hose nam e was abbreviated to ḥ ā' mīm; and so on. T h is is a
plausible th e o ry ; b u t the difficulty is to su g g est nam es o f
possible persons w h o m ig h t be so indicated. N o one has
satisfactorily solved the problem . H irschfeld, fo r instance,
w ho tried to w o rk it o u t, takes ṣ ād as stan d in g fo r Ḥ afṣa, kāf
for A b ū -B akr, пūп fo r 'U th m ān .5 A gain it is difficult to see
w hy, for im p o rta n t suras like 2 and 3, the collectors should
have been d ependen t u p o n one perso n , den o ted b y alif, lām,
mīm, w h o m H irschfeld takes to be al-M u g h īra, w h ile o th e r
less im p o rta n t suras had no letters at th eir head, and w ere
thus presum ably general p ro p e rty .
E ven g reater difficulty attaches to the su g g estio n o f E d u ard
G oossens th a t these letters are co n tractio n s fo r disused titles
o f the suras.6 It m ay w ell be th at a title w h ich had acquired
w ide usage, b u t w as n o t finally ado p ted , was retained in an
abbreviated form . I f so, ho w ev er, it is necessary to find som e
w o rd o r phrase in the sura fo r w hich the letters at the head o f
it m ay be accepted as a co n tractio n . G oossens succeeded in a
n u m b er o f cases, b u t in o th ers his so lu tio n s w ere im possible
o r based on som e drastic rearran g em en t o f con ten ts and change
o f the division o f suras. F u rth e r, he did n o t succeed v e ry w ell
in explaining w h y several suras should have had the same
title, as th e g ro u p s w ith the same letters at th eir head w o u ld
im ply.
T hese suggestions go o n th e assum ption th a t th e letters
belo n g to the collection and redaction o f the Q u r’ān, and are
therefore later than the texts before w hich th ey stand. It m akes
no real difference if w e suppose them to have been m arks used

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by Muḥ ammad or his scribes to identify or classify the suras.

These letters always follow the bismillāh, and reasons have
been given for thinking that the bismillāh belongs to the text
and not to the editing. It seems almost certain, therefore, that
these letters also belong to the original text, and were not
external marks added either in Muḥ ammad’s lifetime or by
later compilers. That is the view o f all Muslim interpreters.
Most try to explain the letters as contractions for words or
phrases, but their suggestions are just as arbitrary as those o f
European scholars, and there is no agreement among them on
details. Others again reject the idea that the letters are con­
tractions but take them as indicating numbers with special
significance or in various other ways. The divergence o f views
shows the intractability o f the problem.
Nöldeke, to whom the suggestion that these letters were
indications o f names o f collectors was originally due,7 in his
later articles departed from it, and adopted the view that they
were meaningless symbols, perhaps magic signs, or imitations
o f the writing o f the heavenly Book which was being conveyed
to Muḥ ammad.8 A somewhat similar view has recently been
put forward by Alan Jones.9 On the basis o f statements by
Ibn-Hishām and in Tradition to the effect that on certain occa­
sions the Muslims used the watchword or battle-cry ‘ Ḥ ā mīm,
they shall not be aided’, he argues that the letters are mystical
symbols, suggesting that the Muslims have God’s help. While
there may be something in this view, its very nature prevents
it being worked out in detail and argued for in a convincing
fashion.
Some further points may be made. That the letters belong
to the revealed text receives further confirmation from the fact
that the majority o f the suras at the head o f which they stand
begin with some reference to the Book, the Qur’ān or the
revelation. O f the 29 suras to which they are prefixed only
three have no such reference immediately following [19 , 29,
30]. Considering how often the Book is referred to later in it,
sura 19 can hardly be counted an exception. Analysis also
shows that suras marked by such letters are o f either late
Meccan or Medinan composition, or at least have traces o f late
revision; they belong to the time when Muḥ ammad was
consciously ‘ collecting’ a revelation similar to the revelation
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in th e hands o f prev io u s m o n o th eists. It is possible th a t th e

letters are im itations o f som e o f th e w ritin g in w h ich these
scriptures existed. In fact, in som e o f these co m b in atio n s o f
letters it is possible to see w o rd s w ritte n in Syriac o r H ebrew ,
w hich have been afterw ards read as A rabic. T h is su g g estio n ,
how ever, like o th ers is im possible to carry th ro u g h . W e en d
w here w e b eg an ; th e letters are m y sterio u s, an d have so far
baffled in terp retatio n .

4. T h e dram atic fo rm
It has been seen th a t M uḥ am m ad believed th at his m essage
cam e to him b y p ro m p tin g fro m w ith o u t, and d rew a clear
distinction betw een w h a t cam e to him in this w ay and h is o w n
th o u g h ts and sayings. T h e Q u r ’ān, th erefo re, is cast m ainly
in th e form o f som eone addressing M uḥ am m ad, and n o t o f
Muḥ am m ad addressing his fellow -m en d irectly , th o u g h he is
frequently ord ered to co n v ey a m essage to them . T h is
q uestion o f w h o speaks and w h o is addressed, th a t is, o f th e
dram atic form , is w o rth y o f consideration.
It is usually assum ed, in accordance w ith Islam ic d o ctrin e,
th a t th ro u g h o u t the Q u r’ān th e speaker is G o d , and th a t th e
P ro p h e t is addressed as the recipient o f the revelation. T h is
corresponds to the settin g in m an y passages. G o d speaks
som etim es in the first p erso n singular. A clear exam ple o f this
is 51.56f., ‘I have n o t created jin n and m en b u t th a t th ey
should serve m e; I desire n o t any p ro v isio n fro m th em , n o r do
I desire th a t th ey sh o u ld feed m e ’. O th e rs are 67.18, 74.11-15,
and even d istinctly M edinan passages such as 2 .4 0 /3 8 , 4 7 /4
(w h e re G od m akes, as it w ere, a personal appeal to the C h ild ­
ren o f Israel) and 2 .1 8 6 /2 . M uch m ore freq u en tly , h o w ev er,
w e find the first perso n plural used w h ere G o d is w ith o u t
d o u b t the speaker. A s creation is, in th e d o ctrin e o f the Q u r’ān,
th e p rero g ativ e o f G o d , passages in w h ich th e speaker claims
to have created m ay be tak en as certain ly sp o k en b y G o d ; e.g.
15.26f., 1 7 .7 0 /2 , 2 1 .1 6 -1 8 , 23.12-14, and m an y o th e r passages.
I f one takes passages in w h ich th e creation is n o t m en tio n ed
b u t w hich are in the sam e fo rm , it w ill be fo u n d th a t m uch o f
the Q u r’ān is th u s placed in th e m o u th o f G od speaking in th e
plural o f m ajesty.
It is also clear in m an y passages th a t th e P ro p h e t is bein g

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in th e hands o f prev io u s m o n o th eists. It is possible th a t th e

letters are im itations o f som e o f th e w ritin g in w h ich these
scriptures existed. In fact, in som e o f these co m b in atio n s o f
letters it is possible to see w o rd s w ritte n in Syriac o r H ebrew ,
w hich have been afterw ards read as A rabic. T h is su g g estio n ,
how ever, like o th ers is im possible to carry th ro u g h . W e en d
w here w e b eg an ; th e letters are m y sterio u s, an d have so far
baffled in terp retatio n .

4. T h e dram atic fo rm
It has been seen th a t M uḥ am m ad believed th at his m essage
cam e to him b y p ro m p tin g fro m w ith o u t, and d rew a clear
distinction betw een w h a t cam e to him in this w ay and h is o w n
th o u g h ts and sayings. T h e Q u r ’ān, th erefo re, is cast m ainly
in th e form o f som eone addressing M uḥ am m ad, and n o t o f
Muḥ am m ad addressing his fellow -m en d irectly , th o u g h he is
frequently ord ered to co n v ey a m essage to them . T h is
q uestion o f w h o speaks and w h o is addressed, th a t is, o f th e
dram atic form , is w o rth y o f consideration.
It is usually assum ed, in accordance w ith Islam ic d o ctrin e,
th a t th ro u g h o u t the Q u r’ān th e speaker is G o d , and th a t th e
P ro p h e t is addressed as the recipient o f the revelation. T h is
corresponds to the settin g in m an y passages. G o d speaks
som etim es in the first p erso n singular. A clear exam ple o f this
is 51.56f., ‘I have n o t created jin n and m en b u t th a t th ey
should serve m e; I desire n o t any p ro v isio n fro m th em , n o r do
I desire th a t th ey sh o u ld feed m e ’. O th e rs are 67.18, 74.11-15,
and even d istinctly M edinan passages such as 2 .4 0 /3 8 , 4 7 /4
(w h e re G od m akes, as it w ere, a personal appeal to the C h ild ­
ren o f Israel) and 2 .1 8 6 /2 . M uch m ore freq u en tly , h o w ev er,
w e find the first perso n plural used w h ere G o d is w ith o u t
d o u b t the speaker. A s creation is, in th e d o ctrin e o f the Q u r’ān,
th e p rero g ativ e o f G o d , passages in w h ich th e speaker claims
to have created m ay be tak en as certain ly sp o k en b y G o d ; e.g.
15.26f., 1 7 .7 0 /2 , 2 1 .1 6 -1 8 , 23.12-14, and m an y o th e r passages.
I f one takes passages in w h ich th e creation is n o t m en tio n ed
b u t w hich are in the sam e fo rm , it w ill be fo u n d th a t m uch o f
the Q u r’ān is th u s placed in th e m o u th o f G od speaking in th e
plural o f m ajesty.
It is also clear in m an y passages th a t th e P ro p h e t is bein g

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addressed. T h e w ell-k n o w n verses, usually considered the tw o

earliest revelations ‘ O th o u clo th ed in the dithār, arise and
w arn, th y L o rd m a g n i f y . . . ’ [74.1-7] and ‘ R ecite in the
nam e o f th y L o rd . . . ’ [96.1-5] are ev id en tly addressed to the
P ro p h et. T h e use o f the second p erso n sin g u lar is v ery
com m on in the Q u r’ān, and th e individual addressed m u st be
M uḥ am m ad him self. M any passages are indeed personal to the
P ro p h e t: encouragem ents, ex h o rtatio n s, assurances o f the
reality o f his inspiration, rebukes, pieces o f advice o n h o w to
act. O n the o th e r han d , m an y passages thus addressed to the
P ro p h e t have no special reference to him , b u t con tain m atter
o f interest to others as w ell. T h a t is, in fact, freq u en tly stated,
in such phrases as: ‘Surely in th a t is a lesson fo r those w h o
fe a r’. E ven w h en n o t stated, it is the ev id en t in ten tio n th at
the com m unication sh o u ld b e m ade p u b lic; the P ro p h e t is
exhorted to ‘re c ite ’, and th at w as no d o u b t th e m e th o d b y
w h ich these revelations w ere m ade k n o w n to the people.
Som etim es th e P ro p h e t i s addressed as th e rep resen tativ e o f
the people, and after a direct address to him the passage m ay
continue w ith the second p erso n plural, as in 65.1: ‘ O
p ro p h et, w h en y o u ( p l.) d iv o rce w o m e n ,. . . ’
T h e assum ption th a t G o d is h im self th e speaker in ev ery
passage, how ever, leads to difficulties. F re q u e n tly G o d is
referred to in the th ird person. It is no d o u b t allow able fo r a
speaker to refer to him self in the th ird p erso n occasionally, b u t
the extent to w hich w e find the P ro p h e t ap p aren tly being
addressed and to ld a b o u t G o d as a th ird person, is unusual.
It has, in fact, been m ade a m atter o f ridicule th at in the Q u r ’ān
G o d is m ade to sw ear b y him self.10 T h a t he uses oaths in som e
o f the passages beginn in g , ‘I sw ear ( n o t) . . . ’ can h ard ly be
denied [e.g ., 75.1, 2; 90.1]. T h is w as p ro b ab ly a trad itio n al
form ula.11 ‘By th y L o rd ’, ho w ev er, is difficult in the m o u th o f
G od. ‘ T h e L o rd ’ is, in fact, a co m m o n designation o f G o d in
the Q u r ’ān, as in the tw o early passages q u o ted above. N o w
there is one passage w h ich ev ery o n e acknow ledges to be
spoken b y angels, nam ely 1 9 .6 4 /5f.: ‘W e com e n o t d o w n b u t
b y com m and o f th y L o rd ; to him belo n g s w h at is befo re us
and w h at is behind us and w h at is betw een th a t; n o r is th y
L o rd forgetful, L o rd o f the heavens and th e earth and w h a t is
betw een th e m ; so serve him , and en d u re p atien tly in his
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 IN TRO D U C TIO N TO TH E Q U R ’Ā N

service; knowest thou to him a namesake?' In 37.1 61 -6 it is

almost equally clear that angels are the speakers. This once
admitted, may be extended to passages in which it is not so
clear. In fact, difficulties in many passages are removed by
interpreting the ‘ w e’ o f angels rather than o f God himself
speaking in the plural o f majesty. It is not always easy to dis­
tinguish between the two, and nice questions sometimes arise
in places where there is a sudden change from God being
spoken o f in the third person to ‘ w e’ claiming to do things
usually ascribed to God, e.g. 6.99b, 25.45/7.
In the later portions o f the Qur'ān, it seems to be an almost
invariable rule that the words are addressed by the angels, or
by Gabriel using the plural ‘ w e', to the Prophet. God is
spoken o f in the third person, but it is always his will and
commands which are thus communicated to men. This is the
case even where the people or the believers are directly
addressed. In some o f these passages it might at first sight
appear that Muḥ ammad was addressing his followers in his
own words ; but in many o f them the indications that the angel
speaks are so clear that we must assume that this is the form
in them all. Muḥ ammad is the mouthpiece o f the divine will,
which is communicated to him by Gabriel, and thus, like a
confidential official, he stands on the border-line between the
king's court and the subjects. Subject he is always. Sometimes
he receives messages to convey to the people, or he receives
commands and exhortations intended for them ; sometimes he
is directly addressed as the representative o f the people; at
other times special exhortations and directions for his own
conduct are addressed to him; at times he steps, as it were,
across the line, and facing round upon the people conveys the
divine commands and exhortations directly to them. Thus in
these late passages the dramatic setting remains fairly constant:
God is a third person in the background, the ‘ w e' o f the
speaker is the angel (or angels); and the messages are ad­
dressed to the Prophet; even where the people are directly
addressed and the words come through him, he is mouth­
piece only.
The dramatic setting o f some earlier passages must be con­
sidered in the light o f this result. There are a few passages
where it might be thought that Muḥ ammad was speaking in
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INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR’ĀN

hisownperson. Thus in27.91 /зf., thereisadeclarationofhis

position: 'I have beencommanded to serve the Lord of this
region. ..' In26.221, ‘Shall I tell youonwhomthedemons
comedown?’ thepronounwouldnaturallybetakenas refer­
ring to Muḥ ammad, but it could also be interpreted o f God.
Other dubious instances are: 8 1.15-29 ; 84.16-19; 92.14-21.
Some o f the lists o f ‘ signs' adduced as instances o f God’s
power might be regarded as spoken by the messenger; and
also descriptions o f the Last D ay like 9 1.1-10 . With regard to
all these passages it may be noted that declarations similar to
27.9 1 /3f., are often preceded by the command (presumably
addressed to Muḥ ammad himself), ‘Say’. Yet, even where this
word does not occur, the passages must have been regarded
as part o f what Muḥ ammad was commanded to proclaim to the
people, following on the ‘Recite!’ o f 96.1. Thus the principle
that the messages came to Muḥ ammad from beyond himself
is not infringed.12

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 FIVE

F E A T U R E S OF Q U R ’ Ā NIC S T Y L E

1 . Rhymes and strophes

There is no attempt in the Qur’ān to produce the strict rhyme
o f poetry. In an Arabic poem each verse had to end in the
same consonant or consonants surrounded by the same
vowels – an interchange o f ī and и was allowed, though con­
sidered a weakness. Short inflectional vowels following the
rhyme-consonant were usually retained, and, if retained, were
pronounced long at the end o f the line. Only in very excep­
tional cases is it possible to find this type o f rhyme in the
Qur’ān. What one finds rather is assonance, in which short
inflectional vowels at the end o f a verse are disregarded, and
for the rest, the vowels, particularly their length, and the fall
o f the accent, that is the form o f the end-word o f the verse, are
o f more importance than the consonants. O f course the
consonant may remain the same, but that is not essential. Thus
in sura 1 12 the four verses rhyme in -аd, if one disregards the
inflections; in 105 the rhyme is in -īl, if one disregards end-
vowels and allows ū in place o f ī in the last verse. In sura 103 r
is rhyme-consonant, but the inflections vary and have to be
disregarded, though, for pronunciation, we require a short
vowel sound o f some kind after the r, or, alternatively, a short
vowel before it which is not in the form. In sura 54, where r
as a rhyme-consonant is carried through 55 verses, we have
not only to disregard the end-vowels but to accept variations
o f the preceding vowel, i and и and even a occurring in that
position; the assonance is technically described as - f a 'il, that
is, an open syllable with short vowel which takes the accent,
followed by a syllable with short vowel closed by r which
thus becomes a rhyme-consonant. On the other hand, the
accusative termination -an is often retained, being probably
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p ro n o u n ced as -ā ; fo r exam ple in suras 18, 72 and 100,

w here the accusative term in atio n seems to be essential to the
rhym e. F u rth e r, the fem inine term in atio n -atun loses n o t o n ly
its inflections b u t also its t so u n d , as in sura 104 w here, if one
d rops end-vow els and p ro n o u n ces the fem inine term in atio n as
ā o r a , there is a consistent assonance form ed b y an accented
syllable follow ed b y a sh o rt u naccented syllable and the en d in g
(technically fa 'ala) in w h ich b o th vow els and con so n an ts are
variable, b u t the place o f th e accent and the en d in g -a rem ain
the same. T h e actual rh y m e-w o rd s are: l ú maza , ' addada,
á khlada, al-ḥ úṭama, al-húṭama, al-mū́qada, a l-á f' ida, mú' ṣ ada,
mumáddada; this illustrates the reten tio n o f th e same so u n d
fo rm atio n w ith variatio n o f co n so n an t, and even o f vow el.
In sura 99 w e have a sim ilar assonance, form ed b y a long
accented ā , follow ed b y a sh o rt syllable, and the fem inine
suffix -hā, th at is - ā́lah ā , th e -hā bein g in one verse replaced
b y the plural suffix -hum. T h e assonance o f sura 47 is the same,
b u t w ith g reater v a riatio n o f suffix.
T h e stru ctu re o f the A rabic language, in w h ich w o rd s fall
in to definite ty p es o f form s, w as favourable to the p ro d u ctio n
o f such assonances. E ven in the sh o rt suras, ho w ev er, th ere is
a tendency to rely in p a rt fo r th e assonance o n gram m atical
term inations, such as the suffix - hā in suras 99 and 91. In the
lo n g er suras this tenden cy increases. T h u s in 55 the assonance
depends largely u p o n the d u al-en d in g -ān. O ften in the lo n g er
suras, th o u g h seldom carried th ro u g h w ith o u t a break, the
assonance is - ā ( l ), th a t is, a lo n g ā vow el follow ed b y a
(v a ria b le ) co n so n a n t; so in parts o f suras 2, 3, 14, 38, 39, 40
and sporadically elsew here. In th e g reat m ajo rity o f the suras
o f an y length, how ev er, and even in som e sh o rt ones, the
prevailing assonance is -ī( l ), th a t is, a lo n g ī o r ū so u n d (th ese
interchange fre e ly ) follow ed b y a co n so n an t. T h is is form ed
largely b y the plural en d in g s o f n o u n s and verbs, -ūп and - īn,
varied b y w o rd s o f the fo rm technically k n o w n as f a 'īl, one o f
the com m onest form s in A rabic. By far the g reater p a rt o f the
Q u r ’ān show s this assonance.
W ith an assonance d ep en d in g th u s u p o n gram m atical en d ­
ings there m ay occasionally be d o u b t as to w h eth er it w as
really intended. T h e v a ry in g system s o f v erse-n u m b erin g
depend to som e extent, th o u g h n o t en tirely , u p o n v ary in g

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ju d g em en t as to w h ere the rh y m e w as in ten d ed to fall in p a r­

ticular cases; b u t it can n o t be d o u b ted th at th ere w as assonance
at the end o f verses. In passages w ith sh o rt verses and fre­
q u en tly recu rrin g assonances this is unm istakable. Y et even in
suras in w hich the verses are lo n g , there are special tu rn s o f
phrase em ployed in o rd e r to p ro d u ce th e assonance. T h u s the
p re p o sitio n min w ith a plural participle is o ften used w h ere a
participle in the sin g u lar w o u ld have sufficiently giv en the
sense; so th a t w e g et phrases like ‘one o f the w itn esses’ in ­
stead o f sim ply ‘ a w itn e ss’ ( min ash-shāhidīn instead o f shāhid )
because the form er gives th e rh y m in g p lu ral-en d in g , w hile
the latter does n o t [3 .8 1 /7 5 ; cf. 6 0 /5 3 ; 7 . 1 0 6 /3 ]. K ānū
‘w e re ’, w ith an im perfect o r participle in the plural o ften
takes the place o f a sim ple p erfect p lu ral; fo r exam ple in
2 .5 7 /4 and 7 .3 7 /5 . O r an im perfect plural m ay be used w here
a perfect m ig h t have been expected, as in 5 .7 0 /4 . O ccasio n ­
ally a phrase is added at the end o f a v erse w h ich is really
otiose as regards sense b u t supplies the assonance, as in 12.10
and 21.68, 79, 104. Som etim es the sense is strained in o rd er
to p roduce the rhym e, fo r instance in sura 4, w h ere statem ents
reg ard in g G od are th ro w n in to the p ast b y the use o f kāna,
‘w a s ’, in fro n t o f them and are th ereb y g iven th e accusative
e n d in g o n w hich the rh y m e depends. T h e fo rm o f a p ro p e r
nam e is occasionally m odified fo r the sake o f rh y m e, as S īnīn
[95.2] and Ily āsīn [37.130].
Statem ents reg ard in g G o d o ccur freq u en tly at the end o f
verses, especially in the lo n g suras w here th e verses also are
o f som e length. W h ere the verses are sh o rt, the w o rd o r phrase
w hich carries the rh y m e form s as a rule an integral p a rt o f the
gram m atical stru ctu re and is necessary to the sense. In a few
passages it appears th a t the phrases w h ich carry th e rh y m e can
be detached w ith o u t dislocating th e stru ctu re o f w h a t rem ains
[e.g. 4 1 .9 /8 - 1 2 /11]. U sually the phrase is ap p ro p riate to the
context, b u t stands ap art from the rest o f th e verse. T h ese
detachable rhym e-p h rases – m o st o f w hich carry the asson­
ance in ī( l) —tend to be repeated, and to assum e a set form
w hich recurs either verbally o r w ith slig h t changes in w o rd in g .
T h u s inna f ī dhālika la-āyatan li-l -m u'm inīn ‘tru ly in th a t is a
sign fo r the b eliev ers’, often closes the acco u n t o f a ‘s ig n ’.
'A lā llāhi fa-l-yataw akkal il-mu' minūn ( il-mutawakkilūn ) ‘in

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G od let the believers ( th e tru stfu l) tr u s t’ occurs 9 tim es.

W a-llāhu ' alīm hakīm ‘and G o d is all-k n o w in g , w ise ’ occurs
12 tim es, or, if w e include slig h t m odifications, 18 tim es. O th e r
com binations o f adjectives referrin g to G o d are freq u en tly
used in th e sam e w ay. P erh ap s th e m o st freq u en t o f all such
phrases is inna llāha 'a lā kulli shay 'in qadīr, ‘v erily G o d o v e r
e v e ry th in g has p o w e r’, w h ich is used 6 tim es in sura 2 , 4 tim es
in sura 3, 4 tim es in sura 5, and som e 18 tim es in o th e r suras.
T h e re is a certain effectiveness in th e use o f these sen ten tio u s
phrases reg ard in g G o d . M ostly th e y close a deliverance, and
serve at once to press ho m e a tru th b y rep etitio n and to clinch
the a u th o rity o f w h a t is laid d o w n . T h e y act as a k in d o f
refrain.
T h e use o f an actual refrain, in th e sense o f th e sam e w o rd s
o ccu rrin g at m o re o r less reg u lar intervals, is sparse in the
Q u r ’ān. O n e is used in sura 55, w h ere th e w o rd s ‘W h ich th en
o f the benefits o f y o u r L o rd w ill y o u tw o c o u n t false?’ o ccu r
in verses 12, 15, 18, 21, and fro m th ere o n in practically each
alternate verse, w ith o u t reg ard to th e sense. T h e sam e ten d ­
ency to increasing freq u en cy and disregard o f sense appears in
the use o f the w o rd s, ‘W o e th a t d ay to those w h o c o u n t
false!’ as a k in d o f refrain befo re sections o f sura 77. M ore
effective didactically is th e use o f th e refrain in th e g ro u p s o f
stories o f fo rm er p ro p h ets w h ich o ccu r in v ario u s suras [e.g.
11, 26, 37, 54]. T h e stories in these g ro u p s n o t o n ly sh o w
sim ilarities o f w o rd in g th ro u g h o u t, b u t are o ften closed b y
th e sam e form ula.
In a d d itio n to the rh y m es w h ich occu r at the end o f the
verses, w e can occasionally detect rhym es, different fro m the
en d -rh y m es, o ccu rrin g in th e m iddle o f verses. T h ese give the
im pression o f a varied arran g em en t o f rhym es. R u d o lf G eyer
p o in ted o u t som e o f these, and argued th a t stanzas w ith such
varied rhym es w ere som etim es deliberately in ten d ed in th e
Q u r ’ān .1 I f th a t w ere so, w e sh o u ld expect th e sam e fo rm to
recur. In g o in g th ro u g h G ey er’s exam ples, h o w ev er, w e do
n o t g et the im pression th a t an y pre-ex istin g form s o f stanza
w ere bein g rep ro d u ced , o r indeed th a t an y fixed form s o f
stanza w ere being used. T h e re are n o fixed p attern s. A ll th at
can be said is th at in som e passages th ere is such a m ix tu re o f
rhym es, ju st as, w ith in a su ra there are o ften breaks in the

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regular recu rrin g rh y m e a t the en d o f th e verses. A s w ill be

seen, how ever, these facts m ay be oth erw ise explained.
A sim ilar arg u m en t applies to th e co n te n tio n advanced by
D . H . M üller.2 H e so u g h t to sh o w th a t co m p o sitio n in strophes
w as characteristic o f p ro p h etic literatu re, in th e O ld T esta­
m en t as w ell as in th e Q u r ’ān, and even in G reek trag ed y .
F ro m the Q u r ’ān he adduced m an y passages w h ich ap p ear to
su p p o rt such a view , such as sura 56. I f w e are to speak of
stro p h ic form , how ev er, w e expect som e reg u larity in the
len g th and arran g em en t o f th e stro p h e s; b u t M üller failed to
sh o w th a t there w as an y such reg u larity . W h a t his evidence
does show is th a t m an y suras o f th e Q u r’ān fall in to sh o rt
sections o r paragraphs. T h ese are n o t o f fixed len g th , h o w ev er,
n o r do they seem to follow a n y p attern o f len g th . T h e ir len g th
is determ ined n o t b y an y co n sid eratio n o f fo rm , b u t b y the
subject o r incident treated in each.
In terp reted in this w ay, M üller’s c o n ten tio n b rin g s o u t a
real characteristic o f Q u r’ānic style, nam ely th a t it is d isjointed.
O n ly seldom do w e find in it evidence o f su stain ed unified
co m position at an y g reat len g th . T h e lo n g est such pieces are
the addresses fo u n d in som e o f th e later suras. T h e address
before U ḥ u d appears to have becom e b ro k en u p and it is n o w
difficult to decide w h ich sections fro m th e m iddle o f su ra 3
o rdinally belonged to it. T h e address after the D a y o f the
T re n c h and the o v e rth ro w o f the clan o f Q u rag za [33.9-27],
how ever, and the assurance to th e d isap p o in ted M uslim s after
the tru ce o f al-H u d ay b iy a [48.18-29] m ay be taken as
exam ples o f fairly len g th y pieces relatin g to a single occasion.
Som e o f the narratives, to o , in th e Q u r ’ān, especially accounts
o f M oses and o f A brah am , ru n to considerable le n g th ; b u t th ey
tend to fall in to separate incidents instead o f bein g reco u n ted
straig h tfo rw ard ly . T h is is particu larly tru e o f th e lo n g est o f
all, the sto ry o f Jo sep h in sura 12. In o th e r suras, even w here
one can trace som e co n n ectio n in th o u g h t, th is arran g em en t in
paragraphs is evident. In sura 50, fo r instance, it is arguable
th a t a line o f th o u g h t g o v ern s the collection o f the separate
pieces, ru n n in g fro m th e P ro p h e t’s dissatisfaction w ith his
cajoling o f th e w ealth y , th ro u g h the su b lim ity o f the m essage,
w h ich o u g h t to com m end itse lf b u t is th w arted b y m an ’s
in g ra titu d e fo r religious and tem p o ral benefits, u p to th e

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description o f the final Ju d g em en t-d ay . T h e distinctness o f

the separate pieces, how ev er, is m o re o b v io u s th an th eir u n ity ;
and one o f them , verses 24-32 bears traces o f h av in g been
fitted into a co n tex t to w h ich it did n o t orig in ally belong. In
the lo n g er suras devoted largely to political and legal m atters,
one finds, as is natural en o u g h , th at subjects vary. Y et, w hile
there exist considerable blocks o f legislation d ev o ted to one
subject, fo r exam ple, th e rules reg ard in g div o rce in 2.228-32,
it does n o t appear th a t any subject w as dealt w ith system ati­
cally in a single sura o r len g th y passage. O n the c o n tra ry one
m o stly finds th a t one sura contains passages dealing w ith m any
different subjects, w hile the sam e subject is treated in several
different suras. T h e Q u r’ān itself tells us th at it w as delivered
in separate pieces [17 .1 0 6 / 7 ; 2 5 .3 2 /4 ]; b u t it does n o t tell
us a n y th in g a b o u t the len g th o f the pieces. T h e trad itio n al
accounts o f ‘ the occasions o f revelation ’, ho w ev er, often refer
to passages consisting o f a verse o r tw o and this favours the
assum ption th a t th e pieces w ere sh o rt. E xam ination o f the
Q u r ’ān itse lf gives fu rth e r su p p o rt to this assu m p tio n . N o t
o nly do m any sh o rt pieces stand alone as separate suras b u t
the lo n g er suras contain sh o rt pieces w h ich are com plete in
them selves, and could be rem oved w ith o u t serious deran g e­
m ent o f the context. C o n sid eratio n o f the passages in tro d u ced
b y a form ula o f d irect address exemplifies this. T h u s 2 .1 7 8 /3 -
179/5 deals w ith retaliatio n ; b u t th o u g h it com es am o n g st
o th e r passages also addressed to the believers and dealing
w ith o th e r subjects, it has n o necessary co n n ectio n w ith them .
A gain 5.11 / 14 stands b y itself and is clear en o u g h , if o n ly w e
k new the event to w h ich it refers, b u t if it had been absent
w e should n ev er have suspected th at so m eth in g had fallen o ut.
T h e form o f these sh o rt pieces m ay be illustrated from
49.13; ‘ O ye people, W e have created y o u o f m ale and
fem ale and m ade y o u races and tribes, th a t ye m ay sh o w
m utual re c o g n itio n ; v erily, the m o st noble o f y o u in G o d ’s
eyes is the m o st p io u s; v erily G od is k n o w in g , w e ll-in fo rm e d ’.
H ere, follow ing the w o rd s o f address, there is an indication
o f the subject th a t has called for treatm en t, th en com es a
declaration reg ard in g it, and finally the passage is closed b y a
sententious m axim . T h is form is found n o t o n ly in passages
w ith direct address, b u t in a m u ltitu d e o f others. T h e y b egin

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b y statin g the o ccasio n ; a q u estio n has been asked, the u n ­

believers have said o r d o n e so m eth in g , so m eth in g has h ap ­
pened, o r som e situ atio n has arisen. T h e m atter is dealt w ith
sh o rtly , in usually n o t m o re th an th ree o r fo u r verses; at the
end com es a general statem ent, often a b o u t G o d , w h ich ro u n d s
off the passage. O nce th e reader has cau g h t this lilt o f Q u r ’ānic
style it becom es fairly easy to split u p the suras in to the sepa­
rate pieces w hich co n stitu te them , and this is a g reat step
tow ards the in terp retatio n o f the Q u r ’ān. It is n o t, o f course,
to be to o readily assum ed th at there is no con n ectio n betw een
these separate pieces. T h e re m ay som etim es be a co n n ectio n
in subject and th o u g h t, and even w h ere this is absent th ere
m ay still be a connectio n in tim e. O n the o th e r han d , th ere m ay
be no connection in th o u g h t betw een c o n tig u o u s pieces, o r
the sura m ay have been b u ilt u p o f pieces o f different dates
th a t have been fitted in to a so rt o f schem e.

2. V arious didactic form s

It is o nly w hen the m o d ern stu d e n t has dissected the suras
into the sh o rt units o f w h ich th ey are co n stitu ted th a t he can
speak o f the style o f the Q u r ’ān. T h e insistence freq u en tly m et
w ith on its disjointedness, its form lessness and its excited,
un p rem ed itated , rhapsodical ch aracter, p a rtly rests o n a
failure to discern the n atu ral divisions in to w h ich th e suras
fall, and to take acco u n t o f the n u m ero u s displacem ents and
undesigned breaks in co n n ectio n . Since M uḥam m ad’s func­
tio n as a p ro p h e t w as to co n v ey m essages to his co n tem p o ­
raries, w h a t should be lo oked fo r are didactic ra th e r than
poetic o r artistic form s. O n e such form , indeed the prev ailin g
one in later suras, has ju st been m en tio n ed . V arious o th ers
m ay also be distinguished.
( a ) Slogans or maxims. T h e sim plest o f these didactic
form s is the sh o rt statem en t in tro d u ced b y the w o rd ‘ S a y ’.
T h e re are a b o u t 250 o f these scattered th ro u g h o u t the
Q u r ’ān. Som etim es th ey stand sin g ly ; elsew here g ro u p s o f
them stand to g eth er, th o u g h distin ct fro m each o th e r (f o r
instance, in 6 .5 6 -6 6 ); som etim es th ey are w o rk e d in to the
co n tex t o f a passage. T h ese statem ents are o f v arious k in d s;
there are answ ers to q uestions, re to rts to the arg u m en ts o r
jeers o f his o p p o n en ts, and clarifications o f M uḥam m ad’s ow n

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b y statin g the o ccasio n ; a q u estio n has been asked, the u n ­

believers have said o r d o n e so m eth in g , so m eth in g has h ap ­
pened, o r som e situ atio n has arisen. T h e m atter is dealt w ith
sh o rtly , in usually n o t m o re th an th ree o r fo u r verses; at the
end com es a general statem ent, often a b o u t G o d , w h ich ro u n d s
off the passage. O nce th e reader has cau g h t this lilt o f Q u r ’ānic
style it becom es fairly easy to split u p the suras in to the sepa­
rate pieces w hich co n stitu te them , and this is a g reat step
tow ards the in terp retatio n o f the Q u r ’ān. It is n o t, o f course,
to be to o readily assum ed th at there is no con n ectio n betw een
these separate pieces. T h e re m ay som etim es be a co n n ectio n
in subject and th o u g h t, and even w h ere this is absent th ere
m ay still be a connectio n in tim e. O n the o th e r han d , th ere m ay
be no connection in th o u g h t betw een c o n tig u o u s pieces, o r
the sura m ay have been b u ilt u p o f pieces o f different dates
th a t have been fitted in to a so rt o f schem e.

2. V arious didactic form s

It is o nly w hen the m o d ern stu d e n t has dissected the suras
into the sh o rt units o f w h ich th ey are co n stitu ted th a t he can
speak o f the style o f the Q u r ’ān. T h e insistence freq u en tly m et
w ith on its disjointedness, its form lessness and its excited,
un p rem ed itated , rhapsodical ch aracter, p a rtly rests o n a
failure to discern the n atu ral divisions in to w h ich th e suras
fall, and to take acco u n t o f the n u m ero u s displacem ents and
undesigned breaks in co n n ectio n . Since M uḥam m ad’s func­
tio n as a p ro p h e t w as to co n v ey m essages to his co n tem p o ­
raries, w h a t should be lo oked fo r are didactic ra th e r than
poetic o r artistic form s. O n e such form , indeed the prev ailin g
one in later suras, has ju st been m en tio n ed . V arious o th ers
m ay also be distinguished.
( a ) Slogans or maxims. T h e sim plest o f these didactic
form s is the sh o rt statem en t in tro d u ced b y the w o rd ‘ S a y ’.
T h e re are a b o u t 250 o f these scattered th ro u g h o u t the
Q u r ’ān. Som etim es th ey stand sin g ly ; elsew here g ro u p s o f
them stand to g eth er, th o u g h distin ct fro m each o th e r (f o r
instance, in 6 .5 6 -6 6 ); som etim es th ey are w o rk e d in to the
co n tex t o f a passage. T h ese statem ents are o f v arious k in d s;
there are answ ers to q uestions, re to rts to the arg u m en ts o r
jeers o f his o p p o n en ts, and clarifications o f M uḥam m ad’s ow n

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p o sitio n ; th ere are one o r tw o pray ers [e.g . 3 .2 6 /5f .] ; th ere

are tw o credal statem ents fo r his follow ers to repeat, th e w o rd
‘S a y ’ being in th e plural [2 .1 3 6 /0 ; 2 9 .4 6 /5 ], and to these m ay
be added sura 112, th o u g h th e v e rb is sin g u lar; finally, th ere
are a n u m b e r o f phrases suitable fo r rep etitio n in vario u s cir­
cum stances, such as: ‘ G o d ’s guidance is th e g u id a n c e '
[2 .1 2 0 /1 4 ]; ‘ G o d is m y p o rtio n ; o n him let th e tru stin g set
th eir tr u s t' [3 9 .3 8 /9 ].
I t is e v id en t th a t these w ere separate phrases designed fo r
rep etitio n , and n o t o rig in ally as parts o f suras o r lo n g er p as­
sages. T h e y w ere thu s o f the n atu re o f slogans o r m axim s
devised fo r public use b y them selves and o n ly later fo u n d th eir
w ay in to suras. W h e re a co n tex t is giv en , as is usual in the
later p arts o f the Q u r ’ān, o n e sees h o w the fo rm ula is revealed
to deal w ith som e m atter o f con cern to M uḥ am m ad o r the
M uslim s. M uḥ am m ad is asked a b o u t n ew m o o ǹ s [2 .1 8 9 /5 ],
ab o u t c o n trib u tio n s [2 .2 1 5 /1 ] , ab o u t w h a t is allow able
[ 5 .4 /6 ] , a b o u t ‘ w in d fa lls' [8 .1 ], and v ario u s o th e r m a tte rs;
o r som e hostile arg u m en t o r jeerin g rem ark has com e to his
notice [e.g. 6.37]. T h e p ro b lem o r the criticism has led to
general concern. M uḥ am m ad m ay b e p resum ed to have
‘so u g h t g u id a n c e ' , and has th en received the revelation in ­
stru c tin g him w h a t to say. T h e statem en t o r fo rm u la thus
becom es a p a rt o f one o f th e p arag rap h s already described as
characteristic o f Q u r’ānic style.
T hese slogans o r m axim s are difficult to date, and it is
d o u b tfu l if an y o f tho se w h ich appear in the Q u r ’ān are v ery
early, th o u g h som e o f th em m ay w ell be so. T h e y are so
com m on, how ever, th a t th e p re su m p tio n is th a t th ey w ere
a co n stan t elem ent in th e life o f th e M uslim co m m u n ity ,
and th at the rep etitio n o f such m axim s p ro v ed an effective
w ay o f stabilizing the attitu d es and practices associated w ith
Islam .
T h e use o f assonance in these form ulae m ig h t be expected;
b u t it is n o t fo u n d to an y ex ten t. M ost o f th e form ulae fall
natu rally en o u g h in to the rh y m e o f the sura in w h ich th ey
occur, b u t few o f them rh y m e w ith in them selves. Possible
exceptions are 34.46/5 and 41.44. T h o u g h n o t preceded b y
‘S a y ’, the early passage 102.1-2 is n o t un lik e a slogan. O n the
w hole, it w o u ld seem th a t the association o f rh y th m ic
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assonanced prose w ith th e kāhin o r so o th say er m ade it in ­

a p p ro p riate fo r form ulae and m axim s.
( b ) Soothsayer utterances. T h e Q u r ’ān asserts th a t M uḥ am ­
m ad is n o t a so o th say er ( kāhin) [52.29] and th a t th e revela­
tions are n o t the speech o f a so o th say er [6 9 .4 2 ]; and this is
certainly tru e o f the g reat b u lk o f th e Q u r ’ān. T h e need fo r
such a disclaim er, h o w ev er, suggests th a t th ere w ere sim ilari­
ties betw een som e o f th e early passages and th e utteran ces o f
soothsayers. A m o n g th e Sem itic peoples th ere w as a deep
tra d itio n lin k in g kn o w led g e o f the su p ern atu ral w ith u n u su al
form s o f verbal expression, such as rhym e. A n early exam ple,
o f this is to be seen in th e p ro n o u n cem en ts o f Balaam in the
O ld T estam en t [ Numbers, 22-24]. M uslim w riters g iv e som e
allegedly pre-Islam ic A rabian exam ples, one o f w h ich , fo re­
telling M uḥam m ad, m ay be th u s ren d ered in E n g lish :
T h o u saw est a lig h t
C om e fo rth fro m n ig h t,
T h e n o n low lands alig h t
T h e n all d e v o u r in its flight.

T h e p erso n w h o fo reto ld th e fu tu re in this w ay, th e s o o th ­

sayer o r kāhin , does n o t ap p ear to have been specially attached
to an y sanctuary o r g o d , b u t to have h ad his o w n special
p ro m p te r, one o f th e jin n o r spirits, w h o inspired him . Such a
perso n m ig h t be co n su lted o n all so rts o f m atters. H e w o u ld
be called o n fo r p ro g n o sticatio n s o f th e fu tu re, fo r th e so lu ­
tio n o f p ast m ysteries, and fo r decisions o n litigious questions.
H is oracles w ere often cry p tic, freq u en tly g arnished w ith oaths
to m ake them m o re im pressive, and u sually couched in th e
saj ̔ o r rh y th m ic rh y m ed p ro se o f w h ich an exam ple has been
given.
O rig in ally , accord in g to th e evidence o f th e A rab ic lan­
guage, there w as little difference b etw een th e so o th say er, the
p o e t an d th e m ad m an ; and th u s it is n o t su rp risin g th a t th e
Q u r ’ān contains denials th a t M uḥam m ad w as a p o e t an d a
m adm an [as in 69.41 and 52.29]. T h e p o e t o r shā̔ ir w as
etym ologically th e one w h o is aw are, ‘th e k n o w e r’, w h o had
in sig h t in to m atters b ey o n d th e k en o f o rd in a ry m e n ; b u t b y
AD 600 this c o n n o ta tio n h ad been largely lost, and th e p o e t
w as conceived m uch as he is n o w adays, th o u g h h e h ad g reater

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public reco g n itio n . Since b o th so o th say er and p o et w ere aided

to know ledge o f the unseen b y one o f the jinn, th ey m ig h t be
described as majnūn, ‘affected o r inspired b y jin n ’; b u t this
w o rd even b y the seventh c en tu ry had com e to have its
m o d ern m eaning o f ‘m ad ’.
A t least five passages in the Q u r’ān [37.1-4; 51.1-6; 77.1-7;
79.1- 14 ; 10 0 .1-6 ] are suggestive o f th e u tterances o f so o th ­
sayers. In each there are a n u m b er o f oaths b y som e female
beings, w hich form a jingle and lead u p to an assertion w hich
does n o t rhym e w ith the oaths. In A rabic the last o f these ru n s:
wa-l- ādiyāti ḍ abḥ an
wa-l-mūriyāti qad’ḥ an
wa-l-mughīrati ṣ ubḥ an
fa-atharna bi-hi n a q'an
fa-w asaṭna bi-hijam ̔ an
inna l-insāna li-rabbi-hi la-kanūd
T h e follow ing verses m ay be p a rt o f the original assertion o r
m ay have been added later; and this m ay also be the case in
sura 79. T h e sense o f the first five verses here is u n certain, b u t
the passage (w h ic h is usually in terp reted o f w a r-h o rse s)
m ig h t perhaps be rendered :
By the ru n n ers p antin g ,
By th e kindlers spark in g ,
By the raiders early startin g ,
T h e n th ey raised u p a d u st-clo u d ,
T h e n th e y centred in a cro w d –
T ru ly m an to his L o rd is un g ratefu l.
In the o th e r passages the fem inine participles are m o stly taken
to refer to angelic beings, and fo r this su g g estio n som e slight
su p p o rt is claim ed from the Q u r’ān, since the participle o f 37.1
is used o f angels ( b u t in the m asculine) in 37.165. It m ay be
d o u b te d , how ever, w h eth er those w h o first heard M uḥ am m ad
recite these passages attached an y definite m eaning to the
asseverations. I f there w as one u n equivocal in terp retatio n , it
w o u ld seem to have been fo rg o tte n b y later M uslims. E ven
w ith o u t a definite m eaning, ho w ev er, the oaths w o u ld serve
to m ake the final assertion m o re im pressive; an d this w as
doubtless in line w ith the trad itio n al m eth o d s o f soothsayers.

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T h e utterances of the so o th say ers w h ich w ere rh y th m ic

b u t n o t in a fixed m etre, and w h ich w ere assonanced b u t n o t
alw ays exactly rh ym ed , are said to be in saj̔, w h ich is th u s
distinct from b o th p o e try and p ro se.3 T h e w h o le o f the
Q u r ’ān is often said to be in s a f ̔ because o f the assonances at
the end o f verses; b u t M uslim scholars have som etim es held
th a t the Q u r ’ān is n o t in saj ̔ in the strict sense. C ertain ly the
g reat b u lk o f it is v e ry different fro m th e u tteran ces o f the
soothsayers.
( c ) Asseverative and ‘ whenʼ passages. T h ese ran d o m and
m ysterious oaths are o n ly im pressive w h en used sparingly.
Sura 89 begins w ith fo u r clauses so cry p tic as to be u n in telli­
gible – ‘ By the daw n, By ten n ig h ts, By even and o d d , By the
n ig h t elapsing . . . ’ – and these are follow ed b y a verse [5/4]
w h ich is p ro b ab ly to be tak en parenthetically, and w h ich m ay
eith er suggest the efficacy o f the asseverations (a s in P a re t’s
tra n sla tio n ) – ‘is th a t n o t fo r a m an o f u n d erstan d in g an
(effective) o a th ? ’ – o r m ay (w ith Bell’s tra n sla tio n ) qu estio n
th e ir value – ‘is there in th a t an o ath fo r a m an o f se n se ? ’
Y et even the fo rm er in terp retatio n m u st have left m en
w o n d erin g . In a passage like 52.1-8, w hile th ere is th e sam e
device o f m aking the statem ent stand o u t b y change o f asson­
ance, the oaths, th o u g h still difficult to in terp ret, seem to have
had a clear sense fo r th e first hearers. In o th e r asseverative
passages, o f w h ich th ere are n o t a few ,4 th e o aths are chosen
as h av in g som e bearin g o n the statem en t to w h ich th ey lead
u p , and this statem en t in th e sam e assonance m akes an effec­
tive close to th e passage. T h e b est exam ple is perh ap s 91.1-10,
w h ere fo u r pairs o f o aths b y c o n trasted th in g s (s u n and m o o n ,
day and n ig h t, heaven and earth , and w h a t form ed the soul
and im planted in it its w ickedness and p ie ty ) lead u p to an
assertion o f the co n trast betw een him w h o purifies his soul
and him w h o c o rru p ts it. T h is asseverative style ten d s to be
less freq u en t in later revelations. Passages o ccu r w h ere a
single o ath com es at the b eg in n in g , b u t in th e M edinan
p eriod oaths h ard ly ap p ear at all.
A m odification o f the asseverative passage is th e use o f a
n u m b e r o f tem poral clauses, in tro d u ced b y idhā ‘w h e n ’, o r
yawma ‘the day w h e n ’ leading up to a statem en t pressing
hom e the fact o f the Ju d g em en t u p o n th e conscience. In
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75.26-30, a death-scene is described in the tem poral clauses,

b u t usually it is the L ast D a y w h ich is con ju red u p b y a selec­
tio n from its aw e-insp irin g phenom ena. In 84.1-6 the state­
m en t o f the m ain clause is left u n rh y m ed , b u t in all th e o th ers
it has the sam e rh y m e as th e clauses w h ich lead u p to it. T h e
lo n g est o f these passages is 81.1-14, w h ere tw elve idhā-clauses
lead u p to the statem en t: ‘A soul w ill k n o w w h a t it has p re ­
se n te d ’, th a t is, the deeds laid to its account. T h e effectiveness
o f such a fo rm is even m o re e v id en t in som e o f the sh o rte r
pieces, and th ere can be n o d o u b t th a t these passages im pressed
th e conscience o f th e h earers.5
( d ) Dramatic scenes. A h om iletic p u rp o se o f this k in d is
ev id en t th ro u g h o u t th e Q u r ’ān. T h e p iling u p o f tem p o ral
clauses did n o t contin u e, b u t at all stages o f the Q ur’ān the
scenes o f th e Ju d g e m e n t and th e fu tu re life are ev o k ed , n o t
fo r any speculative p u rp o se b u t in o rd e r to im press the co n ­
science and clinch an arg u m en t. D esp ite all th e details w h ich
th e Q ur’ān gives o f the fu tu re abodes o f the blessed and th e
dam ned, th ere is n o w h ere a full d escription. Such a p ictu re
seem s to have been p artially given [e.g . in 55, 76 and 83], b u t
it is n o t com pleted. O n th e o th e r h an d there are sh o rt w ell-
polished pieces depictin g luscious attractio n s o r lu rid terro rs.
T h e sam e applies to th e d escriptions o f th e Ju d g e m e n t; ev i­
d en tly th e in terest in these scenes is n o t fo r th eir o w n sake
b u t fo r th e ir hom iletic value. O n ly once o r tw ice does the
Q ur’ān describe the th eo p h an y , and th en o n ly p artially
[39.67-74; 89.22-30].
In m an y o f these scenes o f Ju d g e m e n t there is a d ram atic
q uality w h ich is often unreco g n ized , b u t v e ry effective.
Som e o f the passages are difficult to u n d erstan d , because th ey
are designed fo r oral recitatio n , an d d o n o t indicate b y w h o m
th e v ario u s speeches are m ad e; this w as left to be m ade clear
b y g esture o r change o f voice as th e passage w as delivered.
A s exam ples m ay be cited, 5 0 .2 0 /1 9 -2 6 /5 and 37.50/48-61 /5 9 ;
in b o th o f these passages w e have to use o u r im agination to
su p p ly the accom pany in g action o f the speeches, b u t w h en this
is d o n e the resu lt is an in tensely v ivid and m o v in g picture.
Such passages, i f recited w ith ap p ro p riate dram atic action,
m u st have been v e ry telling. T h is dram atic q u ality is, in fact,
a p erv ad in g characteristic o f Q u r ’ānic style. D ire c t speech is
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a p t to be ‘in te rje c te d ’ at an y p o in t, as th e personages m en ­

tioned in the n arrativ e express them selves in w o rd s. In the
sto ry o f M oses in su ra 20, fo r exam ple, m o re space is occupied
b y th e spoken w o rd s o f th e actors th an b y n arrativ e. E ven
w h ere narrative pred o m in ates, th e s to ry is h ard ly ev er to ld
in a straig h tfo rw ard m an n er, b u t ten d s to fall in to a series o f
sh o rt w o rd -p ic tu re s; th e action advances in cid en t b y in cid en t
d iscontinuously, and th e in terv en in g links are left to th e
im agination o f the hearers.
( e ) N arratives and parables. In th e relatively few n arrativ e
passages in th e Q u r’ān , th e hom iletic elem ent is again a p t to
in tru d e. T h e lo n g est narrativ e is the sto ry o f Jo sep h in sura 12,
and th ere ev ery n o w and th en th e acco u n t o f events is in te r­
ru p te d b y a parenthesis to m ake clear the p u rp o se o f G o d in
w h a t happened. A n o th e r o f th e didactic fo rm s o f th e Q u r’ā n ,
the parable o r mathal6, tends to be d o m in ated b y the h o m iletic
elem ent. T h e b est o f these parables is th a t o f th e B lighted
G arden in su ra 68. T h e parable o f th e T w o O w n ers o f
G ardens is less clear and m o re didactic [1 8 .3 2 /1 -4 4 /2 ].
O th e rs are little m o re th an expanded sim iles: 1 4 .2 4 /9 -2 7 /3 2 ;
16.75/7 f.; 18.45/ з f .; 3 0 .2 8 /7 ; 39 .2 9 /3 0 . T h a t o f th e U n ­
believing T o w n is difficult to classify; [3 6 .1 3 /1 2 -2 9 /8 ] it is
perhaps a sim ile expanded in to a sto ry .
( f ) Sim iles. T h e Q u r’ān contains n u m ero u s sim iles. T h ese
occur in all contexts. In d escriptions o f th e L ast D a y , w h e n
the heavens are rolled u p like a scroll [21.104], w h e n th e
people are like m o th s b lo w n a b o u t, and th e m o u n tain s like
carded w o o l [1 0 1 .4 /3 , 5 /4 ] , th e sim iles som etim es b elo n g to
the sam e trad itio n al fram ew o rk as th e rest o f th e m aterial; b u t
there is also m uch th a t is fresh an d o riginal in th e Q u r’ān b y
w ay o f v iv id and ev en g rim ly h u m o ro u s com parisons. Jew s
w h o have the T o ra h b u t d o n o t p ro fit b y it are co m p ared to an
ass loaded w ith b o o k s [6 2 .5 ]. Som e w h o in th e early days in
M edina m ade advances to M uḥ am m ad and th en d rew b ack
are likened to those w h o have lit a fire w h ich has th en g o n e
o u t and left th em in th e darkness m o re b ew ildered th an ev er
[ 2 .1 7 /16; cf. 19 / 18f.]. P o ly th eists w h o serve o th e r g o d s b e ­
sides G o d are like th e sp id er w eav in g its o w n frail h o u se
[2 9 .4 1 /0 ]. T h e w o rk s o f unbelievers, fro m w h ich th e y h o p e
to benefit a t the Ju d g em en t, are like ashes b lo w n aw ay b y the

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w in d [1 4 .1 8 /21 ], o r like a m irage w h ich appears to be w ater,

b u t, w h en one com es to it, tu rn s o u t to be n o th in g [24.39].
P eople w h o p ra y to g o d s o th e r th an G o d are like a m an w h o
stretches o u t his h and to raise w ater to his m o u th , b u t no
w ater reaches it [1 3 .1 4 /1 5 ]. T h e p ray er o f the unb eliev in g
Q u ra y sh o f Mecca at th e K a'b a is o n ly w h istlin g and clapping
o f h ands [8.35]. L u k ew arm su p p o rters, asked fo r th eir
opin io n and g e ttin g u p to speak, n o d o u b t hesitatin g ly , are
com pared to logs o f w o o d p ro p p e d u p [6 3 .4 ]. O th e r co m ­
parisons w ill be fo un d in 2 .1 7 1 /6 6 , 2 6 1 /3 , 2 6 4 /6 , 2 6 5 /7 ;
3. 117 / 3 ; 7. 1 7 6 /5 ; 1 0 .2 4 /5 ; 57.19; 74.5 0 /1 . M any o f these
reflect the A rab ’s experience o f life in th e desert in a w ay rem i­
niscent o f pre-Islam ic p o etry . W h ere a sim ile is expanded in to
an allegory o r parable, it tends to be fu rth e r rem oved from
actual experience [as in 30.28/ 7 and 39.29/ 30].
( g ) Metaphors. M etaphors are even m o re freq u en t than
similes. A m o d ern A rab scholar7 has collected o v er fo u r
h u n d re d m etaphorical uses o f w o rd s. M any o f these, ho w ev er,
w ere, no d o u b t, already so co m m o n in o rd in ary speech as to
be no lo n g e r felt as m etaphorical. It is n o t easy to say h o w far
the Q ur’ān added new m etap h o rs to the language. T h e n u m ­
b e r o f com m ercial term s transferred to the religious sphere is
n o te w o rth y and exam ples have been g iven ab o v e (p . 4 ).
F ro m b ed o u in life com e the desig n atio n o f th e delights o f
P aradise as пuzul, ‘recep tio n -feast’, and th e application o f the
v erb ḍ alla , ‘to go a stra y ’, to those w h o follow false gods.
T h e use o f m etapho rs fro m b o d ily fu n ctio n s to describe
spiritual m atters is alm ost u n av o id ab le; th u s unbelievers are
deaf, unable to hear, b lind, u nable to see; th ey can n o t discern
the tr u th ; th ey have veils o v er th eir hearts, heaviness in th eir
ears; th ey are in darkness. T h e revelation is guidance and
light, and the task o f a m essenger is to lead people o u t o f the
darkness into th e light. D o u b tfu l su p p o rters am o n g the
people o f M edina are said to have disease in th eir h earts; after
th e ir c o n d u ct at U ḥ ud th ey are d u b b ed munāfiq īn, ‘jin k e rs’,
‘ those w h o d o d g e back in to th eir holes like m ice' . 8

3. T h e language o f th e Q ur’ān
T h e Q ur’ān itself asserts th a t the revelation is in ‘a clear
A rabic to n g u e ’ [1 6 .1 0 3 /5 ; 26.195], and fro m this assertion
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

w in d [1 4 .1 8 /21 ], o r like a m irage w h ich appears to be w ater,

b u t, w h en one com es to it, tu rn s o u t to be n o th in g [24.39].
P eople w h o p ra y to g o d s o th e r th an G o d are like a m an w h o
stretches o u t his h and to raise w ater to his m o u th , b u t no
w ater reaches it [1 3 .1 4 /1 5 ]. T h e p ray er o f the unb eliev in g
Q u ra y sh o f Mecca at th e K a'b a is o n ly w h istlin g and clapping
o f h ands [8.35]. L u k ew arm su p p o rters, asked fo r th eir
opin io n and g e ttin g u p to speak, n o d o u b t hesitatin g ly , are
com pared to logs o f w o o d p ro p p e d u p [6 3 .4 ]. O th e r co m ­
parisons w ill be fo un d in 2 .1 7 1 /6 6 , 2 6 1 /3 , 2 6 4 /6 , 2 6 5 /7 ;
3. 117 / 3 ; 7. 1 7 6 /5 ; 1 0 .2 4 /5 ; 57.19; 74.5 0 /1 . M any o f these
reflect the A rab ’s experience o f life in th e desert in a w ay rem i­
niscent o f pre-Islam ic p o etry . W h ere a sim ile is expanded in to
an allegory o r parable, it tends to be fu rth e r rem oved from
actual experience [as in 30.28/ 7 and 39.29/ 30].
( g ) Metaphors. M etaphors are even m o re freq u en t than
similes. A m o d ern A rab scholar7 has collected o v er fo u r
h u n d re d m etaphorical uses o f w o rd s. M any o f these, ho w ev er,
w ere, no d o u b t, already so co m m o n in o rd in ary speech as to
be no lo n g e r felt as m etaphorical. It is n o t easy to say h o w far
the Q ur’ān added new m etap h o rs to the language. T h e n u m ­
b e r o f com m ercial term s transferred to the religious sphere is
n o te w o rth y and exam ples have been g iven ab o v e (p . 4 ).
F ro m b ed o u in life com e the desig n atio n o f th e delights o f
P aradise as пuzul, ‘recep tio n -feast’, and th e application o f the
v erb ḍ alla , ‘to go a stra y ’, to those w h o follow false gods.
T h e use o f m etapho rs fro m b o d ily fu n ctio n s to describe
spiritual m atters is alm ost u n av o id ab le; th u s unbelievers are
deaf, unable to hear, b lind, u nable to see; th ey can n o t discern
the tr u th ; th ey have veils o v er th eir hearts, heaviness in th eir
ears; th ey are in darkness. T h e revelation is guidance and
light, and the task o f a m essenger is to lead people o u t o f the
darkness into th e light. D o u b tfu l su p p o rters am o n g the
people o f M edina are said to have disease in th eir h earts; after
th e ir c o n d u ct at U ḥ ud th ey are d u b b ed munāfiq īn, ‘jin k e rs’,
‘ those w h o d o d g e back in to th eir holes like m ice' . 8

3. T h e language o f th e Q ur’ān
T h e Q ur’ān itself asserts th a t the revelation is in ‘a clear
A rabic to n g u e ’ [1 6 .1 0 3 /5 ; 26.195], and fro m this assertion
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later M uslim scholars developed the view th a t the language

o f the Q ur’ān w as th e p u rest variety o f A rabic. Such a view ,
o f course, is a theological d o g m a rath er th an a linguistic
th eo ry ; and m o dern scholarship tends to leave it aside and to
stu d y at a p u rely linguistic level the relation o f the language o f
the Q ur’ān to co n tem p o rary varieties o f A rabic.
It is n o w generally accepted even b y critical scholars th a t at
least som e o f the so-called pre-Islam ic p o e try w as g enuinely
com posed before the tim e o f M u ḥ am m ad ; and it is fu rth er
agreed th at the language o f this p o e try is n o t the dialect o f any
trib e o r tribes, b u t is an artificial literary language, usually
called ‘the poetical koinē ', w h ich w as u n d e rsto o d b y all the
tribes. T rad itio n al M uslim scholars, influenced b y th eir th e o ­
logical dogm a, tended to assum e th at, since M uḥam m ad and
his first follow ers b elonged to the trib e o f Q u ray sh in Mecca,
th ey m ust have recited the Q ur’ān acco rd in g to the dialect o f
Q u ra y sh ; and the scholars fu rth e r assum ed th at this was
identical with the language of the poetry. On the other hand,
Muslimscholars preserved a certain amount of information
about the dialects ofthe Arabian tribes inthe time of
Mm ad,anduthisḥinform
a ation
m tends­ to refute the belief that the
dialect of Qurayshwas identical with the language of poetry.
E u ro p ean scholars paid som e atten tio n to the language o f
the Q ur’ān d u rin g th e n in eteen th cen tu ry , b u t th e m o st
v ig o ro u s discussions have follow ed o n th e publicatio n o f a
novel th e o ry b y K arl V o llers in 1906.9 V ollers held th a t the
dialect o f Mecca differed considerably b o th fro m the ‘e a ste rn ’
dialects used in N ejd and elsew here, and fro m the poetical
koinē; and he argued th a t the p resen t form o f the Q ur’ān w ith
its peculiarities o f o rth o g ra p h y had com e a b o u t th ro u g h
scholars assim ilating the M eccan dialect in w h ich it was o rig i­
nally recited to the poetical language. In this process o f
assim ilation m any dialectical form s w ere rem oved, th o u g h
som e are still record ed as variants in the stan d ard ‘re a d in g s’
o r from p re -"Uth m ānic codices. V ollers’ th e o ry received som e
su p p o rt at a later date fro m Paul K ahle,10 b u t o n the w hole
w as n o t accepted b y scholars. N ö ld ek e,11 follow ed b y B ecker12
and Schw ally,13 argued th at the language o f the Q ur’ān could
n o t be identified w ith any fo rm o f A rabic th a t w as ever
actually spoken. F o r these scholars the Q ur’ān w as w ritte n

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I N T R O D U C T IO N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

essentially in the poetical koinē. M ore recen tly th e h y p o th esis

o f V ollers has been criticized b y R égis Blachère14 and C haim
R ab in .15 T h e fo rm er h olds th a t V ollers exaggerated the differ­
ences betw een th e ‘e a ste rn ’ an d ‘w e ste rn ’ dialects, and th a t
the differences betw een Q u r’ānic form s and th o se o f th e
p o e try are n o t alw ays w h a t V o llers’ th e o ry w o u ld lead o ne to
expect. A m o n g o th e r arg u m en ts R ab in u rg es th a t, if the
Q ur’ān had originally been revealed in th e sp o k en A rabic o f
Mecca, it is difficult to see h o w after a cen tu ry o r tw o th e
b ed o u in poetic language could have becom e th e a u th o ritativ e
form o f A rabic. H e q u o tes w ith ap p ro v al th e su g g estio n o f
Jo h a n n F lick 16 th a t in th e Q u r’ānic phrase ‘a clear A rabic
to n g u e ’ th e w o rd ‘A ra b ic ’ ( ' arabī ) refers to th e 'A rabiyya o r
literary language o f the 'a rab o r b ed o u in . T h e final conclusion
appears to be th a t the language o f th e Q u r’ān falls som ew here
betw een the poetical koinē an d th e M eccan dialect. T h e om is­
sion o f th e hamza o r g lo ttal sto p , w h ich is m en tio n ed as a
peculiarity o f M eccan speech, has affected th e o rth o g ra p h y o f
the Q u r’ān . P erhaps one m ig h t say th a t th e Q u r’ān w as in a
M eccan v arian t o f the literary language.
T h e d o g m a th a t th e Q u r’ān w as w ritte n in p u re A rabic also
m ade M uslim scholars u n w illin g to ad m it th a t an y o f the
v o cab u lary o f th e Q u r’ān h ad been b o rro w e d fro m o th e r
languages. R eluctantly , h o w ev er, in course o f tim e th ey re­
cognized th a t a n u m b e r o f w o rd s in th e Q u r’ān w ere n o t
d erived fro m A rabic ro o ts ; b u t th e ir k n o w led g e o f o th e r
languages w as slig h t and th ey o ften failed to elucidate th e
o rig in o f these w o rd s. T h e v iew o f later M uslim scholars is
represented b y as-S uyū ṭī (d . 1505) an d ‘A b d -a r-R a ḥ m ān
a th -T h a ‘ālibī (d .1 4 6 8 )17 w h o v e ry reaso n ab ly held th a t as a
result o f the A rab s’ foreig n co n tacts vario u s n o n -A rab ic w o rd s
had been inco rp o rated in to A rabic, b u t th at, since these w o rd s
had been arabicized, it w as still tru e th a t th e Q u r’ān w as in ‘a
clear A rabic to n g u e ’. M odern scholarship has d e v o ted m u ch
a tte n tio n to th e foreig n w o rd s in Q u r’ānic A rabic. T h e w id e r
kno w led g e n o w possessed o f th e languages and dialects used
in pre-Islam ic tim es in th e co u n tries su rro u n d in g A rab ia has
m ade it possible to trace th e p ro v en an ce o f m o st o f these
w o rd s w ith a degree o f accuracy.
T h e m o st con v en ien t and accessible treatm en t o f the ques-

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 F E A T U R E S OF Q U R ' Ā N I C S T Y L E

tio n fo r E nglish readers is A rth u r Jeffery’s w o rk o n The

Foreign Vocabulary o f the Qur’ān,18 A fter an ‘in tro d u c tio n ' o f
som e fo rty pages d escribing the attem p ts o f M uslim scholars
to deal w ith the questio n , he lists a b o u t 275 w o rd s, o th e r th an
p ro p e r nam es, w hich have been regarded as foreign, discusses
the view s o f m o d ern scholars a b o u t th eir o rig in , and eith er
sum s u p the previou s discussion o r gives fresh su g g estio n s o f
his ow n. A b o u t three-q u arters o f the w o rd s in this list can be
show n to have been in use in A rabic before th e tim e o f
M uḥam m ad, and m an y had becom e reg u lar A rabic w o rd s. T о
this extent the view o f as-S uyū ṭī is confirm ed. O f the rem ain ­
in g 70 o r so, th o u g h th ere is n o w ritte n evidence o f th eir
earlier use, it m ay well be tru e th a t th ey w ere already em ­
ployed in speech; b u t n o reco rd has com e d o w n to us p rio r
to the Q ur’ān o f th e fo rm o r special m eaning. A b o u t h a lf o f
the 70 com e from C h ristian languages, chiefly Syriac, b u t a
few from E th io p ic ; som e 25 com e fro m H eb rew o r Jew ish -
A ram aic; the rem ainder, m o stly o f slight religious im portance,
com e from Persian, G reek o r u n k n o w n sources. W h ile this
result is ro u g h ly correct, there m ay be v ariatio n s in detail,
since, w h en there are sim ilar form s in a n u m b er o f Sem itic
languages, it m ay be difficult to say w h ich is th e source fro m
w hich A rabic bo rro w ed .

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 SIX

THE SHAPING OF THE Q UR ’Ā N

1 . T h e th eo ry o f ab ro g atio n and the p o ssibility o f revision

A cco rd in g to the Islam ic view th a t the Q u r’ān is the speech o f
G o d conveyed to M uḥam m ad b y an angel, there can be n o
revision o f the Q ur’ān b y M uḥam m ad o f his own volition .
T h is is m ade clear in a n u m b e r o f v erses:

W h e n o u r signs ( o r v erses) are recited to th em as E v i­

dences, those w h o lo o k to n o m eetin g w ith us say, B ring a
different Q ur’ān fro m this, o r alter it. Say, It is n o t fo r m e
to alter it o f m y o w n acco rd ; I follow o n ly w h a t is revealed
to m e; if I g o again st m y L o rd , I fear th e p u n ish m en t o f a
m ig h ty day. [1 0 .1 5 /1 6 ].

A n earlier passage described the p u n ish m en t m o re v iv id ly :

I f he w ere to forge against us an y statem ents
w e should take him b y th e rig h t han d
th en cu t his h e a rt-v e in ;
n o t one o f y o u w o u ld p ro te c t him (fro m u s ). [ 69.44-47].

Y et the o th e r verses indicate th a t the pagan Meccans b ro u g h t

pressure to bear o n M uḥam m ad to p ro d u ce ‘rev elatio n s’
m o re favourable to them selves, p resu m ab ly b y p e rm ittin g
som e reco g n itio n o f th e idols as lesser deities.
T h e y alm ost tem pted y o u fro m w h a t w e revealed to y o u , so
th a t y o u invented against us so m eth in g else; and th en they
w o u ld have taken y o u as a friend. H ad w e n o t m ade y o u
stand firm ( M u ḥ am m ad ), y o u had alm o st inclined to w ard s
them a little. T h e n w e w o u ld have m ade y o u taste the
double o f life and the d o u b le o f d eath, and y o u w o u ld n o t
have fo u n d against us an y helper. [1 7 .7 3 /5 -7 5 /7 ].
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 S H A P I N G OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

M uḥam m ad m u st have believed th at these w ere tru e revela­

tions, and therefore could n o t have co n tem p lated deliberately
p ro d u cin g any verses and passing them off as revelation.
N evertheless the Q ur’ān speaks o f vario u s w ays in w h ich
changes com e a b o u t b y the initiative o f G o d . G o d m ay cause
M uḥam m ad to fo rg et som e verses; b u t, if he does so, he w ill
reveal o th e r verses in th eir place.
W e shall cause y o u to recite, and y o u shall n o t fo rg e t
E xcept w h a t G o d w ills . . . [87.6f.]
F o r w hatever verse w e cancel o r cause (th e m essen g er) to
fo rg et w e b rin g a b e tte r o r the like. [2 .1 0 6 /0 ]
T h e follow ing verse p ro b ab ly also refers to this, b u t it could
also refer to the fo rg ettin g o f m atters o th e r th an rev elatio n s:
. . . and rem em ber y o u r L o rd w h en y o u fo rg et, and say:
P erhaps m y L o rd w ill g u ide m e to so m eth in g n earer the
tru th ( rashad) th an this. [1 8 .2 4 /3 ]
T h ere are also verses w h ich speak o f G o d deleting o r o th e r­
w ise rem o v in g and ch an g in g certain passages.
God will delete or confirm what he will; and with him is
the ‘ mother’ o f the Book. [13.39]
When we substitute one verse for another – and God
knows best what he sends down – they say, You ( Muḥam-
m a d ) are sim ply an in v e n to r; n ay m o st o f th em do n o t
k now . [1 6 .1 0 1 /3 ]
T w o o th e r verses w h ich are p ro b ab ly relevant to this topic are:
W e have m ade changes ( ? ) in this Q u r’ān th a t th ey m ig h t
be rem inded. [1 7 .4 1 /3 ]
I f w e so w ill, w e shall assuredly take aw ay w h a t w e have
revealed to y ou. [1 7 .8 6 /8 ]
In the lig h t o f all these verses it can n o t be denied th a t som e
revision o f the Q u r’ān (a s it w as publicly p ro claim ed ) to o k
place. T h is w as adm itted b y M uslim scholars in th eir d o ctrin e
o f a b ro g atio n ( an-nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh ). T h e idea u n d e r­
lying the do ctrin e is th a t certain com m ands to th e M uslim s
in the Q ur’ān w ere o n ly o f tem p o rary application, an d th a t
w hen circum stances changed th ey w ere ab ro g ated o r replaced

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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

b y others. Because th e com m ands w ere th e w o rd o f G o d ,

h o w ev er, th ey con tin u ed to be recited as p a rt o f th e Q u r’ān .
T h u s th e com m and to spend a considerable p a rt o f the n ig h t
in p rayer, given a t the b eg in n in g o f sura 73 w as ab ro g ated o r
cancelled b y the lo n g verse [20] at th e en d , d o ubtless because
in view o f the public reponsibilities o f M uḥam m ad and the
leading M uslim s at M edina it w as u ndesirable th at th ey sh o u ld
be aw ake m u ch o f the n ig h t. T h e q u o tatio n s ju st given, h o w ­
ever, i f taken at th eir face value, indicate so m eth in g m o re
extensive than is contem p lated in th e d o ctrin e o f ab ro g atio n .
I f d ue atten tio n is also paid to the w o rd s in 75.17 sp o k en b y
God (or perhaps the angels) to Muḥammad: ‘ours it is to put
it together and recite it’, the process of ‘collecting’ separate
passages to form suras would also be undertaken by Muḥam-
mad as he followed a divine initiative; the word here trans­
lated ‘p u t to g e th e r’, ja m ', is th e w o rd later used fo r th e
‘co llectio n ’ o f the Q u r ’ān after M uḥam m ad’s d eath .1
T o com plete this su rv ey o f th e possibilities o f revision
a n o th e r im p o rta n t passage m u st b e q u o ted [2 2 .5 2 /1f.]:
W e have n o t sent before y o u ( M u ḥ am m ad ) an y m essenger
o r p ro p h e t, b u t th at, w h en he form ed his desire, Satan th rew
(s o m e th in g ) in to his fo rm u la tio n ; so G o d ab ro g ated w h a t
Satan th re w in ; th en G o d adjusts his signs ( o r v erses) . . .
th a t he m ay m ake w h a t Satan has th ro w n in a test fo r the
diseased o f h eart an d th e h ard -h earted . . . and th a t those
w ith k n o w led g e m ay k n o w th a t it is th e tru th fro m y o u r
L o rd and believe in i t . . .

T h is verse is usually illustrated b y th e sto ry o f th e ‘satanic

v e rse s’ in tru d ed in to sura 53 an d later cu t o u t2; b u t th ere is
n o th in g in th e text o f the passage to p rev en t so m eth in g sim ilar
h av in g happened in a n u m b e r o f o th e r cases. T h e u n d erly in g
principle is th a t som eth in g once proclaim ed and recited as
p a rt o f the Q u r ’ān cam e to be reg ard ed as satanic and th en
w as n o lo n g er regarded as belo n g in g to the Q u r’ān .
T h e use o f th e w o rd ‘a b ro g a te ’ ( yansakhu ) in this passage
differs fro m its usage in th e th e o ry o f ab ro g atio n , fo r in th e
latter th e ab ro g ated verses are still retained as p a rt o f th e
Q u r’ān . In passing it m ay b e n o te d th a t th e re te n tio n o f
ab ro g ated verses in th e tex t o f th e Q u r’ān as w e have it is a
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 S H A P I N G OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

confirm ation o f the accuracy o f the text, since it show s th a t

later textual scholars did n o t rem o u ld it in accordance w ith
th eir o w n conceptions. T h e discussion o f ab ro g atio n in Islam
has been volu m in o u s, b u t b elongs p rim arily to the sphere o f
jurisprudence. Som e o f the stan d ard w o rk s o f the ju rists like
the ‘E p istle ’ o f ash-S hāfi'ī (d .8 2 0 ) ,3 have sections o n vario u s
questions connected w ith a b ro g atio n , w hile th ere are also
special treatises on the subject w h ich list and discuss the
‘a b ro g a tin g ’ and ‘a b ro g a te d ’ verses o f the Q u r’ān .4 T h e
fifteen th -cen tu ry scholar as-S u y ū tī in his co m p en d iu m o f
Q u r ’ānic studies k n o w n as th e Itqān d evotes a b o u t h a lf a
dozen pages to the q u estio n .5 M any subtle p o in ts w ere raised
b y the jurists, and the co n cep tio n w as applied n o t o n ly to the
Q ur’ān b u t also to the Sunna ( o r practice o f M u ḥ am m ad ),
w hile it w as fu rth e r asserted th a t the laws o f the Jew s and
C hristians had been abro g ated b y th e revelation o f the Q u r’ān .
I f the later theories o f ju rists and o th ers are d istinguished
from w h a t the Q ur’ān itself says, it w o u ld seem th a t v ario u s
processes to o k place w hich m ay be co m p reh en d ed u n d e r the
term ‘re v isio n ’. It m ay be co njectured th a t M uḥam m ad carried
o u t this ‘ revision ’ in accordance w ith w h a t h e u n d ersto o d to
be divine guidance. P erh ap s this to o k the fo rm o f a re p etitio n
o f the revelation in the revised form . T h e re is b o u n d to rem ain
som e u n certain ty a b o u t details, b u t en o u g h has been said to
justify an exam ination o f the text o f th e Q u r’ān to d isco v er
detailed evidence o f revision.

2. E vidences o f rev isio n and alteratio n

T h e sim plest fo rm o f ‘re v isio n ’ is th e ‘co llectio n ’ o r p u ttin g
to g e th e r o f the sm all u n its in w h ich the rev elatio n o riginally
came. T h e re are g ro u n d s fo r th in k in g th a t this process w as
b eg u n b y M uḥam m ad him self, th a t is, th a t it w as c o n tin u o u s
w ith his receiving o f revelations. T h is seem s to b e im plied b y
75.17 w hich has already been m en tio n ed . T h e w h o le passage
ru n s:
M ove n o t y o u r to n g u e in it to d o it q u ick ly ;
o u rs is the collecting o f it and the reciting o f it;
w hen w e recite it follow th e recitin g o f it;
th ereafter o urs is the explaining o f it. [75.16-19]

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 S H A P I N G OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

confirm ation o f the accuracy o f the text, since it show s th a t

later textual scholars did n o t rem o u ld it in accordance w ith
th eir o w n conceptions. T h e discussion o f ab ro g atio n in Islam
has been volu m in o u s, b u t b elongs p rim arily to the sphere o f
jurisprudence. Som e o f the stan d ard w o rk s o f the ju rists like
the ‘E p istle ’ o f ash-S hāfi'ī (d .8 2 0 ) ,3 have sections o n vario u s
questions connected w ith a b ro g atio n , w hile th ere are also
special treatises on the subject w h ich list and discuss the
‘a b ro g a tin g ’ and ‘a b ro g a te d ’ verses o f the Q u r’ān .4 T h e
fifteen th -cen tu ry scholar as-S u y ū tī in his co m p en d iu m o f
Q u r ’ānic studies k n o w n as th e Itqān d evotes a b o u t h a lf a
dozen pages to the q u estio n .5 M any subtle p o in ts w ere raised
b y the jurists, and the co n cep tio n w as applied n o t o n ly to the
Q ur’ān b u t also to the Sunna ( o r practice o f M u ḥ am m ad ),
w hile it w as fu rth e r asserted th a t the laws o f the Jew s and
C hristians had been abro g ated b y th e revelation o f the Q u r’ān .
I f the later theories o f ju rists and o th ers are d istinguished
from w h a t the Q ur’ān itself says, it w o u ld seem th a t v ario u s
processes to o k place w hich m ay be co m p reh en d ed u n d e r the
term ‘re v isio n ’. It m ay be co njectured th a t M uḥam m ad carried
o u t this ‘ revision ’ in accordance w ith w h a t h e u n d ersto o d to
be divine guidance. P erh ap s this to o k the fo rm o f a re p etitio n
o f the revelation in the revised form . T h e re is b o u n d to rem ain
som e u n certain ty a b o u t details, b u t en o u g h has been said to
justify an exam ination o f the text o f th e Q u r’ān to d isco v er
detailed evidence o f revision.

2. E vidences o f rev isio n and alteratio n

T h e sim plest fo rm o f ‘re v isio n ’ is th e ‘co llectio n ’ o r p u ttin g
to g e th e r o f the sm all u n its in w h ich the rev elatio n o riginally
came. T h e re are g ro u n d s fo r th in k in g th a t this process w as
b eg u n b y M uḥam m ad him self, th a t is, th a t it w as c o n tin u o u s
w ith his receiving o f revelations. T h is seem s to b e im plied b y
75.17 w hich has already been m en tio n ed . T h e w h o le passage
ru n s:
M ove n o t y o u r to n g u e in it to d o it q u ick ly ;
o u rs is the collecting o f it and the reciting o f it;
w hen w e recite it follow th e recitin g o f it;
th ereafter o urs is the explaining o f it. [75.16-19]

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The most likely explanation here of the word ‘collecting’

(jam‘ ) is that passages which had originally come to Muḥam-
mad separately were now repeated for him in combination
w ith one an o th er. T h is explanation is b o rn e o u t b y o th e r
points. W h e n M uḥam m ad’s o p p o n en ts are challenged to p ro ­
duce a sura [1 0 .3 8 /9 ] o r ten suras [ 1 1 .1 3 /16] like w h a t has
been revealed to him , th e im plication is th a t th ere are already
in M uḥam m ad’s possession ten u n its w h ich m ay be called
‘su ra s’. T h e date o f the second passage is at latest early
M edinan, and th a t w o u ld m ake it possible fo r m an y o th e r
suras to have been added before M uḥam m ad’s death. A gain,
it has alw ays been held b y M uslim scholars th a t th e m y sterio u s
letters are p a rt o f the revealed text and w ere n o t added b y later
‘ collectors ’ ; and since th ere is a certain g ro u p in g to g e th e r o f
the suras w ith letters (as w ill be seen in the T ab le pp. 206-13),
it is pro b ab le th at these g ro u p s already existed as g ro u p s in
M uḥam m ad’s lifetim e. I f th e bismillāh is also p a rt o f the o ri­
ginal text, this w o u ld be a reason fo r th in k in g th a t th e co m ­
m encem ent o f the suras at least goes back to M uḥam m ad.
M oreover, the g reat v ariatio n in the len g th o f th e suras is
h ard ly accounted fo r b y differences o f subject, rh y m e o r form
– the type o f criterio n w h ich m ig h t have been used b y co l­
lectors ; and this suggests th at m uch o f the Q u r’ān w as arranged
in suras before the collectors began th eir w o rk . A lto g eth er,
then, it is likely th a t m u ch o f the w o rk o f ‘co lle c tin g ’ h ad been
perform ed b y M uḥam m ad g u id ed b y a co n tin u in g process o f
revelation.
N ext it m ay be noticed th a t n o t o n ly w ere passages placed
to g e th e r to form suras b u t th at, w h en this w as d o n e, som e
ad aptation to o k place. O n e piece o f evidence fo r this is th e
occurrence o f h idden rh y m es.6 It w o u ld seem th a t som etim es,
w h en a passage w ith one assonance w as added to a su ra w ith a
different assonance, phrases w ere added to give it th e latter
assonance. A s an exam ple o f this, sura 23.12-16 m ay be
analysed.

( 1 2 ) la-qad k h alaq n ā l-in sī na m in sulāla / m in ṭīn

(1 3 ) th u m m a ja 'a ln ā-h u n u ṭfa / f ī q arārin m āk īn
(1 4 ) th u m m a k h alaq n ā n -n u ṭ fata 'alaq a /
fa-khalaqnā l-‘alaqata m u ḍg h a /
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 S H A P I N G OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

fa-khalaqnā 1-m udghata ‘iẓām an /

fa-kasaw nā l-' izām a laḥ m an /
thum m a ansha’n ā-h u k halqan akhara /
fa-tabāraka llāh u ahsanu l-k h āliqīn
(1 5 ) th u m m a in n a-k u m b a 'da d h ālika la-m ay y itū n
(1 6 ) thum m a in n a-k u m yaw m a 1-qiyām ati tu b 'a th ū n
T h e translation m ig h t ru n as follow s:
(1 2 ) W e have created m an o f an extract / o f clay
(1 3 ) T h e n w e m ade him a d ro p / in a receptacle sure
(1 4 ) T h e n w e created the d ro p a clot,
then w e created the clo t a m orsel,
then w e created the m orsel bones,
then w e clothed the bones w ith flesh,
then w e p rodu ced him a new creature ; /
blessed be G od the best o f creators.
(1 5 ) T h e n after th at y o u are dead,
(1 6 ) then on resu rrectio n -d ay y o u are raised again.

In this exam ple it is to be n o ted th at the verses as th ey stand

rhym e in -ī( l ) – in fact -īn o r -ūп – w hich is the assonance o f
the sura as a w hole. V erse 14, h o w ev er, is u n u su ally lo n g , and
m o reo v er can be b ro k en u p into six sh o rt verses, five o f w hich
rhym e in - a, w hile the sixth, w h ich is superfluous to th e sense,
gives the rhym e in -īn. T h e sam e rh y m e in -a can also be
found in verses 12 and 13 b y d ro p p in g the co n clu d in g phrase.
W ith the om ission o f the rh y m e-p h rases verses 12 to 14
co n stitu te a little passage o f seven verses rh y m in g in -a ,
describing the generatio n o f m an as a sign o f G o d 's creative
pow er. It m ay be n o ted th a t the w o rd sulāla , translated ‘ex­
tr a c t’ to su it the fo llow ing phrase, m ay also m ean ‘the
choicest p a rt o f a th in g ’ o r ‘w h at is d raw n g en tly o u t ’ and so
‘sem en ’; in the o n ly o th e r instance o f the w o rd in th e Q u r’ān
it is stated that, w hile the first m an w as created fro m clay, his
p ro g e n y cam e ‘from a sulāla o f base w a te r’ [3 2 .8 /7 ]. T h u s
the rem oval o f the rh y m e-p h rases seem s to give a b e tte r and
clearer sense. It m ay fu rth e r be supposed th at verses 15 and 16
w ere added as p a rt o f th e ad ap tatio n o f th e passage to its
place in this sura. T h e passage w hich im m ediately follow s,
23.17-22, has m arks o f hav in g been sim ilarly dealt w ith ; w h en
the co ncluding phrases w ith the rh y m es are detached, there

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are traces o f an assonance in f ā ‘il (n am ely , ṭarāʼ iq, faw ākih,

e tc .). A n u m b er o f o th e r passages appear to have been treated
in the sam e w ay .7
O f special in terest are o n e o r tw o cases w h ere th e rh y m e o f
the sura changes. In sura 3, fo r exam ple, th e first p a rt (u p to
a b o u t verse 2 0 /1 8 ) 8 rh y m es in - ā( l ), and so does th e end,
fro m verse 190/87 to v erse 200. T h e large m iddle section,
how ever, has the rh y m e in - ī( l ). N ear th e p o in t w h ere th e first
change occurs stands a passage [33 / 0-41/3 6 ] dealing w ith the
story of Mary and Zechariah, in which several of the verses –
namely, 37/2, 38/33, 39a/3b, 40/35,41/36 – rhyme inā- (l)
while it seems possible that the other verses have had phrases
added to them to carry the rhyme -ī(l); e.g. the end of 36/1
w o u ld be ash-shayṭ ān if ar-rajīm is rem o v ed .9 T h u s it lo o k s as
if a p o rtio n w ith the rh y m e -ī(l ) had been inserted in to a sura
w hich originally rh y m ed in -ā ( l ) and an attem p t m ade to
dovetail the tw o pieces to g eth er. T h e im pression is stre n g th ­
ened w h en it is noticed th at th e rh y m e -ī( l ) occurs at th e end
o f verse 1 8 /1 6 carried b y a p hrase w ith a difficult c o n stru ctio n
w hich leads on to 2 1 /0 ra th e r th an to 1 9 /1 7 and 2 0 /1 8 -1 9 .
O th e r instances o f som eth in g sim ilar co n n ected w ith a change
o f rhym e occur in 13.2-4 and 1 9 .5 1 /2 -5 8 /9 ; b u t these cases
are n o t so clear.
T h e re are, again, m an y passages in w h ich th e rh y m e-
phrases can be detached w ith o u t revealing an o ld er rh y m e
u n d ern eath . In these cases o ne can n o t b e certain th a t revision
has taken place, since (a s n o ted ab o v e o n pp. 7 0 -1 ) an otiose,
and therefore detachable, rh y m e-p h rase o ften appears to m ark
th e close o f a verse. W h e n , h o w ev er, such a phrase is fo u n d at
th e end o f a n u m b e r o f consecutive verses [as in 6 .9 5 -9 , 102-4]
it is reasonable to assum e th a t it has been inserted in to an
originally u n rh y m ed passage in o rd e r to give it th e rh y m e o f
the sura. In tw o cases [6 .8 4 -7 ; 38.45-8] this seem s to have
been d o n e w ith a list o f n am es; and th ere is so m eth in g co m ­
parable in 1 9 .5 1 /2 -5 7 /8 .
A n o th e r w ay in w h ich passages have been ad ap ted is
illustrated b y 6 .141/2 -1 4 4 /5 . T h ese verses can n o t be g ram ­
m atically co n stru ed as th ey stan d , b u t each v erse m ay be
divided in to tw o parts. T h e first parts b y them selves give a list
o f G o d ’s b o u n ties in th e p ro d u ce o f th e soil an d anim als; b u t
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in to this list sentences (th e second p a rts) have been in tro d u ced
co m b atin g pagan fo o d -tab o o s. A gain in 7 . 5 7 / 5 , 5 8 /6 the sign
o f G o d ’s goodness in the revival o f dead land and the v ary in g
response o f different soils – perhaps a sim ile o f the v ary in g
response o f m en to the divine m essage – has been tran sfo rm ed
b y inserted sentences in to a co rro b o ra tio n o f th e re su rre c tio n ;
the insertions are m arked b y a su d d en change o f p ro n o u n
from ‘h e ’ to ‘w e ’, referrin g to G od.
In ad d itio n to these changes w h ich seem to have tak en
place w hen the passage w as adapted to its place in a sura,
there are m any o th e r evidences o f rev isio n and alteratio n . It
should be theoretically possible to revise a passage in such a
w ay th a t no m ark o f th e p atch in g rem ains, b u t in practice a
careful reader w ill often be able to d etect th e alteratio n th ro u g h
som e unevenness in th e style. T h e re are indeed m an y ro u g h ­
nesses o f this k ind, and these, it is here claim ed, are fu n d a­
m ental evidence fo r revision. Besides th e p o in ts already
noticed – h idden rhym es, and rh y m e-p h rases n o t w o v en in to
the texture o f the passage – th ere are the fo llo w in g : a b ru p t
changes o f rh y m e ; re p etitio n o f th e sam e rh y m e -w o rd o r
rh y m e-p h rase in adjo in in g verses; th e in tru sio n o f an ex tran e­
ous subject into a passage o th erw ise h o m o g en eo u s; a differing
treatm en t o f the sam e subject in n e ig h b o u rin g verses, o ften
w ith rep etitio n o f w o rd s and p h rases; breaks in g ram m atical
c o n stru ctio n w hich raise difficulties in exegesis ; a b ru p t changes
in the len g th o f verses ; su d d en changes o f th e d ram atic situa­
tio n , w ith changes o f p ro n o u n fro m sin g u lar to p lural, fro m
second to th ird p erso n , and so o n ; th e ju x tap o sitio n o f
ap p aren tly c o n tra ry statem en ts; th e ju x tap o sitio n o f passages
o f different date, w ith the in tru sio n o f late phrases in to early
verses. So com m o n are these features in th e Q u r’ān th a t th ey
have often been reg ard ed as characteristics o f its style and in
no need o f fu rth e r stu d y o r explanation. T h is is n o t the case,
how ever. It is here b ein g arg u ed th at these features o f the
Q ur’ān are m o st sim ply explained b y su p p o sin g a m easure o f
revision and a lteratio n ; b u t even if this view is rejected, som e
explanation o f these features is still called for. M eanw hile
w h a t has been said a b o u t th e u n evenness and ro u g h n ess o f
Q u r ’ānic style m ay be am plified.
G losses are a com m o n feature o f an cient G reek, L atin and

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o th e r m anuscripts. T h e y are sh o rt explanations o f som e

o b scu rity , presum ably first w ritte n o n the m argin b y som e
reader and then m istakenly in co rp o rated in the text b y a later
copyist. W hile it is d o u b tfu l if the Q ur’ān contains an y glosses
in the strict sense, there is so m eth in g ap p ro ach in g a gloss in
2.85 /7 9 . B eginning at the p rev io u s verse the passage ru n s:
(R e c a ll) w hen w e m ade a co v en an t w ith y o u (o n the fo l­
low ing te rm s ): Y o u shall n o t shed y o u r o w n (sc. one
a n o th e r’s ) b lo o d ; and y o u shall n o t expel yourselves fro m
y o u r dw ellings. T h e n y o u confirm ed it, yo u rselv es b ein g
w itnesses.
T h e n there y o u are k illing yourselves, and expelling a
p a rty o f y o u from th eir dw ellings, as y o u join to g e th e r
against them in g u ilt and en m ity ; / and if th ey com e to y o u
as prisoners, y o u shall ran so m th e m ; / and it is fo rb id d en
to y o u , th eir expulsion. D o y o u believe . . .

T h e clause a b o u t ran so m in g p risoners seems an in tru sio n here.

Bell in his Translation considers th a t it b elongs to the term s o f
the covenant in the p rev io u s verse, w h ich is possible b u t n o t
certain.10 I f this clause is rem oved, the fo llo w in g clause, w h ich
m ay th en be translated ‘alth o u g h it is fo rb id d en to y o u ’ is
perfectly clear w ith o u t th e ad d itio n o f ‘th eir e x p u lsio n ’,
ikhrāju-hum . T h e re is th u s a stro n g p resu m p tio n th a t ‘th eir
e x p u lsio n ’ is a gloss o r ad d itio n , m ade after the clause ab o u t
ran so m in g prisoners had been in tru d ed . O th e r possible ex­
am ples o f such additio n s o r ex p lan ato ry su b stitu tio n s w ill be
fo u n d in : 6.12, 20; 7 .9 2 /0 ; 2 1 .4 7 /8 , 104; 27.7; 4 1 .1 7 /1 6 ;
7 6 .16.11
E xplanations o f unu su al w o rd s o r phrases are som etim es
added in the form o f an extension o f the passage. T h e re are
tw elve instances o f such extensions b e g in n in g w ith the w o rd s :
‘W h a t has let y o u k n o w w h a t . . . is ? ’12 A sh o rt descrip tio n
th en follow s. It is clear th at som e o f the d escriptions have
been added at a later tim e, since th ey do n o t co rresp o n d to the
sense in w hich the w o rd o r phrase w as orig in ally taken. T h e
m o st strik in g case is at the end o f sura 101 [verses 9 /6 - 1 1 /8 ] :
‘ . . . his m o th e r shall be hāwiya. A n d w h a t has let y o u k n o w
w h at it is? A scorch in g fire .’ H āwiya p resu m ab ly m eant
‘ childless ’ ow in g to the d eath o r m isfo rtu n e o f h er son ; b u t

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the add itio n suggests th at it is a nam e o f H ell. A som ew hat

sim ilar passage is 90.12-16. T h e ad d itio n is seldom an exact
definition o f w h at is to be explained.
A d d itio n s and insertions o f o th e r k inds m ay be illustrated
fro m the sh o rte r suras. In sura 91 it is ev id en t th at the m ain
passage, w h en first revealed, ended at verse 10; b u t this is fo l­
low ed b y a sum m ary o f the sto ry o f T h a m ū d, w h ich m ay
either have been added to illustrate the m oral, o r sim ply
placed here because o f the sim ilar rhym e. V erses 6 and 7 o f
sura 88 m ay be m arked as an in sertio n b y the different rh y m e,
and verses 33 and 34 o f sura 78 b y the b reak in g o f th e co n n ec­
tio n betw een verses 32 and 35. In sura 87 a sudden change in
the dram atic situatio n at verse 16 m arks an ad d itio n w h ich
m ig h t have follow ed im m ediately o n th e o riginal revelation,
b u t is p ro b ab ly m uch later. In sura 74 the passage 31-31/4 is
clearly m arked as an insertio n b y the different style and length
o f verse. Som e o f these add itio n s m ig h t conceivably be due to
a later collector o r read er; b u t this is unlikely.
T h e re are o th e r add itio n s, ho w ev er, w h ich can h ard ly have
been m ade w ith o u t a u th o rity . T h e m isplaced phrase o f
2 .8 5 /7 9 , fo r instance, th o u g h it looks like a gloss w ritten on
the m argin and taken in b y a co p y ist a t th e w ro n g place, m akes
a real add itio n to the reg u latio n laid d o w n . T h e re are few such
m isplacem ents, b u t sh o rt ad d itio n s w h ich m ake su bstantial
alterations to the sense are frequent. In 7 4 .56/5 w e have a
lim itation o f the freedom o f m an ’s choice w hich v irtu ally takes
back w h a t had been stated in verse 5 5 /4 ; cf. 76.29, 30;
1.28, 29. T h is corresp o n d s to the h ard en in g o f the d o ctrin e o f
pred estin atio n w hich to o k place in M edinan days. R eserva­
tions in tro d u ced b y ill ā, ‘e x c e p t’, are specially frequent. W e
m u st n o t, o f course, assum e th at ev ery such reserv atio n is a
later addition, b u t in a n u m b er o f cases there are in d ep en d en t
reasons for such an assu m p tio n , as in 87.7, and 95.6, w h ere illā
in tro d u ces a lo n g er verse, w h ich has characteristic M edinan
phraseology, in to an early passage w ith sh o rt rh y th m ic verses.
Such additions, m ak in g as th ey do a d istin ct m odification o f
the statem ent, m u st have been deliberately in tro d u ced . In at
least som e o f th em w e can discern the g ro u n d s fo r m aking the
exception.
L o n g er additions can som etim es be easily distinguished.

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T h u s in sura 73 a lo n g v erse occurs at th e en d w h ich , b y

co n tain in g a reference to M uslim s engaged in fig h tin g , is
clearly m arked as M edinan, and is recognized b y ev ery o n e as
being so. B ut th e rest o f th e sura, and especially the b eg in n in g ,
is in the sh o rt crisp verses characteristic o f early passages. T h e
reason fo r the a d d itio n is th a t th e passage a t th e b eg in n in g
recom m ended n ig h t-p ra y e r; b u t since this w as b eing o v e r­
done, it becam e necessary in M edina to counsel m o d eratio n .13
A d d itio n s in the m iddle o f suras are com m on. A few ex­
am ples w ill suffice. T h e first p a rt o f sura 19 has th e assonance
in -iyyā, b u t this is in te rru p te d b y verses 3 4 /5 to 4 0 /1 , w h ich
have the co m m on - ī( l ) assonance. T h ese verses fo llo w an
account o f M ary and Jesus, an d , b y rejecting the idea o f G o d
hav in g offspring, criticize a p o p u lar m isconception o f C h ris­
tian doctrine. 3 .1 3 0 /2 5 -1 3 4 /2 8 w a rn against th e tak in g o f
excessive interest, and prom ise heavenly rew ard to those w h o
act generously. T h e passage ev id en tly closed w ith th e rh y m e-
phrase o f 134/28, b u t tw o verses follow g iv in g a fu rth e r
description o f those w h o d o w ell b y rep en tin g and asking fo r­
giveness, and c o n tain in g a prom ise o f h eav en ly rew ard w h ich
is largely a re p e titio n o f th a t already m ade. T h o se w h o have
transgressed b u t are p rep ared to refo rm are th u s included.
V erses 5 to 8 o f sura 22 arg u e fo r the resu rrectio n as in line
w ith G o d ’s p o w er oth erw ise m anifest, and close b y scoffing
at those w h o ‘w ith o u t k n o w led g e, guidance, o r lig h t-g iv in g
b o o k ’ argue to the co n trary . V erses 9, 10 jo in to this ra th e r
aw k w ard ly and th reaten n o t o n ly fu tu re p u n ish m en t b u t
‘hum iliatio n in this life ’, a M edinan th reat, to th o se w h o so
act. T h e change o f to n e and a ttitu d e show s clearly e n o u g h
th a t these verses did n o t b elo n g to th e o rig in al passage. In
sura 37.73-132 th ere are accounts o f v ario u s Biblical p ersons,
closing in th ree cases w ith th e refrain : ‘ T h u s do w e rew ard
those w h o d o w ell; v erily he is o ne o f o u r servants b e lie v in g ' .
In the case o f A braham , h o w ev er, this refrain [ 110f.] is fol­
low ed b y a statem en t a b o u t th e p o ste rity o f A b rah am and
Isaac [1 1 2f.]. T h is m u st have been added after the passage w as
com posed.
A n o th e r im p o rta n t feature o f Q u r’ān ic style is th at in m an y
cases a passage has alternative co n tin u atio n s, w h ich follow one
a n o th e r in th e presen t text. T h e second o f the alternatives is
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m arked b y a break in sense and b y a b reak in gram m atical

co n stru ctio n , since the co n n ectio n is n o t w ith w h at im m edi­
ately precedes, b u t w ith w h a t stands som e distance b ack ;
there m ay also be the rep etitio n o f a w o rd o r phrase. T h u s
23-63 / 5, w hich speaks o f m en co n tin u in g a defective course o f
conduct, is follow ed b y three passages in tro d u ced b y hand
idhā , ‘until w h e n ’, com m encing w ith 6 4 /6 , 7 7 /9 and 9 9 /1 0 1
respectively. It is possible, w ith som e strain in g , to jo in verse
7 7 /9 to 7 6 /8 , b u t verse 99/101 w ill n o t jo in to 9 8 /1 0 0 . T h e
w o rd s ḥ attā idhā , ho w ev er, req u ire before th em a reference
to som ething c o n tin u in g . V erses 9 9 /1 0 1 f. are in fact the p ro p e r
co n tin u atio n o f 63 / 5, as is e v id en t if w e read th em to g e th e r ;
the o th e r verses in tro d u ced b y ḥ atta idhā are alternative and
presum ably later co n tin u atio n s o f 6 3 /5 . A gain, 5 .4 2 /6 b eg in s
w ith a phrase sammā' ūna li-l-kadhib , w h ich is en tirely o u t o f
connection w ith w h a t precedes. T h e sam e p hrase occurs in
4 1 /5 , h o w e v e r; and, if the p a rt o f 41 / 5 fro m this phrase to the
end is o m itted, 4 2 /6 fits perfectly to th e earlier p a rt o f 4 1 /5 .
H ere also then, there are alternative co n tin u atio n s. A n o th e r
exam ple w ill be fou n d at th e end o f sura 39 w h ere th ere is a
verse w hich appears isolated [7 5 ]. It follow s a Ju d g e m e n t-
scene and ev idently belo n g s to it; b u t the scene is already
finished ; ju d g em en t has been g iven, th e u n b elievers have been
sen t to G ehenna, the p ious h av e en tered the G ard en ; th en w e
find ourselves back at th e scene o f Ju d g e m e n t w h ere ju d g e ­
m en t w ill be given w ith tru th . T h is p hrase, w h ich has already
occurred in verse 69, indicates w h a t w as the o riginal p o sitio n
o f verse 75 ; it follow ed th e first phrase o f 69 and com pleted
the scene; at som e later stage it w as displaced b y th e m uch
lo n g er d escription in verses 69-74.14
O ccasionally a change o f rh y m e m ay accom pany such a
su b stitu tio n . T h u s 80.34-37 have th eir assonance in -īh, w hile
verses 38-42, w hich join equally w ell to v erse 33, have the - a
assonance w hich ru n s th ro u g h th e w h o le o f the rest o f the
sura. M ore frequently th e occurrence o f the sam e rh y m e-w o rd
o r -phrase is a sign th a t such a su b stitu tio n has been m ade,
since the new versio n ends w ith the sam e rh y m e as th a t w h ich
it replaced. T h u s in sura 2 verses 102/96 and 103 /9 7 b o th end
in law kānū ya'lam ūna, ‘if th ey h ad k n o w n ’, w h ich gives a
p resu m p tio n th a t the latter verse w as in ten d ed to replace the

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form er. In sura 3 the sim ilar en d in g indicates th a t verse 144/38

is a su b stitu te fo r verse 145 /3 9 . A sim ilar p h en o m en o n is to be
fo u n d in 9 .1 1 7 /8 , 1 1 8 /9 ; 34. 52 / 1, 5 3 /2 ; 45.2 8 /7 , 29 / 8 ;
7 2 .2 4 / 5 , 27–8. In such cases the alternative c o n tin u atio n s often
stand in reverse o rd e r o f date, th e later co m in g first, b u t this
is n o t an invariable rule.15
F u rth e r evidence o f alteratio n and revision m ay be o b tain ed
b y ap p ro ach in g th e Q u r’ān fro m th e sta n d p o in t o f th e su b ject-
m atter and considerin g passages dealing w ith th e situ atio n s
w hich presented special difficulties o r pro b lem s to M uḥam m ad
and the M uslim s. In these passages th ere is o ften m u ch co n ­
fusion. A sim ple case is th a t o f th e o rd in an ce co n cern in g
fasting. W h e n he rem o v ed to M edina, M uḥam m ad h o p ed fo r
su p p o rt fro m the Jew s and show ed h im self w illing to learn
fro m them . T ra d itio n says th a t h e in tro d u ced th e Jew ish fast
o f the ' Ā shū rā, w hich consisted o f th e D a y o f A to n em en t
preceded b y som e days o f special d ev o tio n . L ater, the m o n th
o f R am aḍān w as prescribed. N o w , in 2 .1 8 3 /7 9 -1 8 5 /1 these
tw o th in g s lie side b y sid e; v erse 1 8 4 /0 p rescribes a fast o f a
certain n u m b e r o f days, verse 1 8 5/1, th e m o n th o f R am adan.
T h e tw o verses are, o f course, read consecutively, and th e
‘certain n u m b e r o f d a y s ’ o f th e fo rm er v erse is held to be
m ade m o re precise b y th e m en tio n o f th e m o n th o f R am adan
in the latter. B ut ‘a certain n u m b e r o f d a y s ’ is n o t n atu rally
eq u iv alen t to a m o n th , and th e re p etitio n o f phrases in th e tw o
verses show s th a t th e o ne w as in ten d ed to replace th e o th er.
T h e verses are, in fact, altern ativ e c o n tin u atio n s o f 183/7 9 .16
T h e m arriage law s in su ra 4 are an o th e r clear case o f
alternative con tin u atio n s. V erse 2 3 /7 lays d o w n th e fo rb id d en
degrees o f relationship , and rep ro d u ces th e M osaic list w ith
som e ad ap tatio n to A rab custom . T h a t this w as deliberate is
sh o w n b y 2 6 /3 1 , w h ich states th a t ‘ G o d desires . . . to guide
y o u in the custom s o f th o se w h o w ere before y o u ’. A t a later
tim e, h o w ev er, som e relaxation becam e necessary, and
2 5 / 29–30 and perh ap s 2 7 /3 2 a w ere su b stitu ted fo r 2 6 /3 1 ,
allow ing m arriage w ith slaves. F in ally 24 / 8, w h ich gives am ple
lib erty , w as su b stitu ted fo r 2 5 /2 9 -3 0 , an d 2 8 /3 2 b w as ad d ed
to give a verse-ending . T h e sim ilar en d in g s o f 2 6 /3 1 , 2 7 /3 2 a
and 2 8 /3 2 b sh o w th a t su b stitu tio n s have been m ade.
T h e change o f qibla (th e d irectio n to be faced in p ra y e r)

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affords a n o th e r exam ple. T h e passage dealing w ith it is v ery

confused [2 .1 4 2 /3 6 -15 2 /4 7 ]; th e p o rtio n fro m 141/39 especi­
ally is unintelligible as it stands. W h e n analysed, h o w ev er, the
verses tu rn o u t to con tain (a ) a p riv ate rev elatio n to the
P ro p h e t o f th e so lu tio n to his p ro b lem [1 4 4 /3 9 a, 1 4 9 /4 ];
( b ) a public announ cem en t, u sin g p a rt o f ( a ) accom panied b y
an appeal fo r obedience based o n g ra titu d e [1 4 4 /3 9 a, 1 5 0 /4 5 -
1 5 2 /4 7 ]; and (c) the final fo rm o f th e o rd in an ce [1 4 4 /3 9 a,
144/39b ]·
T h e process o f the in tro d u c tio n o f the relig io n o f A b rah am
is outlin ed fo r us in 2 .1 3 0 /2 4 -1 4 1 /3 5 . I t takes th e fo rm o f
answ ers to the assertion o f Jew s and C hristians [1 3 5 /2 9 a ]:
‘ T h e y say: “ Be ye Jew s o r C h ristians and ye w ill be g u id e d '' '.
T h is is follow ed b y th ree re to rts in tro d u ced b y ‘S a y ’. V erses
139/3 -1 4 1 /3 5 claim th a t th e P ro p h e t and his follow ers have a
perfect rig h t to serve G o d in th e ir o w n w ay, as d id A b rah am
and the p a tria rc h s; these c o n stitu ted an in d ep en d en t religious
co m m u n ity lo n g since passed aw ay. T h is passage w as c u t off
and replaced b y 1 3 6 /0 , 1 3 8 /2 , in w h ich it is claim ed th at
M uḥam m ad and his follow ers stan d in th e line o f A b rah am
and th e patriarchs, M oses, Jesus and all th e p ro p h ets. It w as
again m odified b y th e in sertio n o f 1 3 7 /1 in place o f 138/2.
F inally, th e sh o rt re to rt o f 135/2 9 b w as w ritte n in, p ro fessin g
th e creed o f A brah am , w h o w as a ḥ anīf and n o p o ly th eist.
V erses 130/24 to 134/28 are a fu rth e r ad d itio n .
T h e qu estio n o f th e p ilgrim age, w h ich w as p a rt o f the
religion o f A braham , also caused difficulty. T h e cerem o n y
w as recognized and M uḥam m ad’s follow ers w ere counselled
to take p a rt in it, b u t as ḥ anīfs , follow ers o f th e relig io n o f
A b raham , n o t as poly th eists [2 2 .3 1 /2 ]. Sacrificial anim als w ere
to be sent to Mecca [2 2 .3 4 / 5a, 33 / 4 ]. W h e n , ho w ev er, M uslim
attacks o n M eccan caravans, an d especially th e battle o f Badr,
led to blo o d sh ed , it becam e d an g ero u s fo r an y M uslim to visit
Mecca. It w as therefo re laid d o w n th a t the anim als dedicated
fo r sacrifice m ig h t be slaughtered at ho m e and th eir flesh g iv en
to the p o o r. T h is can be deduced fro m 2 2 .2 9 /3 0 -3 7 /8.17
F ig h tin g in the sacred m o n th s also caused difficulty.
M uḥam m ad’s attitu d e is m ade clear b y the analysis o f su ra 9.
T h ese m o n th s w ere at first recognized as a p erio d o f truce, b y
a deliverance w hich consisted o f 9.36a, 2, 5; b u t since th e

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intercalary m o n th , w hich k e p t the A rab lu n ar year in co n ­

fo rm ity w ith the seasons, w as decreed from Mecca, m isu n d er­
standings a b o u t w hich m o n th s w ere sacred w o u ld so o n arise.
H ence the deliverance w as issued w h ich n o w stands as 9.36,
37, abolishing the intercalary m o n th and decreeing th a t w ar
w ith the p olytheists w as to be carried o n co n tin u o u sly . T h e
discarded verses dealing w ith the sacred m o n th s n o w appear
as verses 2 and 5, linked u p w ith a ren u n ciatio n o f agreem ents
w ith polytheists, p ro b ab ly the tre a ty o f al-Ḥ ud ay b iy a. A s the
heading inform s us, h o w ev er, this is also a p ro clam atio n to be
m ade at the p ilg rim ag e; and it w as p resu m ab ly altered and
added to fo r this p u rp o se after th e fall o f M ecca.18
T h e defeat o f the M uslim s at U ḥ u d w as a severe b lo w to
th e confidence o f the M uslim s. T h e passage dealing w ith the
battle is in g reat confu sio n [3 .1 0 2 /9 7 -1 7 9 /4 ]. A nalysis show s
th a t there w as an address in ten d ed fo r deliv ery befo re the
b attle, w hich consisted o f verses 102/97, 103/98-9, 1 1 2 /06а,
115 / 1- 117/3, 123 / 19, 139/ 3-143/ 37, 145/ 39-154/44, 158/2,
160/54. P a rt o f this, perh ap s fro m 139/3 o n w ard , was re ­
delivered, w ith a few alterations, som e tim e after the battle.
R eactions to the defeat ap p ear in a re p ro o f to th e P ro p h e t
h im self fo r having, w ith o u t a u th o rity , pro m ised the assistance
o f angels [verses 121/17, 1 2 4 /0 , 125/1 and parts o f 1 2 6 /2 -
1 2 9 /4 ]. T h a t w as later revised as an explanation and reb u k e
to his follow ers. T h a t he had been inclined to speak an g rily
to th em is indicated in th e p riv ate verse [1 5 9 /3 ]. P a rt o f this
‘r o u g h ’ speech m ay be em bedded in 1 5 2 /4 5 -1 5 4 /4 8 , a passage
w hich has been revised and added to in a m ilder sense later.
In fact, w e can see the attitu d e to th e defeat g ro w in g g rad u ally
calm er and m ore k in d ly to w ard s th e faithful. F inally, w h en
the set-back had been ov erco m e, p a rt o f th e orig in al address
w as used again, w ith a new c o n tin u atio n added after 11 0 /06a,
in p rep aratio n p ro b ab ly fo r th e attack o n th e Jew ish trib e o f
a n -N a ḍ īr [ 1 1 0 /0 6 b -1 1 4 / 0 ].19
T h e g reat v olum e o f evidence, o f w h ich w h a t has been p re ­
sented here is o n ly a sam ple, show s th a t th e Q u r’ān is far from
bein g a straig h tfo rw ard collection ( o u t o f chro n o lo g ical
o rd e r) o f sh o rt passages o f a revealed text. T h e m atter is to o
com plex fo r an y sim ple ex p lanation o f this k in d . T h e v ast
n u m b e r o f dislocations and th e ro u g h n ess o f som e o f them
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can n o t sim ply be ascribed to ‘the Q u r’ānic s ty le ’. T h e

m o d ern scholar m ay seldom be able to give a co rrect so lu tio n
o f the problem s raised b y the dislocations, b u t it can su rely be
no lo n g er denied th a t th ere are pro b lem s o f this k in d . M y
personal view is th a t in the w o rk in g o u t o f so lu tio n s to these
problem s in his Translation R ichard Bell w as o ften successful.
T h e follow ing section, h o w ev er, presents a sm all p a rt o f his
view w h ich has n o t m et w ith th e sam e degree o f approval.

3. Bell’s h y p o th esis o f w ritte n d o cum ents

( a ) The hypothesis. T h e critical literary analysis o f th e Q u r’ān ,
besides p ro d u cin g th e k in d o f evidence g iv en in th e last sec­
tion, led R ichard Bell to form u late a p articu lar th e o ry a b o u t
the place o f w ritte n d o cu m en ts in th e ‘co lle c tio n ’ o f the
Q u r’ān . T h is th e o ry w as n o t sim ply th a t parts o f the Q u r’ān
had been w ritte n d o w n at a fairly early stage in M uḥam m ad’s
career, b u t m ore particu larly th a t th e occurrence in the m iddle
o f a sura o f a passage w h o lly u n related to the co n tex t w as to
be explained b y the su p p o sitio n th a t this passage had been
w ritte n on the back o f the ‘scrap o f p a p e r’ used fo r o ne o f the
n e ig h b o u rin g passages w h ich p ro p e rly b elo n g ed to th e sura.
Bell used the w o rd ‘p a p e r’ as a co n v en ien t term fo r an y k ind
o f w ritin g m aterial.
A s exam ples o f such passages o u t o f relation to the con tex t
Bell selected 75.16-19, 84.16-19, and 88.17-20. T h e arg u ­
m en t m ay be presen ted m o st clearly in th e case o f th e latter.
T h e sura begins w ith a descrip tio n o f the Ju d g e m e n t and the
fate o f the w icked, and th en co n tin u es w ith a p ictu re o f the
rig h teo u s
( 1 0 ) in a g ard en lo fty ( ' āliya )
(11) w herein th ey hear no b a b b lin g ; ( lāghiya )
( 1 2 ) therein is a sp rin g ru n n in g ; ( j āriya )
( 1 3 ) therein are couches u praised (m arfū ‘a)
( 1 4 ) and goblets set o u t (mawdū‘ a)
(1 5 ) and cushions in ro w s ( maṣf ūf a )
(1 6 ) and carpets spread. ( mabthūtha)
( 1 7 ) W ill th ey n o t lo o k at the cam els, h o w th ey have been
created ( khuliqat)
( 18) at th e heaven, h o w it has been u p lifte d ; (ru fi‘at)
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 S H A P I N G OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

can n o t sim ply be ascribed to ‘the Q u r’ānic s ty le ’. T h e

m o d ern scholar m ay seldom be able to give a co rrect so lu tio n
o f the problem s raised b y the dislocations, b u t it can su rely be
no lo n g er denied th a t th ere are pro b lem s o f this k in d . M y
personal view is th a t in the w o rk in g o u t o f so lu tio n s to these
problem s in his Translation R ichard Bell w as o ften successful.
T h e follow ing section, h o w ev er, presents a sm all p a rt o f his
view w h ich has n o t m et w ith th e sam e degree o f approval.

3. Bell’s h y p o th esis o f w ritte n d o cum ents

( a ) The hypothesis. T h e critical literary analysis o f th e Q u r’ān ,
besides p ro d u cin g th e k in d o f evidence g iv en in th e last sec­
tion, led R ichard Bell to form u late a p articu lar th e o ry a b o u t
the place o f w ritte n d o cu m en ts in th e ‘co lle c tio n ’ o f the
Q u r’ān . T h is th e o ry w as n o t sim ply th a t parts o f the Q u r’ān
had been w ritte n d o w n at a fairly early stage in M uḥam m ad’s
career, b u t m ore particu larly th a t th e occurrence in the m iddle
o f a sura o f a passage w h o lly u n related to the co n tex t w as to
be explained b y the su p p o sitio n th a t this passage had been
w ritte n on the back o f the ‘scrap o f p a p e r’ used fo r o ne o f the
n e ig h b o u rin g passages w h ich p ro p e rly b elo n g ed to th e sura.
Bell used the w o rd ‘p a p e r’ as a co n v en ien t term fo r an y k ind
o f w ritin g m aterial.
A s exam ples o f such passages o u t o f relation to the con tex t
Bell selected 75.16-19, 84.16-19, and 88.17-20. T h e arg u ­
m en t m ay be presen ted m o st clearly in th e case o f th e latter.
T h e sura begins w ith a descrip tio n o f the Ju d g e m e n t and the
fate o f the w icked, and th en co n tin u es w ith a p ictu re o f the
rig h teo u s
( 1 0 ) in a g ard en lo fty ( ' āliya )
(11) w herein th ey hear no b a b b lin g ; ( lāghiya )
( 1 2 ) therein is a sp rin g ru n n in g ; ( j āriya )
( 1 3 ) therein are couches u praised (m arfū ‘a)
( 1 4 ) and goblets set o u t (mawdū‘ a)
(1 5 ) and cushions in ro w s ( maṣf ūf a )
(1 6 ) and carpets spread. ( mabthūtha)
( 1 7 ) W ill th ey n o t lo o k at the cam els, h o w th ey have been
created ( khuliqat)
( 18) at th e heaven, h o w it has been u p lifte d ; (ru fi‘at)
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

( 1 9 ) at the m o u n tain s, h o w th ey have been set u p ; ( nuṣ ibat)

( 2 0 ) at the earth, h o w it has been laid flat? ( suṭiḥ at )
(2 1 ) So w arn. Y o u are o n ly a W arner . . . ( mudhakkir)

T h e arg u m en t here is as follow s. T h e passage 17-20 has n o

connection o f th o u g h t eith er w ith w h a t goes befo re o r w ith
w h a t com es a fter; and it is m ark ed off b y its rhym e. It is th u s
difficult to k n o w w h y it has been placed here. I f one assum es
th a t its p o sitio n has been g iven to it b y a co llecto r, o ne m ay
still ask w h e th e r a responsible co llector co uld n o t have fo u n d
a m ore suitable place fo r it. Bell’s h y p o th esis is th a t verses
17-20 have been placed here because th ey w ere fo u n d w ritte n
o n the back o f verses 13-16. H e fu rth e r h o ld s in this p articular
case th a t 13-16, w hich are m arked off b y rh y m e from the
preceding verses, w ere a later a d d itio n to these, and happened
to hav e been w ritte n o n th e b ack o f a ‘s c ra p ’ w h ich already
contained 17-20.
S om ething sim ilar is tru e o f 75.16-19. V erses 13-16
(p a rtly distinguished b y rh y m e, p artly b y le n g th ) seem to
have been added to 7-12, w h ich deal w ith th e L ast D ay , and
to have been w ritte n o n th e b ack o f th e early ‘sc ra p ’ co n tain ­
in g 16-19 (q u o te d ab o v e o n p. 89). In sura 84 th ere is n o
a b ru p t change o f rhym e, b u t verses 13-15 d e stro y the balance
o f the preceding piece, verses 7-12, w h ich is com plete as it
stands. In each case, th en , an a d d itio n has been m ade, and the
ad d itio n occupies appro x im ately the sam e space as the extran e­
ous passage w hich follow s. A sim ple ex planation o f the p o si­
tio n o f th e extraneous passage w o u ld th u s be to su p p o se th a t
it sto o d o n the scrap o f p ap er o n w h ich th e ad d itio n w as later
w ritten , and th a t the tw o sides o f th e pap er had been read and
copied consecutively w h en th e Q u r’ān cam e to be m ade u p
in the form o f a codex.
Sim ilar exam ples m ay be fo u n d th ro u g h o u t the Q u r’ān . T o
take an exam ple from n ear the b eg in n in g : 2 .1 5 /1 6 com pares
those w h o have accepted the P ro p h e t’s guidance and th en
g o n e back u p o n it to people w h o have lit a fire, w h ich has
th en g one o u t, leaving th em blin d ed in th e darkness. V erse
18/17, ‘ D eaf, du m b and blin d , th ey do n o t r e tu r n ’, ev id en tly
closes the passage, b u t verses 1 9 /1 8 , 2 0 /1 9 co n tain a n o th e r
sim ile: th e y are like people in a th u n d e r-sto rm , th e rain p o u rs

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d o w n , th e th u n d e r deafens them , th e lig h tn in g b lin d s them .

E v id en tly this is a parallel to 1 7 /1 6 and sh o u ld have preceded
18 / 1 7 . It has been added later. T h e re follow s a passage, 2 1 /19b,
22/20, u n co n n ected w ith th e co n tex t, appealing fo r th e w o r­
ship o f G o d and ad d u cin g signs o f his p o w er an d b o u n ty .
T h is appears to be co n tin u ed , after a break, in 2 8 /2 6 , 2 9 /2 7 .
N o w 2 7 /2 5 , w hile n o t ev id en tly an ad d itio n , is p ro b a b ly so,
fo r 2 6 /2 4 finishes w ith a reference to th e ‘re p ro b a te ’, w h ich
is conclusive eno u g h . B ut 2 7 /2 5 proceeds to describe a special
class o f ‘re p ro b a te s’, w h o violate a c o v en an t after h a v in g
m ade it. F u rth e r, w e find in verses 163 / 58-165/ 0a a passage
w hich, b y the use o f th e ra th e r u n usual w o rd andād , ‘p e e rs’ is
m arked as alm ost certain ly a co n tin u atio n o f 2 1 /1 9 b , 2 2 /2 0 ,
2 8 /2 6 , 2 9 /27. H ere w e have, n o t p reced in g b u t follo w in g , a
passage 165 / 0b -16 7 /2 , w h ich retu rn s to th e them e o f 161 / 56,
162/57, and m u st have b een in ten d ed as an ad d itio n to th a t
passage. T h is w hole section is an in terestin g exam ple o f h o w a
passage has been expanded b y ad ditions. T h e p o in t, h o w ev er,
here is th a t w e find a passage o rig in ally dealing w ith the w o r­
ship o f G o d ap p aren tly cu t u p , and the back o f the pieces used
fo r m aking insertion s in to o th e r passages.
A n in terestin g exam ple o f the sam e k in d is fo u n d in sura 9.
T h e last tw o verses o f this sura are trad itio n ally said to have
com e to the k n o w led g e o f Z ayd ib n -T h āb it w h en h e had
alm ost com pleted his task o f collecting th e Q u r’ān , and w ere
placed here as the m o st co n v en ien t p o sitio n at th e tim e. T h is
is evidently an attempt to account for the fact that there is a
break in connection between verses 127/8 and 128/9,and
another between 128/9 and 129/30. Thesetwoverses seemto
stand isolated, b u t 12 9 /3 0 w ill co n n ect w ell e n o u g h w ith
127/8, th o u g h the latter verse ends as if n o th in g m o re w ere to
be said. I t is a case o f so m eth in g h av in g been later added to a
passage, and w e m ay suppose th a t the b ack o f 1 28/9 w as used
to w rite it on. By som e accident (1 2 7 /8 had itself been u sed
fo r the w ritin g o f a n o th e r p assage) the b ack w as read b y th e
com pilers before th e ad d itio n . B ut this is n o t all; verse 40 o f
th e sam e sura stands isolated, th o u g h it ev id en tly req u ires
so m ething in fro n t o f it. T h e p ro n o u n ‘h im ’ m u st ev id en tly
refer to the P ro p h e t o f w h o m th ere has been n o m en tio n in
the context, b u t verse 1 28/9 speaks o f th e P ro p h e t, and if w e
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read verses 128/9 and 40 to g eth er w e g et a m o v in g appeal for

lo y alty to the P ro p h e t addressed to his follow ers. T h is has
ev id en tly been cu t in tw o , one p a rt b eing added to 127/8 and
the o th e r placed after 39.
T h e reverse seem s also to have tak en place; scraps o f paper
w ere som ehow pasted to g e th e r to form a sheet. S ura 14.8-
14 /1 7 – an evident a d d itio n to the acco u n t o f M oses – in
w hich he addresses his people in reg u lar Q u r’ān ic style, is fo l­
low ed b y a series o f d isjointed pieces, 1 5 /1 8 -1 7 /2 0 , 18/21,
19 /2 2 , 2 1 /4 -2 2 /7 , 2 3 /8 , w h ich to g e th e r o ccu p y practically
th e sam e space. In fact, it is alm ost a rule in th e later parts o f
the Q ur’ān th at an ad d itio n o r connected deliverance o f any
len g th is preceded o r follow ed b y a n u m b er o f disconnected
pieces w h ich to g e th e r m ake u p appro x im ately the same
length. A n in terestin g instance o f this occurs at th e end o f
sura 2. T h e re w e find a lo n g deliverance dealing w ith the
reco rd in g o f debts [282, 283]. T h is occupies ap p ro x im ately
the sam e space as verses 278-281, a deliverance fo rb id d in g
u su ry , 284 a separate verse, and 285, 286 a profession o f faith
o f the believers. In to this piece tw o little sentences in tru d e at
the ju n ctio n o f the verses [285b, 28 6 a]; th ey have n o co n n ec­
tio n w ith each o th e r o r w ith the co n tex t and b reak the co n ­
nection o f V.285 and v .286, w h ich m u st have o rig in ally
form ed one verse. I f n o w w e suppose th e deliverance reg ard in g
debts [282-3], to have been w ritte n o n th e back o f a sheet
( o r p a rt o f a sh eet) w h ich contained th e deliverance on u su ry
[278-81], and on th a t o f a second sheet co n tain in g 284-6, w e
find th a t the in tru sio n in to the latter piece com es practically
o pposite a pro v iso in tro d u ced in to the deliverance a b o u t
debts excepting from its scope tran sactio n s in th e m ark et
w here g o o d s pass fro m h an d to hand. T h is p ro v iso , w e m ay
suppose, w as w ritte n o n the back o f tw o scraps and inserted
in to the deliverance. T o do so, the sheet w as cu t and the
pro v iso pasted in. In this w ay the tw o extraneous scraps appear
on the o th e r side o f the sheet.
T h e sam e th in g occurs in sura 4, w h ere, if w e suppose
verses 8 8 /9 0 -9 1 /3 to have been w ritte n o n the back o f
7 9 /8 1 -8 7 /9 , a pro v iso in tro d u ced b y illā [9 0 /2 а ], w ill com e
o p p o site 8 2 /4 w hich breaks th e con n ectio n betw een 8 1 /3 and
8 3 /5 . T h is p a rt o f the sura is fu rth e r in terestin g in th a t the
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passage 79 / 8 1- 8 1 / 3, 83 / 5, 84 / 6 is alm ost certainly p riv ate and

w as n o t m eant to be pub licly recited. A n u m b e r o f p riv ate
passages o f this kin d , in ten d ed o n ly fo r M uḥam m ad him self,
are included in the Q u r’ān . T h e m o st strik in g o f th em is
3.1 5 9 /3 , w hich can h ard ly have been in ten d ed fo r p u b licatio n
eith er at the tim e o r la te r; cf. also 154/4 8 c and 161/55. T h e
passage a b o u t fasting discussed above (p. 98) gives a fu rth e r
illustration [2 .1 8 3 /7 9 -1 8 7 /3 ]. V erse 18 6 /2 is en tirely u n c o n ­
n ected ; it has no reference to fasting, and w hile in the p re ­
ceding verses the believers are b eing addressed and G o d is
spoken o f in the th ird perso n , in this verse G od is speaking,
the P ro p h e t is bein g addressed, and o th e r m en are sp o k en o f
in the th ird person. V erse 187/3 retu rn s to th e su b ject o f
fasting and the dram atic settin g o f 1 8 3 /7 9 -1 8 6 /2 . I f w e co n ­
sider the len g th o f 185/ 1, w e shall find th at w h en w ritte n o u t
it occupies approxim ately the sam e space as 1 8 4 /0 and 1 8 6 /2
to g eth er. T h e presence o f this latter verse seem s to have arisen
from the necessity o f ad d in g to the space afforded b y the back
o f 184 / 0 b y using the back o f a verse from som e o th e r co n tex t.
( b ) Critique o f the hypothesis. T h is th e o ry th at the o rd e r o f
the Q ur’ān is often d ue to the fact th a t som e passages w ere
w ritte n on the backs o f o th ers w as w o rk ed o u t in detail fo r
the w hole Q ur’ān b y R ich ard Bell. H is results are in c o rp o ­
rated in his Translation b y vario u s ty p o g rap h ical devices such
as divisions d o w n the m iddle o f pages. T h e m o re one studies
these results, the m o re one is im pressed b y th e infinite pains
taken and the g reat in g e n u ity show n. F o r a lo n g tim e to com e
scholars w ill have to take acco u n t o f this detailed w o rk .
T h e hypothesis certain ly can n o t be rejected o u t o f hand.
F o r one th in g it seem s clear th a t th ere w ere w ritten d o cu m en ts
fro m a fairly early p eriod. E ven if M uḥam m ad h im self did n o t
w rite, he could have had th em w ritte n b y secretaries. I t is
k n o w n th at he used secretaries in his later years, and th ere are
T ra d itio n s in w hich the secretaries are em ployed to w rite d o w n
the revelation. T h e reference to M uḥam m ad’s fo rg e ttin g in
87.6 could be held to su g g est the inference th a t he cam e to
d istru st his m em o ry and w ro te o u t and m em orized th e re ­
vealed m essages before p roclaim ing th em publicly. T h e gibe
o f the M eccans a b o u t ‘o ld -w o rld tales w h ich he has had ( ? )
w ritte n fo r h im se lf’ im plies th a t at Mecca he w as a t least

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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

suspected o f hav in g th in g s w ritte n d o w n [25.6]. If, as is likely,

he had som e o f the Q u r’ān w ritte n , he m ay have tried to keep
the m atter secret. A t M edina o ne w o u ld expect th a t a t least the
legal deliverances w ere recorded. T h e re p o rt a b o u t th e first
‘c o lle c tio n ’ o f the Q u r ’ān after M uḥam m ad’s death b y Zayd
ib n -T h āb it im plies th at som e was already w ritten on pieces o f
pap y ru s and o th e r m aterials. T h e resu lt o f Z ay d ’s w o rk w as a
‘co llectio n ’ o f th e Q ur’ān on ‘sh e e ts’ ( ṣ uḥ u f ) , and these
eventually passed into the possession o f Ḥ afṣa. A s w as arg u ed
above, it is unlikely th at there w as an y official ‘ co lle c tio n ’ such
as is described; b u t it is fairly certain th a t Ḥ afṣa had ‘sh e e ts’
o f som e sort. It is thus p ro b ab le th a t m uch o f th e Q ur’ān had
been w ritte n d o w n in som e fo rm d u rin g M uḥam m ad’s life­
tim e. It is even possible th a t th ere w ere several w ritte n
versions o f parts o f it in th e hands o f different individuals.
Bell’s distinctive h y p o th esis, ho w ev er, is concerned n o t
w ith the m ere existence o f w ritte n d o cu m en ts, b u t w ith a
special w ay o f dealing w ith th em w h ich he alleges to be
responsible fo r som e aspects o f the o rd er o f the text. I t should
at once be adm itted th a t w h a t he suggests m ay occasionally
have happened. O n the o th e r h an d , th ere are suras (su c h as 80
and 9 6) w here uncon n ected pieces have been b ro u g h t to ­
g e th e r; and Bell ap p aren tly sim ply accepts this fact w ith o u t
try in g to ap p ly his th eo ry . It m ay th en be in ferred th at, at
least a t som e periods, w h o e v e r w as responsible fo r collecting
the Q u r 'ān was n o t u n d u ly w o rried b y th e absence o f co n ­
tin u ity o f th o u g h t; and in so far as this is the case a d iscon­
tin u ity o f th o u g h t in a sura m ay easily have com e a b o u t w ith ­
o u t the passage h aving been w ritte n o n th e b ack o f an o th er.
T h is m akes som e o f Bell’s elaborate reco n stru ctio n s (su c h as
the exam ples fro m sura 2 and sura 9 ) all th e m o re dub io u s.
I t m ay also be u rg ed th at little is gained b y th e h y p o th esis.
T h e p ro b lem before th e scholar is th e accidental character o f
the u n connected passages. In effect Bell’s h y p o th esis explains
this accidental character b y su p p o sin g a n o th e r accident,
nam ely, th a t one passage w as w ritte n o n the b ack o f an o th er.
In p articular cases there is b o u n d to be g reat u n c ertain ty a b o u t
the precise w ay in w hich th e h y p o th esis is to be ap p lied ; b u t,
even if the application w ere k n o w n to be correct, little w o u ld
be added to o u r u n d erstan d in g o f early Islam . In this respect
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 S H A P I N G OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

th e results p ro d u ced b y th e h y p o th esis are in co n trast to th e

evidence ten d in g to sh o w rev isio n and alteratio n . I f th e
analysis o f the passage a b o u t th e qibla is so u n d , th en it gives
us increased in sig h t in to th e p ro fo u n d re -o rien tatio n o f th e
policy o f the Islam ic state ab o u t M arch 624.
T h e em phasis on d o cu m en ts in th e h y p o th esis and in Bell’s
treatm en t generally requires to be balanced b y g iv in g increased
w e ig h t to the aspect o f oral transm ission. In th e trad itio n al
account ‘the hearts o f m e n ’, th a t is, th eir m em ories, w as one
o f the sources d raw n o n b y Zayd ib n -T h āb it; and th e Q u r’ān -
reciters subseq u en tly becam e an im p o rta n t g ro u p o f m en. T h e
possibility th a t M uḥam m ad m ig h t fo rg e t a passage envisaged
in 87.6 implies that for at least a time he was relying on his
memory. This suggests the further question whether Muḥam-
mad clearly distinguished between proclaiming from memory
a m essage he had p rev io u sly received and p roclaim ing at th e
m o m en t o f revelatio n a m essage w h ich p a rtly coincided w ith
a n o th e r m essage p rev io u sly received. T h e reference to G o d ’s
‘co lle c tin g ’ o f the Q u r’ān in 75.17 w o u ld seem to im p ly th a t
M uḥam m ad received revelations co m b in in g (a n d perhaps
a d a p tin g ) p revious revelations. T h is fu rth e r im plies th a t a
revelation m ay be repeated, p erh ap s in slig h tly different
term s. T h is becom es all th e m o re significant w h en one
rem em bers the num ero u s rep etitio n s o f phrases and verses
th ro u g h o u t the Q u r ’ān. It m ay also be linked u p w ith the
p h en o m en o n o f alternative co n tin u atio n s. I t seem s likely,
th en , assum ing th a t som e passages h ad been revealed in
slightly different form s o n different occasions, and rem em ­
bered b y individual M uslim s in th e ir different form s, th a t the
‘c o llecto rs’ had on th eir hands a form idable pro b lem . T h e y
w o u ld n o t w a n t to o m it an y sm allest scrap o f g en u in e revela­
tio n , and y e t th e to tal m ass o f m aterial m ay have been so v ast
th a t th ey could n o t include it all. T h is m ay explain som e o f the
roughnesses in the 'U th m ānic text.
In conclusion o ne m ay u n d erlin e th e value o f detailed
studies o f the text o f the Q u r’ān such as those carried o u t b y
R ichard Bell. A t th e sam e tim e one m ay u rg e o n scholars th e
need fo r con cen tratin g o n th o se aspects o f th e su b ject w h ich
are likely to c o n trib u te to a d eepening u n d erstan d in g o f the
early life o f the Islam ic co m m u n ity .

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 SEVEN

THE C H R O N O L O G Y OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

1. T ra d itio n al Islam ic view s o f d atin g

M uslim scholars usually accepted the fact th at the Q ur’ān had
originally been revealed fo r th e m o st p art in sh o rt passages.
T h e y tended to assum e th a t m o st o f the passages in a sura
had been revealed a b o u t the sam e tim e. O n this basis th ey
cam e to classify the suras as ‘M eccan’ o r ‘ M ed in an ’, and this
description w as included in th e head in g o f each sura in the
later copies. T h e y w ere also aw are, h o w ev er, o f instances
w here a few verses had to be classified differently fro m the
rest o f the sura. T h is has n o w com e to be n o ted in the heading.
T h u s in the official E g y p tian ed itio n the heading o f su ra 73
reads: ‘ T h e sura o f A l-m uzzam m il, M eccan except verses 10,
11 and 20, w hich are M edinan; its verses are 2 0 ; it w as
revealed after A l-q a la m .’ T h e last statem en t is p a rt o f the
atte m p t to arrange all th e suras acco rd in g to the o rd er in
w hich the m ain p a rt o f each w as revealed.
T h e ch ief basis fo r th e d atin g o f passages and verses in the
eyes o f M uslim scholars consists o f T ra d itio n s a b o u t Muḥam-
mad and statem ents b y later stu d en ts o f th e Q u r’ān . T h e o ld er
M uslim scholars, th o u g h p resu m ab ly th ey som etim es paid
a tte n tio n to internal evidence, seldom used it explicitly in th eir
argum ents. T h e T rad itio n s in q u estio n here are usu ally to the
effect th a t such and such a passage w as revealed in con n ectio n
w ith such and such an event. T h u s sura 80.1-10 is said to have
been revealed w h en a b lin d m an called ' A b d -A llāh ib n -U m m -
M aktū m cam e u p to h im as he w as talk in g to som e leading
m en o f Q u ray sh and h o p in g to w in them over. S to ries o f this
ty p e are said to deal w ith ‘the occasions o f re v e la tio n ’ ( asbāb
ап-пuzūl). T h e re is a w ell-k n o w n b o o k o n this subject b y
a l-W āḥ id ī (d . 1075). U n fo rtu n ately this trad itio n al m aterial
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 C H R O N O L O G Y OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

suffers fro m several defects. F o r one th in g it is incom plete,

and specifies the ‘ occasion ’ fo r o n ly a relatively sm all p a rt o f
th e Q u r’ān . A gain , m an y o f th e ‘o ccasio n s’ are incidents,
u n im p o rta n t in them selves, w h o se precise date is u n k n o w n .
Such is the anecdote ju st m en tio n ed a b o u t the b lind m an.
Finally, th ere are inconsistencies. T h u s it is usually said th a t
th e first passage to be revealed w as the b e g in n in g o f sura 96
( A l-q alam ) ; b u t there is an o th er sto ry acco rd in g to w h ich the
first revelation w as the b eg in n in g o f sura 74. T h e re are also
stories try in g to harm onize th e tw o accounts, e.g. b y saying
th a t 74 w as the first after a gap. In fact n eith er o f these m ay be
the first extant revelation, and the stories m ay be o n ly the
guesses o f later M uslim scholars, since th ere are g ro u n d s fo r
selecting each as first. Sura 96 begins w ith ‘ recite ’, and this is
ap p ro p riate fo r a b o o k w h ich is called ‘th e re c ita tio n ’ o r
Q u r’ā n ; and sura 74 after addressing M uḥam m ad has the
w o rd s ‘ rise and w arn ’ – an a p p ro p riate b eg in n in g to th e w o rk
o f a m essenger o r w arner.
D espite these deficiencies the trad itio n al d atin g o f passages
b y M uslim scholars is b y n o m eans valueless, and indeed form s
the basis o f all fu tu re w o rk . In so far as it is co n sisten t it gives
a ro u g h idea o f th e c h ro n o lo g y o f th e Q u r’ā n ; an d an y
m o d ern a tte m p t to find a basis fo r d atin g m u st b y an d large
be in agreem ent w ith th e trad itio n al view s, even if in one o r
tw o po in ts it contradicts them .

2. E u ro p ean th eo ries o f d atin g

E u ro p ean attem pts to w o rk o u t th e chro n o lo g ical o rd e r o f the
suras have usually taken internal evidence in to acco u n t as
w ell, th a t is, ap p aren t references to k n o w n pu b lic events,
especially d u rin g th e M edinan p erio d o f M uḥam m ad’s career.
A tte n tio n has also been paid to considerations o f style,
v o cabulary and th e like. In sh o rt, th e Q u r’ān has been su b ­
jected to severe scru tin y acco rd in g to th e m eth o d s o f m o d ern
literary and historical criticism .
Several n in e teen th -cen tu ry scholars m ade useful c o n trib u ­
tio n s to the stu d y o f Q u r ’ānic c h ro n o lo g y ; b u t the m o st
im p o rta n t b o o k b y far w as T h e o d o r N ö ld ek e’s Geschichte des
Qorāns, first published in 1860.1 A second ed itio n , revised and
enlarged b y F riedrich Schw ally and oth ers, appeared in th ree
109
 C H R O N O L O G Y OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

suffers fro m several defects. F o r one th in g it is incom plete,

and specifies the ‘ occasion ’ fo r o n ly a relatively sm all p a rt o f
th e Q u r’ān . A gain , m an y o f th e ‘o ccasio n s’ are incidents,
u n im p o rta n t in them selves, w h o se precise date is u n k n o w n .
Such is the anecdote ju st m en tio n ed a b o u t the b lind m an.
Finally, th ere are inconsistencies. T h u s it is usually said th a t
th e first passage to be revealed w as the b e g in n in g o f sura 96
( A l-q alam ) ; b u t there is an o th er sto ry acco rd in g to w h ich the
first revelation w as the b eg in n in g o f sura 74. T h e re are also
stories try in g to harm onize th e tw o accounts, e.g. b y saying
th a t 74 w as the first after a gap. In fact n eith er o f these m ay be
the first extant revelation, and the stories m ay be o n ly the
guesses o f later M uslim scholars, since th ere are g ro u n d s fo r
selecting each as first. Sura 96 begins w ith ‘ recite ’, and this is
ap p ro p riate fo r a b o o k w h ich is called ‘th e re c ita tio n ’ o r
Q u r’ā n ; and sura 74 after addressing M uḥam m ad has the
w o rd s ‘ rise and w arn ’ – an a p p ro p riate b eg in n in g to th e w o rk
o f a m essenger o r w arner.
D espite these deficiencies the trad itio n al d atin g o f passages
b y M uslim scholars is b y n o m eans valueless, and indeed form s
the basis o f all fu tu re w o rk . In so far as it is co n sisten t it gives
a ro u g h idea o f th e c h ro n o lo g y o f th e Q u r’ā n ; an d an y
m o d ern a tte m p t to find a basis fo r d atin g m u st b y an d large
be in agreem ent w ith th e trad itio n al view s, even if in one o r
tw o po in ts it contradicts them .

2. E u ro p ean th eo ries o f d atin g

E u ro p ean attem pts to w o rk o u t th e chro n o lo g ical o rd e r o f the
suras have usually taken internal evidence in to acco u n t as
w ell, th a t is, ap p aren t references to k n o w n pu b lic events,
especially d u rin g th e M edinan p erio d o f M uḥam m ad’s career.
A tte n tio n has also been paid to considerations o f style,
v o cabulary and th e like. In sh o rt, th e Q u r’ān has been su b ­
jected to severe scru tin y acco rd in g to th e m eth o d s o f m o d ern
literary and historical criticism .
Several n in e teen th -cen tu ry scholars m ade useful c o n trib u ­
tio n s to the stu d y o f Q u r ’ānic c h ro n o lo g y ; b u t the m o st
im p o rta n t b o o k b y far w as T h e o d o r N ö ld ek e’s Geschichte des
Qorāns, first published in 1860.1 A second ed itio n , revised and
enlarged b y F riedrich Schw ally and oth ers, appeared in th ree
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

volum es in 1 9 0 9 , 1919 and 1938, and w as rep rin ted b y a p h o to ­

co p y in g process in 1961. In respect o f c h ro n o lo g y N ö ld ek e
assum ed a progressive change o f style fro m exalted poetical
passages in the early years to lo n g prosaic deliverances later.
H e follow ed the Islam ic tra d itio n in reco g n izin g a division
in to suras m ainly revealed a t Mecca and those m ainly revealed
a t M edina, b u t fu rth e r divided th e M eccan suras in to th ree
periods.
T h e suras o f the F irst M eccan P erio d are m o stly sh o rt. T h e
verses also are sh o rt, and the language rh y th m ic and full o f
im agery. G ro u p s o f oaths often o ccu r at the b eg in n in g o f
passages. T h e suras o f this p erio d , in th e o rd e r assigned to
th em b y N öldeke are: 9 6 , 74, 111, 1 0 6 , 1 0 8 , 1 0 4 , 1 0 7 ,1 0 2 , 105,
92, 9 0 , 9 4 , 93, 97, 86, 91, 80, 68, 87, 9 5 , 103, 85, 7 3 , 1 01, 99, 82,
81, 53, 8 4 , 100, 79, 77, 78, 88, 89, 75, 83, 69, 51, 52, 56, 70, 55,
112, 109, 113, 114, 1.
In the Second M eccan P erio d th ere is a tran sitio n fro m the
sublim e enthusiasm o f the first p erio d to th e greater calm ness
o f th e th ird . T h e fundam ental teaching is su p p o rted and ex­
plained b y nu m ero u s illu stratio n s fro m n atu re and h isto ry .
T h ere are also discussions o f som e doctrin al points. In p articu ­
lar em phasis is placed o n th e signs o f G o d ’s p o w er b o th in
n atu re and in the events w h ich befell fo rm er p ro p h ets. T h e
la tte r are described in a w ay w h ich b rin g s o u t th e ir relevance
to w h a t w as h ap p en in g to M uḥam m ad and his follow ers.
Stylistically, the p erio d is d istin g u ish ed b y new m odes o f
speech. O ath s are seldom used. T h e suras g ro w lo n g e r and
freq u en tly have form al in tro d u c tio n s, such as: ‘ T h is is the
revelation o f G o d .. . .' Passages are o ften preceded b y qul,
‘s a y ’, as a com m and to M uḥam m ad. G o d is freq u en tly referred
to as ar-R a ḥ mān, ‘the M erciful' . T h e suras o f th e p erio d are:
54, 37, 71, 7б, 44, 50, 20, 26, 15, 19, 38, 36, 43, 72, 67, 23, 21,
25, 17, 27, 18.
In the T h ird M eccan P erio d th e use o f ar-R aḥ mān as a
p ro p e r nam e ceases, b u t o th e r characteristics o f th e second
p erio d are intensified. T h e p ro p h e tic stories are freq u en tly
repeated w ith slig h t variatio n s o f em phasis. T h e suras o f this
p erio d are: 32, 4 1 , 45, 16, 30, 11, 1 4 , 12, 40, 28, 39, 29, 31, 42,
10, 34, 35, 7, 46, 6 , 13.
T h e suras o f th e M edinan P erio d sh o w n o t so m u ch a
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 C H R O N O L O G Y OF THE Q U R ’ Ā N

change o f style as a change o f subject. Since th e P ro p h e t is

n o w recognized as such b y a w h o le co m m u n ity , th e revela­
tions contain law s and reg ulations fo r th e co m m u n ity . O ften
th e people are directly addressed. Som e co n tem p o rary events
are m entioned and th eir significance m ade clear. T h e suras o f
th e p erio d are: 2, 98, 64, 62, 8, 47, 3, 61, 57, 4, 65, 59, 33, 63,
24, 58, 22, 48, 66, 6 0 , 110, 49, 9, 5.2
A s a first ap p ro x im atio n to th e h isto rical o rd e r o f th e
Q u r ’ān N ö ld ek e’s arran g em en t is useful. T h e criterio n o f
style plays to o large a p a rt in it, h o w ev er. T h e style o f th e
Q u r ’ān u n d o u b te d ly changes th ro u g h th e years, b u t it sh o u ld
n o t be assum ed th a t th e change w as a stead y p ro g ressio n in
one direction, fo r exam ple, to w ard s lo n g er verses. I t m ay
w ell be th a t th e style o f different passages o f a b o u t th e sam e
date varied accordin g to th eir p urposes, as indeed is suggested
in th e Q u r’ān (e .g . 4 7 .2 0 /2 ; cf. 62.2). I t is d o u b tfu l, to o ,
w h eth er th e use o f ar-R aḥ mān as a p ro p e r nam e can be
restricted to a few years. I t m ay have been in tro d u c e d in th e
Second M eccan P erio d , b u t th ere is n o reco rd o f it h av in g
been explicitly dro p p ed . I t co n tin u ed to be used in th e
bismillāh, and the M eccans w h o objected to th is as a h eading
fo r th e p ro to co l o f the tre a ty o f a l-Ḥ u d ay b iy a seem to have
regarded ar-R aḥ mān ar-R aḥ īm as p ro p e r nam es.
T h e ch ief w eakness o f N ö ld ek e’s schem e, h o w ev er, is th a t
he m o stly treats suras as unities. O ccasionally h e adm its th at
passages o f different dates have fo u n d th e ir w ay in to th e
sam e sura, b u t this is exceptional. S ub seq u en t scholars, w hile
retain in g the sura itse lf as the u ltim ate u n it an d sh o w in g
reluctance to adm it breaks in its co m p o sitio n , have allow ed
m ore in tru sio n o f later passages in to earlier suras. If, as has
been arg u ed above, ho w ev er, th e o rig in al u n it o f rev elatio n
w as th e sh o rt passage, and such passages w ere afterw ards
‘c o llected ’ to form suras, th en the date o f th e separate passages
becom es a p rio r question. T h e re m ay be a slig h t p resu m p tio n
th a t passages o f a b o u t the sam e date w o u ld be ‘c o llected ’ in to
the sam e sura, b u t it is a t least possible th a t som e suras co n ­
tain passages origin ally revealed at different dates. I f b o th th e
u n it passages and the suras have been subject to revision d u r­
in g M uḥam m ad’s lifetim e, th e p ro b lem becom es even m o re
com plicated. T h u s it m ay w ell b e d o u b te d w h e th e r it w ill
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ever be possible fo r scholars to p ro d u ce a com plete arran g e­

m en t o f the Q u r’ān in ch ro nological order.
O th e r pro p o sed so lu tio n s o f the pro b lem b y E u ro p ean
scholars m ay be m en tio n ed briefly. In his b io g rap h y o f
M uḥam m ad Sir W illiam M uir, w o rk in g in d ep en d en tly o f
N öldeke, suggested an arran g em en t o f the suras th a t was
b ro a d ly sim ilar; b u t a n u m b er o f passages dealing w ith the
w o n d ers o f n atu re w ere placed before M uḥam m ad’s call to be
a p ro p h e t and before the suras trad itio n ally accepted as the
first revelations [96 and 7 4 ].3 A n o rd e r different fro m
N ö ld ek e’s resulted from H u b e rt G rim m e’s attem p t to arrange
th e suras o n the basis o f d o ctrin al characteristics.4 H e dis­
tinguished tw o m ain g ro u p s o f M eccan suras. T h e first p ro ­
claim s m onotheism , resu rrectio n , th e L ast Ju d g em en t and a
fu tu re life o f bliss o r to rm e n t; m an is free to believe o r n o t;
M uḥam m ad is spoken o f as a preacher on ly , n o t a p ro p h et.
T h e second g ro u p intro d u ces G o d ’s raḥ ma, ‘m e rc y ’ o r
‘g ra c e ’, and w ith this the nam e o f ar-Raḥ mān is associated;
the revelation o f ‘the B o o k ’ becom es p ro m in en t, and stories
o f form er recipients o f revelation are reco u n ted . Betw een
these tw o g ro u p s are som e interm ediate suras in w h ich the
Ju d g em en t is represented as near, and stories are to ld o f
punishm ents falling o n u n b eliev in g peoples. W h ile G rim m e
is rig h t in lo o k in g to the sequence o f ideas, this criterio n b y
itself is insufficient and m u st be com bined w ith others.
A radical d ep artu re fro m N ö ld ek e’s schem e cam e at the
beg in n in g o f the tw en tieth cen tu ry w ith H artw ig H irschfeld’s
New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis o f the
Qo ran.5 H e based his d atin g o n th e ch aracter o f separate pas­
sages as original revelation, co nfirm atory, declam atory, n arra­
tive, descriptive o r legislative. H is p o sitio n is interestin g in
th at he recognizes th at it is passages rath er th an suras w ith
w hich w e have to deal; b u t his detailed arran g em en t has n o t
found m uch acceptance. A recen t treatm en t o f the subject is
th at o f R égis Blachère in his F ren ch tran slatio n .6 T h e suras
are p rin ted in a chro n o lo g ical o rd e r w h ich deviates fro m
N ö ld ek e’s o n ly a t a v e ry few p o in ts, and fully accepts his idea
o f three M eccan periods. In the actual arran g em en t tw o suras
have been divided in to tw o ; th e o p en in g verses o f suras 96
and 74 com e first o f all ( in accordance w ith Islam ic tra d itio n ),
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w hile the rem ainder o f each sura is p u t co n siderably later.

E ven w here a sura is all p rin ted consecutively, h o w ev er, it
m ay be divided in to separate sections an d different dates
assigned to these. W h e n B lachère’s d atin g and stru ctu ral ana­
lysis is com pared w ith Bell’s, it appears th at, w hile he is p re ­
pared to accept m any o f the la tte r’s p resu p p o sitio n s, he is less
radical in w o rk in g th em o u t. T h o u g h he refers to Bell, the
im pression is given th at he becam e fam iliar w ith th e Transla­
tion o n ly after his o w n w o rk w as v irtu ally com plete – som e­
th in g fo r w hich the Second W o rld W a r m ay b e chiefly
responsible.
T h e m o st elaborate attem p t so far to d isco v er the original
units o f revelation in th e Q u r’ān and to date these is th a t in ­
c o rp o rated b y R ichard Bell in his Translation, p u blished in
1937 and 1939. H e set o u t fro m th e p o sitio n , accepted in a
general w ay b y M uslim scholars, th at the original u n it o f
revelation was the sh o rt passage. H e fu rth e r held th a t m u ch o f
the w o rk o f ‘co lle c tin g ’ these in to suras h ad been d o n e b y
M uḥam m ad h im self u n d e r divine in sp iratio n , and th a t b o th
in th e process o f ‘co lle c tin g ’ an d a t o th e r tim es – alw ays u n d e r
divine inspiration – he had revised passages. T h e arg u m en ts
Bell used are ro u g h ly those g iv en in the first tw o sections o f th e
p revious chapter. T h ese p o in ts seem to be accepted b y
Blachère, th o u g h he is m uch m o re hesitan t in claim ing th a t he
is able to d etect revisions. B eyond th a t Bell p u t fo rw ard th e
h ypothesis explained and criticized in the last section o f the
previous chapter. T h o u g h th e h y p o th esis has g reatly influ­
enced the physical appearance o f the p rin ted tran slatio n , its
rejection does n o t invalidate to an y appreciable ex ten t his
d atin g o f p articu lar passages. T h is d atin g w as based o n a
careful analysis o f each sura, w h ich w as in effect a dissection
o f th e sura in to its c o m p o n en t parts. T h is analysis, th o u g h
m aking the w o rk o f d atin g m ore com plex, in itself yielded
certain results, fo r exam ple, th ro u g h th e reco g n itio n o f
alternative co ntinuatio n s o f a verse o r phrase. Bell also m ade a
resolute attem p t n o t to read in to an y passage m o re th an it
actually says. T h is m ean t settin g aside the view s o f later
M uslim com m entato rs in so far as these appeared to have
been influenced b y theological d evelopm ents w h ich cam e
ab o u t lo n g after the d eath o f the P ro p h e t, and en d eav o u rin g
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

to u n d erstan d each passage in the sense it had fo r its first

hearers.
Like all those w ho have attem p ted to date the Q u r ’ān Bell
accepted the general ch ro nological fram ew o rk o f Muḥam-
m ad ’s life as this is fo u n d in the S īra o r b io g rap h y b y Ib n -
H ish ām (d . 833 ) and o th e r w o rk s. T h is is chiefly a ch ro n o lo g y
o f the M edinan period from the H ijra o r em igration to M edina
in 622 to M uḥam m ad’s death in 632. F o r the p revious period
the dates are few and uncertain. W h ere passages o f the Q u r ’ān
can be linked u p w ith events like the battles o f Badr o r U ḥu d
o r the conquest o f Mecca, th ey can be dated fairly exactly.
T h is chronological fram ew o rk m ay be supplem ented b y the
sequence o f ideas in the Q u r ’ān. A b o u t this, o f course, there is
som e disagreem ent. O n this p o in t Bell had definite view s,
som e already w o rk ed o u t in his b o o k on The Origin o f Islam
in its Christian Environment. T h ese view s w ere sim ilar to
those a b o u t to be given in the n ex t section, b u t n o t identical
w ith them . Bell also reg ard ed style as b ein g to som e ex ten t a
criterion o f relative date, and agreed w ith N öldeke in h o ld in g
th a t the sh o rt crisp verse and studied rh y m e usually b elo n g to
an earlier stage than th e loose trailing verse and rh y m e
m echanically form ed b y gram m atical term inations. N o w som e
th irty years after the appearance o f Bell’s Translation it is clear
th a t he did n o t solve all the p roblem s, b u t he nevertheless
m ade a co n trib u tio n o f suprem e im portance b y calling the
atten tio n o f scholars to the com plexity o f the phenom ena.

3. T h e sequence o f ideas as a guide to c h ro n o lo g y

Islam ic scholarship, reg ard in g the Q u r ’ān as the eternal W o rd
o f G o d , is unw illing to ad m it any d ev elo p m en t o f th o u g h t in
it. C learly, in so far as G o d is eternal and u n ch an g in g , his
th o u g h t can n o t change. Y et in so far as the Q u r ’ān is G o d ’s
W o rd addressed to m en, th ere is n o th in g in consistent in su p ­
p o sin g a change o f em phasis according to the needs o f th e
original hearers at any g iven tim e and according to w h a t th ey
w ere able to accept and u n d erstan d . Som e such idea is indeed
im plicit in the do ctrin e o f ab ro g atio n . I t is no easy m atter, o f
course, to establish a sequence o f ideas o r o f em phases, and in
details there are b o u n d to be divergences betw een scholars.
Y et b y n o tin g the ideas em phasized in th e suras o r passages
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO THE Q U R ’ Ā N

to u n d erstan d each passage in the sense it had fo r its first

hearers.
Like all those w ho have attem p ted to date the Q u r ’ān Bell
accepted the general ch ro nological fram ew o rk o f Muḥam-
m ad ’s life as this is fo u n d in the S īra o r b io g rap h y b y Ib n -
H ish ām (d . 833 ) and o th e r w o rk s. T h is is chiefly a ch ro n o lo g y
o f the M edinan period from the H ijra o r em igration to M edina
in 622 to M uḥam m ad’s death in 632. F o r the p revious period
the dates are few and uncertain. W h ere passages o f the Q u r ’ān
can be linked u p w ith events like the battles o f Badr o r U ḥu d
o r the conquest o f Mecca, th ey can be dated fairly exactly.
T h is chronological fram ew o rk m ay be supplem ented b y the
sequence o f ideas in the Q u r ’ān. A b o u t this, o f course, there is
som e disagreem ent. O n this p o in t Bell had definite view s,
som e already w o rk ed o u t in his b o o k on The Origin o f Islam
in its Christian Environment. T h ese view s w ere sim ilar to
those a b o u t to be given in the n ex t section, b u t n o t identical
w ith them . Bell also reg ard ed style as b ein g to som e ex ten t a
criterion o f relative date, and agreed w ith N öldeke in h o ld in g
th a t the sh o rt crisp verse and studied rh y m e usually b elo n g to
an earlier stage than th e loose trailing verse and rh y m e
m echanically form ed b y gram m atical term inations. N o w som e
th irty years after the appearance o f Bell’s Translation it is clear
th a t he did n o t solve all the p roblem s, b u t he nevertheless
m ade a co n trib u tio n o f suprem e im portance b y calling the
atten tio n o f scholars to the com plexity o f the phenom ena.

3. T h e sequence o f ideas as a guide to c h ro n o lo g y

Islam ic scholarship, reg ard in g the Q u r ’ān as the eternal W o rd
o f G o d , is unw illing to ad m it any d ev elo p m en t o f th o u g h t in
it. C learly, in so far as G o d is eternal and u n ch an g in g , his
th o u g h t can n o t change. Y et in so far as the Q u r ’ān is G o d ’s
W o rd addressed to m en, th ere is n o th in g in consistent in su p ­
p o sin g a change o f em phasis according to the needs o f th e
original hearers at any g iven tim e and according to w h a t th ey
w ere able to accept and u n d erstan d . Som e such idea is indeed
im plicit in the do ctrin e o f ab ro g atio n . I t is no easy m atter, o f
course, to establish a sequence o f ideas o r o f em phases, and in
details there are b o u n d to be divergences betw een scholars.
Y et b y n o tin g the ideas em phasized in th e suras o r passages
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 C H R O N O L O G Y OF THE Q U R ' Ā N

a b o u t w hose date th ere is som e agreem ent, an ap p ro x im atio n

m ay be m ade to the sequence o f ideas. T h e stu d y o f p h raseo ­
lo g y som etim es helps, since certain w o rd s and tu rn s o f
phrase are associated w ith th e in tro d u c tio n o f a new em phasis
in doctrine. T h e use o f a w o rd o r phrase tends to co n tin u e
indefinitely, h ow ev er, and in its later instances it does n o t
necessarily indicate a special em phasis.
D u rin g the last c en tu ry th ere has been considerable discus­
sion am ong E uropean scholars a b o u t w h ich p o in ts w ere given
prom inence in the earliest revelations. F o r lo n g it h ad sim ply
been assum ed th at, in so far as M uḥam m ad's m ission h ad had a
genuinely religious aim , it w as to proclaim th e u n ity o f G o d
and to attack id olatry . In 1892 in a b io g ra p h y o f M uḥam m ad7
the G erm an scholar H u b e rt G rim m e tried to sh o w th a t he w as
prim arily a socialistic refo rm er w h o m ade use o f religion in
o rd er to carry o u t his reform s. T h is hy p o th esis w as v ig o ro u sly
criticized and dem olished b y a D u tch m an , C. Snouck
H u rg ro n je ,8 w h o arg u ed n o t o n ly th at M uḥam m ad w as p rim ­
arily a religious leader b u t also th a t the m o tiv e w h ich d ro v e
him on had been th e th o u g h t o f the D a y o f Ju d g em en t and its
terrors. T h is view w as accepted fav o u rab ly in certain circles,
especially w here esch ato lo g y w as in fashion. It is p ro m in en t,
fo r exam ple, in th e life o f M uḥam m ad b y T o r A n d rae, a
Sw ede.9 T h ere w ere also o p p o n en ts, h o w ev er, and am o n g
these w as R ichard Bell w h o suggested ra th e r th a t the earliest
revelations w ere appealing to m en to recognize ‘ G o d ' s
bounties in c re a tio n ' and to sh o w g ratitu d e to him . Bell ad m it­
ted th at the idea o f Ju d g em en t w as in som e sense p resen t from
the first, b u t m aintained th at the descriptions o f the te rro rs o f
H ell cam e on ly later, and indeed after accounts o f special
punishm ents on tho se w h o disbelieved in p ro p h ets.10
T h e question is best answ ered b y a careful exam ination
o f the passages generally agreed to be early. It m ay also be
assum ed th a t before o p p o sitio n appeared to M uḥam m ad, he
had proclaim ed som e positive m essage w h ich had an n o y ed som e
m en ; and fro m this it follow s th at am o n g th e early passages
those in w h ich the existence o f o p p o sitio n is m en tio n ed o r
im plied are likely to be later than those w h ere it is n o t. I f one
then considers the passages w h ich are reg ard ed as early b y
b o th N öldeke and Bell, and w h ere there is n o m en tio n o f

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o p p o s itio n , o n e fin d s th a t th e fo llo w in g p o in ts a re m o s t

p r o m in e n t:
( 1 ) G o d is a ll-p o w e rfu l a n d a lso g o o d o r w e ll-d isp o se d
to w a rd s m e n ; all th a t is b e s t in m e n ’s liv es is d u e to h im a n d
also life itself.
( 2 ) G o d w ill ju d g e m e n o n th e L a st D a y , a n d a ssig n th e m
to H e a v e n o r H e ll a c c o rd in g to th e ir c o n d u c t in th is life.
( 3 ) M an is to re c o g n iz e h is d e p e n d e n c e o n G o d a n d to
s h o w g ra titu d e to h im a n d w o rs h ip h im .
( 4 ) M a n ’s re c o g n itio n o f h is d e p e n d e n c e o n G o d m u s t also
e x p re ss its e lf in h is a ttitu d e to w e a lth – n o n ig g a rd ly h o a rd in g ,
b u t g e n e ro s ity to th o s e in n e e d .
( 5 ) M u ḥ a m m a d h as a special v o c a tio n to c o n v e y k n o w ­
le d g e o f th e se tr u th s to th o s e r o u n d h im .11

In th e e a rly p a ssa g e s th e se p o in ts a re o f c o u rse e la b o ra te d

in v a rio u s w a y s ; b u t it is p e rh a p s w o r th re m a rk in g th a t o n th e
p ra c tic a l sid e ( p o i n t 4 ) th e re is v ir tu a lly n o th in g a p a rt fro m
th e d iffe re n t a sp e c ts o f th e a ttitu d e to w e a lth .
T h e r e seem s to b e so m e c o n n e c tio n , th o u g h its p re c ise
n a tu re is n o t c le a r, b e tw e e n th e a p p e a ra n c e o f o p p o s itio n to
Muḥ ammad a n d th e re v e la tio n o f p a ssa g e s c ritic iz in g a n d
a tta c k in g id o l-w o rs h ip . A t a v e r y e a rly d a te in S u ra t Q u ra y s h
( 1 0 6 ) th e re is a n a p p e a l to th e p e o p le o f M ecca to w o rs h ip
‘ th e L o r d o f th is h o u s e ’, th a t is, th e K a 'b a a t M ecca. T h is
p h ra se h a s p u z z le d so m e E u ro p e a n sc h o la rs, sin ce th e y
a ssu m e d th a t a t th is p e rio d th e L o rd o f th e K a 'b a w a s a n id o l.
T h e e x p la n a tio n o f th e v e rse is sim p le , a n d re sts o n tw o
p o in ts .12 O n e is th a t th e A ra b ic w o r d a l l ā h , lik e th e G re e k h o
th e o s , m a y b e u n d e rs to o d e ith e r as ‘ th e g o d ’ w o rs h ip p e d a t a
p a rtic u la r sa n c tu a ry ( a n d so o n e g o d a m o n g m a n y ) o r as
‘ G o d ’ in th e sen se o f th e p u re s t m o n o th e is m . T h u s w h ile so m e
A ra b s m a y h a v e th o u g h t o f a l l ā h as ‘ th e g o d ’ o f th e K a 'b a in
a p o ly th e is tic sen se, M u slim s c o u ld b e lie v e th a t it w a s G o d ,
th e so u rc e o f th e re v e la tio n s to M u ḥ a m m a d , w h o w a s w o r ­
s h ip p e d th e re . T h e tra n s itio n fro m o n e in te rp re ta tio n to th e
o th e r w a s m a d e e a sie r b y th e s e c o n d p o in t f o r w h ic h th e re are
se v e ra l p ieces o f e v id e n c e in th e Q u r ’ān . T h is is th a t a m o n g
th e A ra b s o f M u ḥ a m m a d ’s tim e th e re w e re m a n y w h o b e ­
lie v e d th a t a b o v e th e d e itie s re p re s e n te d b y th e id o ls th e re

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was a ‘h ig h g o d ’ o r suprem e deity, A llāh. O n e passage ap ­

p aren tly describing such a view is 29.61, 63, 65:
I f y o u ask them w h o created the heavens and the earth and
m ade the sun and m o o n sub serv ien t, th e y w ill certainly say,
‘G o d ’ . . . A nd if y o u ask them w h o sent d o w n w ater from
the heaven and th ereb y rev iv ed the earth after its death,
they w ill certainly say, ‘ G o d ’ . . . A n d w h en th ey sail on
the ship, th ey p ra y to G o d as sole object o f w o rsh ip , b u t
w h en he has b ro u g h t them safe to land th ey ‘associate’ (sc.
o th e r beings w ith G o d ).
Som etim es the lesser deities w ere ap p aren tly reg ard ed as in te r­
ceding w ith the suprem e G o d .13 T h e tem p tatio n in the ‘satanic
v e rse s’ in tru d ed after 53.19, 20 w as p ro b ab ly to reg ard G od
as a suprem e deity o f this ty p e besides w h o m th ere w ere lesser
deities– perhaps to be identified w ith a n g els– w h o m ig h t in te r­
cede w ith him on b eh alf o f those w h o show ed h o n o u r to them .
W h atev er the precise fo rm o f the pagan beliefs o f those
w ho opposed M uḥam m ad, and w h atev er n o n -relig io u s
m otives th ey m ay have had, it is clear th at at som e p o in t the
Q u r’ān began to attack all form s o f p olytheism w ith the
u tm o st v ig o u r. In som e passages the pagan deities are n o t
denied all reality, b u t are spoken o f as a species o f in ferior
beings, possibly angels o r jinn, w h o have no p o w er to th w art
o r even influence G o d ’s w ill th o u g h p o p u larly supposed to be
able to intercede w ith him . In o th e r passages all reality is
denied to them , and th ey are said to be m ere nam es invented
b y the ancients. In y et o th e r passages b elo n g in g to the
M edinan p eriod and perhaps w ith C hristians in view , it is
stated th at m essengers sent b y G o d have w ro n g ly had w o r­
ship rendered to them , b u t th a t th ey w ill d en y th eir w o r­
shippers at the Ju d g em en t. C hro n o lo g ically th e em phases
p ro b ab ly came in the o rd e r in w h ich th ey are described here.
A fter the appearances o f op p o sitio n a change is also fo u n d
in the statem ents ab o u t G o d ’s p u n ish m en t o f unbelievers and
w ro n g d o ers. O n the one han d , it is freq u en tly asserted th at
G o d w ill d estro y o r otherw ise pu n ish u n b eliev in g peoples in
this w o rld . T h is them e is illustrated fro m a n u m b er o f actual
stories, the ‘p u n ish m en t sto rie s’ to be considered in ch ap ter 8,
section 2. O n the o th e r han d , the d o ctrin e o f the L ast D a y is
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fu rth e r developed, and the to rm en ts o f H ell an d joys o f P ara­

dise are described in g reater detail. In co n n ectio n w ith this,
how ever, several o th e r m atters seem to m ake th e ir first appear­
ance o r to receive greater em phasis. It m ay be th a t the angels
w ere first m entioned in co n n ectio n w ith th e Ju d g em en t.
C ertainly it is tow ards th e end o f the M eccan p erio d th a t th ey
are often spoken o f as agents, eith er alone o r w ith ‘th e s p irit’
( ar-rūḥ), o f G o d ’s p ro v id en ce and revelation. A b o u t the
same tim e the nam e o f ar-R aḥ mān, ‘ the M erciful’, is in tro ­
duced, and is perhaps accom panied b y a deeper sense o f
raḥ ma o r ‘m e rc y ’. It is p resu m ab ly because o f the deepening
spiritual u n d erstan d in g o f the believers th a t th e Q u r’ān begins
to em ploy such term s expressive o f th eir relatio n to G o d as
tawba, ‘re p e n ta n c e ’, maghfira, ‘fo rg iv en ess’, kaffāra , ‘ab so lu ­
tio n ’, and riḍ wān, ‘a p p ro v a l’. Som e o f these m ay first have
com e after the H ijra.
T h e H ijra b ro u g h t th e M uslim s in to close co n tact w ith
Jew s. M uḥam m ad seem s a t first to have expected th a t the Jew s
w o u ld recognize the id e n tity o f th e revelation g iven to him
w ith w h a t th ey had in th e H eb rew Bible, and w as p rep ared to
be friendly w ith them . It so o n becam e ev id en t, ho w ev er,
th at the Jew s w ere n o t p repared to accept th e Q u r ’ān as revela­
tio n , and relations betw een th em and th e M uslim s d eterio ­
rated. T h e M uslim s learn t to o o f th e differences b etw een
Judaism and C h ristian ity and w ere g reatly puzzled, since th ey
regarded b o th as based o n gen u in e revelations fro m G od.
G radually an u n d erstan d in g o f the so lu tio n o f this pro b lem
w as p ro v id ed b y the Q u r ’ān. It w as linked w ith fresh em phasis
on the figure o f A brah am , especially o n th e fact th a t he w as
n eith er a Jew n o r a C h ristian .14 T h o u g h Jew s and C hristians
believe th a t th ey w o rsh ip ‘th e G o d o f A b rah am , Isaac and
Ja c o b ’ and there is som e c o n tin u ity w ith th e relig io n o f these
m en, it is also a fact th a t th e Jew ish relig io n can be said at
earliest to b eg in w ith Jacob (A b ra h a m ’s g ra n d so n ), th o u g h
the m ain revelation o n ly cam e w ith M oses. In th e Q u r ’ān
A braham is connected w ith Mecca, b u t th e co n tem p o raries o f
M uḥam m ad d o n o t seem to have th o u g h t o f Ishm ael (A b ra ­
h am ’s so n ) as th eir an cesto r, th o u g h the descent o f m any
A rabs fro m Ishm ael (a s alleged in the O ld T e sta m e n t) was
accepted b y later M uslim scholars.
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T h e religion o f A braham , then, acco rd in g to th e Q u r ’ān,

w as a pure m onotheism identical w ith the revelation g iven to
M uḥam m ad. Sim ilar, to o , w as the revelation given to Moses
and Jesus, the pro p h ets fro m w h o se w o rk cam e the Jew ish
and C hristian religions respectively. T h ese religions w ere n o w
different because th e ir follow ers had p erv erted th em th ro u g h
p resum ption, disobedience and jealousy. (O nce again a m o re
elaborate th e o ry w as developed b y later M uslim sch o lars.)
T h e ad herent o f this p u re religion w as called at first a ḥ anīf ,
a new w o rd apparen tly in A rabic, w hose plural u n fo rtu n ately
resem bled the w o rd fo r ‘ pagans ’ in Syriac. L ater he w as also
called a muslim , ‘one su rren d ered ( to G o d ) ’, and the
religion o f A brah am and o f M uḥam m ad becam e co rres­
p o n d in g ly islām ‘su rren d er ( to G o d ) ’. O n e effect o f this c o n ­
ception w as to give M uḥam m ad a p o sitio n as an in d ep en d en t
p ro p h e t and his follow ers as an in d ep en d en t co m m u n ity , and
th ereb y to rem ove the stin g fro m Jew ish criticism s o f the
Q u r ’ān.
T h e process o f ideological and political ad ju stm en t to the
hostility o f the Jew s o f M edina culm inated a b o u t M arch 624,
just before the battle o f Badr, in w h a t is called ‘ the break w ith
the Je w s ’; and this led to the appearance in the Q u r’ān o f new
w o rd s and phrases w h ich m ay be useful as an indication o f
date. Passages w hich appeal to th e testim o n y o f earlier m o n o ­
theists, o r w hich speak o f the confirm ation o f previous revela­
tions, are either Meccan o r – perhaps m ore freq u en tly – early
M edinan. T h o se w hich speak o f m o re than one m essenger to
the sam e people im ply a g ro w in g aw areness o f the Jew ish
religion am ong M uslim s, and are thus late Meccan o r M edinan.
T h e w o rd nabī, ‘p ro p h e t’, and m o st w o rd s derived fro m
H ebrew , are M edinan. A b rah am is sp o k en o f as a p ro p h e t
o n ly in M edina, and his close association w ith Ishm ael p ro b ­
ably belongs to the same tim e. T h e w o rd ḥ anīf and the phrase
m illat Ibrāhīm, ‘the religion o f A b ra h a m ’, first com e ju st
before ‘the break w ith the J e w s’. T h e use o f islām, muslim
and the verb aslama (in a religious sense) do n o t o ccur earlier
than that, and m ay w ell be later. It w as p ro b ab ly ab o u t the
sam e tim e th at the Q u r ’ān began to speak o f M uḥam m ad
receiving ‘the B o o k ’, b u t since the w o rd ‘b o o k ’ has o th er
m eanings, it is n o t alw ays helpful in dating. A fter ‘ the b reak
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w ith the J e w s ’ there seem to have been few changes o f em pha­

sis in Q u r ’ānic teaching o n doctrin al m atters.
Som e m iscellaneous w o rd s and ideas w h ich give an indica­
tio n o f date m ay be briefly m entioned. A ll passages w hich
recom m end fighting o r speak o f th e P ro p h e t’s follow ers being
engaged in fighting are necessarily M edinan. It w as at M edina
to o th a t the m aintenance o f th e m orale o f the c o m m u n ity
becam e o f concern to M uḥam m ad and th e M uslim s, so th at
condem nation o f fa sād , ‘c o rru p tio n ’, ‘tre a so n ’, m u st be
M edinan. T h e w o rd fitna w h ich m ay have a sim ilar m eaning is
to o am biguous to be a safe guide, b u t m o st o f its occurrences
are p ro b ab ly M edinan; the same is tru e o f shiqāq, ‘sch ism ’.
M edinan to o are the dem and to ob ey the M essenger, the use
o f the phrase ‘ G od and th e M essenger’, and the th reat o f
‘hum iliation in this w o rld ’ directed against Jew s and o th er
opponents.
T h e designations applied to o p p o n en ts v a ry fro m tim e to
tim e. K āfir , ‘u n b e lie v e r’, w ith the plural kāfir ūn,, is often used
th ro u g h o u t the Q u r ’ān, th o u g h it perhaps refers specially to
the early em phasis on G o d ’s b o u n ty , since in its non-technical
use the v erb kafara m eans ‘to be u n g ra te fu l’. T h e alternative
plural form kuffār is M edinan only. Al-mushrikūn, ‘ those w h o
ascribe partners ( to G o d ) ’, is a general nam e fo r idolaters at
all periods. Alladhīna kafarū, ‘those w h o have been u n ­
g ra te fu l’ o r ‘w ho have d isb eliev ed ’, is a freq u en t designation
o f the Meccans (th o u g h n o t restricted to th e m ) and continues
into M edinan tim es. Al-mushrikūn . . . Al-m ujrimūn , ‘ the sin­
n e rs ’, seem s to be late M eccan and early M edinan. Alladhīna
zalamū, ‘ those w h o have do n e w ro n g ’, is M edinan and seems
to be often applied to th e Jew s. M uhājir ūn, ‘E m ig ra n ts’, and
anṣ ār , ‘ H elpers ’, are o f course M edinan. U ncertain su p p o rters
in M edina w ere at first referred to as alladhīna f ī qulubi-him
maraḍ , ‘ those in w hose hearts is d isease’; th eir co n d u ct at the
battle o f U ḥ ud earned them the nicknam e o f munāfiq ūn, usually
rendered ‘H y p o c rite s’. T o w ard s th e close o f M uḥam m ad’s
life this w o rd is applied to a different g ro u p o f op p onents.

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 EIGHT

THE NAMES OF THE R E V E A L E D MESSAGE

T h e m atters to be considered in this ch ap ter rise o u t o f the

use o f certain w o rd s in th e Q u r ’ān to describe the b o o k as a
w hole o r parts o f it. T h e w o rd s in q u estio n are: āy āt, ‘sig n s’
o r ‘v e rse s’; mathānī, ‘o ft-re p e a te d ’ ( ? ) , and perhaps to be
interpreted as ‘p u n ish m en t-sto ries’; al-q u r'ān, al-kitāb, ‘th e
b o o k ’; and tanzīl, ‘sending d o w n ’, dhikr, etc., ‘a d m o n itio n ’,
and al-furqān. In respect o f the last th ree it is o n ly the m eaning
and in terp retatio n o f t h e term s w hich w ill be discussed; b u t
the others suggest fu rth er lines o f investig atio n and fu rth er
problem s. T h u s one m ay ask w h eth er these term s o ccur
th ro u g h o u t the period w h en the Q u r ’ān w as b eing revealed
o r o n ly at certain tim es w ith in the period. R ichard Bell has
argued th a t there w as a p o in t at w h ich the use o f the term
al-qu r'ān ceased, and th at in the latest revelations o n ly the
term ‘the b o o k ’ is used o f the w hole co rp u s o f revelation. It
is also to be asked w h eth er the ‘ signs’ o f G o d ’s go o d n ess and
p o w er belo n g to the earlier years o n ly o r to the w h o le o f
M uḥam m ad’s p ro p h eth o o d . T h is line o f investig atio n th en
opens o u t in to an o th er, nam ely, the ex ten t to w h ich the differ­
en t term s indicate different types o f m aterial. T h is qu estio n
applies chiefly to the first tw o term s. P u n ish m en t-sto ries,
w h eth er called mathānī o r n o t, co n stitu te a special ty p e o f
m aterial, and presum ably d o n o t b elo n g to th e earliest p eriod
o f all. W ith these p o in ts in m ind w e m ay proceed to exam ine
the use o f the various term s.

1. Signs
T h e re are m any references in th e Q u r’ān to āy āt (sin g . āy a ),
w hich are n orm ally to be u n d ersto o d as ‘sig n s’ in a v ariety o f
connected senses. F o r th e purposes o f exposition fo u r usages
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o r applications o f the w o rd m ay be d istin g u ish ed : ( 1 ) n a tu ra l

phenom ena w hich are signs o f G o d ’s p o w er and b o u n ty ; ( 2 )
events o r objects associated w ith the w o rk o f a m essenger o f
G od and ten d in g to confirm the tru th o f th e m essage; ( 3 )
signs w hich are recited b y a m essenger; ( 4 ) signs w h ich are
p a rt o f the Q u r’ān o r o f the B ook.
( 1 ) In som e passages w h ich are p ro b ab ly early M eccan
there are said to be signs fo r m en ‘in the earth . . . and in
y o u rselv es’ [50.20f .], o r ‘in th e heavens and th e earth . . . and
in y o u r (m a n k in d ’s ) creation and th e beasts he spreads
a b ro a d ’ [4 5 .3 /2 f.]. V arious p henom ena are likew ise said to
be am ong G o d ’s signs [41.37, 39; 42. 2 9 / 8 , 3 2 / 1 ]. A p a rt fro m
the specific m ention o f p henom ena as signs, h o w ev er, th ere is
a g reat n u m b er o f passages in w h ich p henom ena o f n atu re and
hum an life are described as evidences o f G o d ’s p o w er o r o f
the benefits he has bestow ed o n m en. A lth o u g h these passages
d o n o t contain the w o rd ‘s ig n ’ th ey m ay p ro p e rly be co n ­
sidered ‘sign-passages’ in view o f th e verses q u o ted . Such
sign-passages are an im p o rtan t ty p e o f Q u r’ānic m aterial. T h e
p henom ena m o st freq u en tly cited are: the creation o f the
heavens and the earth , the creation o r generatio n o f m an,
the various uses and benefits m an derives fro m the anim als, the
alternation o f n ig h t and day, th e sh in in g o f sun, m o o n and
stars, the changing w inds, the sending o f rain fro m the sky,
the revival o f parched g ro u n d and th e appearance o f herbage,
crops and fruits, the m o v em en t o f th e ship o n th e sea and the
stability o f the m ountain s. Less freq u en tly cited are: shadow s,
th u n d er, lig h tn in g , iro n , fire, hearin g , sig h t, u n d erstan d in g
and w isdom . In fo u r passages [2.28 / 6 ; 10.4 ; 2 2.66/ 5 ; 30.40 / 39]
b elo n g in g to the M edinan o r late M eccan p erio d , the resu r­
rection o f m en is included as one o f th e signs.
T h e enum eration o f these signs in n a tu re and in m en serves
various purposes. In som e cases th e y em b o d y a call fo r g ra ti­
tude to G o d [16.14; 3 0 .4 6 /5 ; 36.73] o r an in v itatio n to w o r­
ship him [6.104; 10.3]. Som etim es th e y are u sed as evidence
o f G o d ’s creative p o w er as co n trasted w ith the im p o ten ce o f
the false g ods [16.10-20]. Som etim es th e y are used as ev i­
dence o f G o d ’s p o w er to raise th e dead [2 2 .5 ], o r to inflict
punishm ent. In general these passages set before us th e idea o f
a pow erful and exalted b u t beneficent deity. T h e y are in co m -
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patible w ith the view th at th e Q u r’ān attem p ted to b rin g m en

to accept Islam b y describing the terro rs o f the co m in g Ju d g e ­
m ent. In such passages th ere is rath er an appeal to m en to
respond to G o d ’s b o u n ty .
Sign-passages occu r in each o f the periods in to w hich the
revelation m ay be divided. Since th ey refer to p erm an en t
objects and co n stan t natu ral processes, n o g ro w th is to be
traced in the list o f phenom ena m entioned as signs. G ardens
and palm s, vines and pom egranates w ere doubtless m o re com ­
m o n in M edina than in Mecca, and it w o u ld seem th a t th e y are
n o t m entioned in the earlier sign-passages; b u t to argue th at
all passages m ention in g these w ere revealed at M edina w o u ld
be to go b ey o n d the evidence. A n o th e r feature o f the sign-
passages is th a t there is the sem blance o f a fixed o rd er in w h ich
the signs are m entio n ed , and th ere are certainly freq u en t
repetitions. C areful exam ination, ho w ev er, show s th at there is
no one definite o rder, and th at th erefo re n o significance can
be attached to the ro u g h sem blance o f an ord er. In each
passage the signs m en tio n ed are presum ably those app ro p riate
to the occasion o f revelation.
R ichard Bell, w ho gave m uch atten tio n to the sign-passages,
suggested th at som e o f them w ere older th an the suras in
w hich they stand, such as: 2.21 / 19, 2 2 /2 0 , 2 8 /6 f.; 80.25-31 ;
88.17-20. M any o f them , to o , had been revised and ad ap ted to
their present positio n , such as: 6.95-99, 141/2 -1 4 4 /5 ; 10.102;
13.2-4, 1 2 /1 3 -1 5 /16; 16.3-16; 41.37-40. O ccasionally these
revisions introduced a reference to resu rrectio n , as in 23.12-16
and 3 5 .9 /1 0 -1 4 /15. T h e latter passage, like 7 .5 7 /5 f., b rin g s
resurrection into co n n ectio n w ith the sign o f the revival o f
dead land b y the co m in g o f rain, a sign peculiarly a p t in
A rabia, w here the effect o f rain is alm ost m iraculous. O th e r
passages w here the m en tio n o f resu rrectio n w as th o u g h t b y
Bell to have been added in the course o f revision are 43.11 / 10,
w here a detachable rh y m e-p h rase seem ed to have been inserted,
and 3 0 .4 8 /7 -5 1 /0 , w h ere he th o u g h t th a t there w as an ad d i­
tion in 4 9 /8 and th a t the latter h a lf o f 50 /4 9 had also been
added. I f the hypoth esis o f revision at these p o in ts is accepted,
it w ould p ro b ab ly follow th at the sign o f the revival o f dead
land had first been used in d ep en d en tly o f the qu estio n o f
resurrection as a sign o f G o d ’s p o w er and b o u n ty . I t is the
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case th at m ost passages inclu d in g this sign use it in this latter

w ay ; e.g. 2 .1 6 4 /5 9 ; 1 6 .6 5 /7 ; 2 5 .4 9 /5 1 ; 32.27; 36.33;
4 3 .1 1 /1 0 ; 4 5 .5 /4 . T h e use o f th e w o rd raḥ ma fo r ‘r a in ’ in
7 .57/5 tends to su p p o rt the view th a t this sign-passage is
early, since raḥ ma acquires a different m eaning in later revela­
tions w hich speak o f Ju d g e m e n t and fu tu re rew ard.
A n o th e r sign freq u en tly m en tio n ed is th a t G o d originates a
creature and th en restores it [10.4, 3 4 /5 ; 1 7 .5 1 /3 ; 21.104;
2 7 .6 4 /5 ; 2 9 .2 0 /1 9 ; 30.1 1 /1 0 , 2 7 /6 ; 3 4 .4 9 /8 ; 85.18]. In m o st
o f these passages the reference to resu rrectio n is clear, th o u g h
in one o r tw o it is do u b tfu l. T h u s in 2 9 .1 9 /18f. th e n atural
in terp retatio n o f the phrase is o f the re tu rn o f veg etatio n
w ith o u t any reference to resu rrectio n . Sim ilarly in th e recu r­
rin g phrases ‘he gives life and causes to d ie ’ and ‘he b rin g s
the dead from the living and th e living fro m the d e a d ’ the
reference m ay originally have been to p u rely natu ral events.
T h e re is b o u n d to rem ain an elem ent o f h y p o th esis in the
view th at passages speaking o f th e revival o f dead land as a
sign o f G o d ’s p o w er and b o u n ty have been revised to b rin g in
a reference to the resurrection. I f the arg u m en ts are so u n d ,
th ey add to the evidence fo r the existence o f revision. F o r
m o st purposes, how ev er, the p o in t to be em phasized is th at the
revival o f dead land is both a sign o f G o d ’s p o w er and b o u n ty
and also an arg u m en t fo r the possibility o f resurrection. It
should also be em phasized th at, w hile sign-passages are an
im p o rta n t p a rt o f the con ten ts o f th e Q u r ’ān, th e w o rd ‘s ig n ’
is also used in o th e r senses. U ntil the o th e r senses have been
discussed it is best to defer considering th e q u estio n w h eth er
sign-passages w ere first m ad e p u blic as in d ep en d en t un its.
( 2 ) T h e w o rd ‘s ig n ’ is also applied to events o r objects
associated w ith the w o rk o f a m essenger o f G od and ten d in g
to confirm the m essage he bears. T h u s in 43.4 6 /5 Moses is sent
to P h arao h and his n o b les w ith G o d ’s signs. T h ese are p re­
sum ably the changing o f th e ro d in to a serp en t and th en the
plagues, fo r it is said [43. 4 8 /7 ] th a t ev ery sign G o d show ed
them w as g reater than the p rev io u s one. T h e p ro d u c tio n o f
the sign is G o d ’s d o in g , and a n o th e r verse [40.78] plainly
asserts th at to no m essenger is it g iv en to p ro d u ce a sign. In
this sense o f the w o rd signs are far fro m sh o w in g G o d ’s g o o d ­
ness, b u t m ay be described as b ein g ‘sent o n ly to frig h te n ’

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[1 7 .5 9 /6 1 ]. T h e signs o f M oses are also m en tio n ed in

2 0 .1 7 /1 8 -2 4 /5 (co m b in ed in verses 4 7 /9 to 5 6 /8 w ith the
signs in n atu re o f G o d ’s b o u n ty ), 27.12-14, 7 .130/2 7 - 136/2
and o th e r passages. O th e r m essengers had special signs ac­
corded to them as a confirm ation o f the tru th o f th eir m essage;
w ith Ṣāliḥ w as sent a she-cam el as a sign to T h a m ū d [7.73 / 1 ;
etc .], w hile Jesus b ro u g h t as a sign the m iracle o f the b ird o f
clay w hich becam e alive [3 .4 9 /3 ]. T h e d estru ctio n o f u n ­
believing peoples is a sign [15.73-5; e tc .], and sim ilarly the
deliverance o f the believers [2 9 .2 4 /3 ; etc.]. In 54.15 N o a h ’s
ship ( o r, less p ro b ab ly , his sto ry ) is left as a sign to w arn m en
th a t unbelievers and the d iso bedient are destro y ed .
W h e n M uḥam m ad’s o p p o n en ts dem anded o f him a sign
it w as presum ably so m ething o f this kin d th a t th ey w an ted
[6.37; 1 3 .7 /8 ; 21.5]. A s already n o ted , th e Q u r ’ān insisted
th at on ly G od prod u ced signs, and th a t n o m essenger could
do this o f his o w n vo litio n . Such is the ob stin acy o f the
o p p o n en ts that, even if M uḥam m ad b ro u g h t them a sign ( p re­
sum ably o f this type) – so it is asserted in 30.58 – th ey w o u ld
still n o t believe. In the later years o f M uḥam m ad’s life som e
o f his external successes could be referred to as signs, such as
the anticipated gaining o f spoils in 48.20 a b o u t the tim e o f the
treaty o f al-Ḥ udaybiya, and above all the v ic to ry o f B adr
[3 .1 3 /1 1 ]. T h e discussion b elo w o f the m eaning o f F u rq ān
is also relevant here. It w as p ro b ab ly this dem and fo r a sign
d u rin g the M eccan period th at led to th e shift o f m eaning o f
the w o rd āy a to so m eth in g like ‘revealed m essag e’. T h e
m essages w hich cam e to M uḥam m ad b y the m ysterious p ro ­
cess o f waḥ y o r revelation w ere th e real signs o f his tru th .
T h is process and th e m essages h e received th ro u g h it w ere the
evidence ( bayyina ) o n w h ich he to o k his stan d [6 .5 7 ;
47.14 / 15]; at the same tim e the evidence w as so m eth in g to be
recited [1 1 .1 7 /2 0 ].
In so far as the signs are events connected w ith p revious
m essengers fro m G o d th ey are n o t far rem o v ed fro m the
categ o ry o f punish m en t-sto ries to be discussed in th e next
section. Signs in co n tem p o rary events like the b attle o f B adr
are h ardly in this categ o ry , th o u g h in a sense th e u n d erly in g
principle is the same, nam ely, G o d ’s p u nitive action in h isto ry .
In w h a t follow s the term ‘sign-passages’ w ill b e restricted to

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those w hich speak o f signs in n atu ral phenom ena, b u t it m u st

be insisted th at these are n o t the o n ly signs o f w h ich the
Q u r ’ān speaks.
( 3 ) T h e re are m any verses w h ich speak o f signs b eing
recited. W h en G o d ’s signs are recited, th e faith o f the believers
increases [8.2]. T h is recitin g o f signs is the w o rk o f m essengers
sent b y G od [as in 39.71]; b u t in m o st instances in w h ich the
phrase is used the reference is to M uḥam m ad h im self [e.g .
3 1 .7 /6 ; 4 5 .2 5 /4 ; 4 6 .7 /6 ; 62.2; 65.11]. In 4 5 .6 /5 the signs are
recited to M uḥam m ad b y G o d h im self o r b y the angels as his
envoys. In a n u m b er o f passages [8 .3 1 ; 68.15; 83.13], w h en
M uḥam m ad recites the signs, his o p p o n en ts criticize th em as
‘old -w o rld fables’ ( asāṭ īr al-awwalīn). By itself this phrase
suggests punishm ent-sto ries [especially 8.31 an d 68.15]. O n
the o th e r hand, there are a n u m b er o f passages w h ere the
phrase is applied to ‘w h a t G o d has p ro m ise d ’, th a t is, re su r­
rection and ju d g em en t [e.g. 2 3 .8 3 /5 ; 2 7 .6 8 /7 0 ; 4 6 .1 7 /1 6 ;]
and in these it m ig h t rath er be in terp reted o f sign-passages.
It is also possible there, ho w ev er, th a t resu rrectio n and ju d g e­
m en t are th o u g h t o f to g eth er, and p u n ish m en t-sto ries w o u ld
then be m ore appropriate. T h u s the p resu m p tio n is th a t ‘ the
reciting o f s ig n s’ is chiefly o f pun ish m en t-sto ries, b u t sign-
passages can n o t be w h o lly excluded. W h a te v e r the precise
reference in the ‘recitin g o f s ig n s’, the idea o f recitin g leads
on to the next usage o f th e w o rd āya .
( 4 ) T h e signs m ay be p a rt o f the Q u r ’ān o r o f ‘the b o o k ’,
and w ill then com e close to h av in g the m eaning o f ‘v e rse s’.
T h e w o rd āy a , o f course, reg u larly m eans ‘v e rse ’ in later
A rabic, b u t th e m o d ern scholar is justified in asking w h e th e r
it ever has this m eaning in th e Q u r ’ān itself, o r w h eth er it has
been read in to the Q u r’ān b y later M uslims. T h e stro n g est
evidence fo r the m eaning o f ‘v e rse ’ in th e Q u r’ān itself is in
passages w hich speak o f an āy a b ein g cancelled o r fo rg o tten
and a b e tte r o r the like giv en instead [2 .1 0 6 /0 ] and one āy a
bein g su b stitu ted fo r a n o th er [16.10 1 /3 ] ; b u t even th ere th e
m eaning m ig h t conceivably be a w hole passage. T h e sam e
m ay be said a b o u t 24.1 ( ‘a sura in w h ich w e have sent d o w n
signs as evidences’) and 3 1 .2 /1 ( ‘the āy āt o f the w ise b o o k ’).
A fu rth e r pro b lem is raised b y such a phrase as ‘ a b o o k w h o se
āy āt have been m ade d istin c t’ [41.3 /2 ] . Som e M uslim scholars
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th o u g h t th at the last p art, tran slatin g the w o rd fu ṣ ṣ ilat, should

ra th e r be rendered ‘have been m arked w ith faw āṣ i l o r rh y m e-
p h ra se s’, and there are several passages w here āy āt are co n ­
nected w ith som e p a rt o f fa ṣ ṣ ala ; the ag en t is G o d if any is
m entioned. T h is ren d erin g seems unlikely, ho w ev er, in the
lig h t o f such a verse as 6.119 w h ere it is said o f G o d fa ṣ ṣ ala
la-kum mā ḥ arrama ' alay-кит, ‘he has m ade distin ct fo r y o u
w h a t he has forbid d en to y o u ’. T h e w o rd bayyana and its
derivatives are also freq u en tly connected w ith āy āt, presum ­
ably w ith the sense o f ‘m aking clear o r d istin c t’. T h u s apart
from – at m o st – o ne o r tw o instances the w o rd āy a in the
Q u r ’ān m eans ‘s ig n ’ and n o t ‘v e rse ’.

It m ay well be th a t sign-passages, w here n atu ral phenom ena

are described as signs o f G o d ’s p o w er and goodness, w ere an
im p o rta n t elem ent in the early revelations. O n o th e r g ro u n d s
these aspects are k n o w n to have been em phasized in the early
period. O n the o th e r han d , m any sign-passages tend to be
d ated ‘ late M eccan ’ o r ‘ early M edinan ’, and th ey p resuppose a
m easure o f scepticism . T h e p u n ish m en t-sto ries presuppose
oppo sitio n , b u t are n o t clearly later in date th an m o st o f the
sign-passages. In general the signs com e to be sp o k en o f as
revealed m essages w h ich m ay be recited and are parts o f ‘ th e
b o o k ’, b u t are seldom , if ever, single verses.

2. Stories o f p u n ish m en t; al-mathānī

In dealing w ith the second usage o f ‘sig n ’ it has been n o ted
th at p unishm ent-sto ries co n stitu te a definite ty p e o f m aterial
fo und in the Q u r’ān. In the p resen t section the p u n ish m en t-
stories w ill first be exam ined as a d istinct category. T h e n the
q uestion w ill be considered w h eth er th ey m ay be identified
w ith ‘ the seven mathā n ī'. T h e stories u n d e r this head are as
follow s.
( A ) T h e sto ry o f 'Ā d. T h e nam e o f this people occurs in
pre-Islam ic p o etry , b u t no definite details are given. A cco rd ­
ing to the Q u r ’ān, th ey w ere a g reat people o f old, perhaps
giants [7 .6 9 /7 ], w h o b u ilt ‘sig n s’ on em inences [2 6 .1 2 8 ];
th eir buildings w ere still to be seen. W h e th e r th ey are to be
identified w ith Iram o f the pillars, m entioned in 8 9 .7 /6 , is a
m o o t p o in t w hich depends u p o n the reading and co n stru ctio n

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th o u g h t th at the last p art, tran slatin g the w o rd fu ṣ ṣ ilat, should

ra th e r be rendered ‘have been m arked w ith faw āṣ i l o r rh y m e-
p h ra se s’, and there are several passages w here āy āt are co n ­
nected w ith som e p a rt o f fa ṣ ṣ ala ; the ag en t is G o d if any is
m entioned. T h is ren d erin g seems unlikely, ho w ev er, in the
lig h t o f such a verse as 6.119 w h ere it is said o f G o d fa ṣ ṣ ala
la-kum mā ḥ arrama ' alay-кит, ‘he has m ade distin ct fo r y o u
w h a t he has forbid d en to y o u ’. T h e w o rd bayyana and its
derivatives are also freq u en tly connected w ith āy āt, presum ­
ably w ith the sense o f ‘m aking clear o r d istin c t’. T h u s apart
from – at m o st – o ne o r tw o instances the w o rd āy a in the
Q u r ’ān m eans ‘s ig n ’ and n o t ‘v e rse ’.

It m ay well be th a t sign-passages, w here n atu ral phenom ena

are described as signs o f G o d ’s p o w er and goodness, w ere an
im p o rta n t elem ent in the early revelations. O n o th e r g ro u n d s
these aspects are k n o w n to have been em phasized in the early
period. O n the o th e r han d , m any sign-passages tend to be
d ated ‘ late M eccan ’ o r ‘ early M edinan ’, and th ey p resuppose a
m easure o f scepticism . T h e p u n ish m en t-sto ries presuppose
oppo sitio n , b u t are n o t clearly later in date th an m o st o f the
sign-passages. In general the signs com e to be sp o k en o f as
revealed m essages w h ich m ay be recited and are parts o f ‘ th e
b o o k ’, b u t are seldom , if ever, single verses.

2. Stories o f p u n ish m en t; al-mathānī

In dealing w ith the second usage o f ‘sig n ’ it has been n o ted
th at p unishm ent-sto ries co n stitu te a definite ty p e o f m aterial
fo und in the Q u r’ān. In the p resen t section the p u n ish m en t-
stories w ill first be exam ined as a d istinct category. T h e n the
q uestion w ill be considered w h eth er th ey m ay be identified
w ith ‘ the seven mathā n ī'. T h e stories u n d e r this head are as
follow s.
( A ) T h e sto ry o f 'Ā d. T h e nam e o f this people occurs in
pre-Islam ic p o etry , b u t no definite details are given. A cco rd ­
ing to the Q u r ’ān, th ey w ere a g reat people o f old, perhaps
giants [7 .6 9 /7 ], w h o b u ilt ‘sig n s’ on em inences [2 6 .1 2 8 ];
th eir buildings w ere still to be seen. W h e th e r th ey are to be
identified w ith Iram o f the pillars, m entioned in 8 9 .7 /6 , is a
m o o t p o in t w hich depends u p o n the reading and co n stru ctio n

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o f th a t passage, and can n o t be settled. It is, ho w ev er, the

sim plest and m o st natu ral in terp retatio n . T o th em the m es­
senger Ḥ ū d w as sen t; b u t th ey disbelieved and w ere destro y ed
b y a w in d w hich b lew fo r seven n ig h ts and days and w iped o u t
ev ery th in g except the buildings. (S ee In d ex ).
( B ) T h e sto ry o f T h a m ū d. T h a m ū d w as a real people o f
ancient A rabia. T h e y are m en tioned in an in scrip tio n o f
Sargon, in P tolem y, P lin y and o th e r classical w riters, as w ell
as in pre-Islam ic A rab p o etry . T h e y seem to have been associ­
ated w ith the N o rth W e st o f A rabia, p articularly w ith al-Ḥ ijr
(M ed ā’in Ṣāliḥ ). T h e y are sp o k en o f as hav in g b o red th e ro ck
in the w adi [8 9 .9 /8 ], hav in g b u ilt castles in level places and
hew n o u t the m o u n tain fo r houses [7 .7 4 /2 ] – p resu m ab ly a
reference to the rem ains o f bu ild in g s and ro ck -h ew n to m b s to
be fo u n d there. T h e ir bu ild in g s w ere still to be seen [2 7 .5 2 /3 ;
2 9 .3 8 /7 ]. T o them a m essenger, Ṣāliḥ, one o f them selves, w as
sent, and as a p ro o f o f the tru th o f his m essage a she-cam el and
a foal w ere m iraculously p ro d u ced , w h ich w ere to be respected
and given a share o f the w ater. T h a m ū d, h o w ev er, disbelieved,
and h am stru n g the camel. T h e y w ere destro y ed b y an e a rth ­
quake [7 .7 8 /6 ], b y a th u n d e rb o lt o f p u n ish m en t [4 1 .1 7 /1 6 ;
51.44], o r b y a ' s h o u t' sent u p o n th em [54.31]. T h e u n ­
specified people o f 23.31 /2-41 / 3, w h o w ere d estro y ed b y the
‘s h o u t' , are p ro b ab ly T h a m ū d, if th ey are to be identified at
all, and are n o t m erely a type.
(C ) T h e m en o f a l-Ḥ ijr are p ro b a b ly T h a m ū d. T h o u g h the
tribe and place are nev er definitely associated in the Q u r’ān, in
15.80-84, the on ly passage in w h ich th ey are m en tio n ed , th ey
are said to have hew n o u t houses fro m the m o u n tain s, and to
have been overw helm ed in th e m o rn in g b y th e ‘s h o u t’ fo r
h aving tu rn ed aw ay from the ‘sig n s’. T h is co rresp o n d s to
w h a t is said o f T h a m ū d.
( D ) T h e people o f M idian. O f th em little definite in fo rm a­
tio n is given. T h e on ly special item in th eir sto ry is th at
S h u ' ayb, the m essenger sent to th em , ex h o rts th em to give full
m easure and ju st w eig h t. Like o th e r disbelieving peoples,
th ey w ere destroyed - b y an earth q u ak e o r b y a ‘s h o u t' .
( E ) T h e m en o f the G ro v e o r T h ic k e t referred to in 15.78f.,
38.13/12 and 50.14/13, seem , fro m the o n ly account given o f
them , 26.176-91, to be identical w ith the people o f M idian, fo r

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th eir m essenger is S h u 'ay b , and th ey also are ex h o rted to give

full m easure and ju st w eig h t.1
( F ) T h e m en o f ar-R ass are referred to in lists o f disbeliev­
ing peoples w h o w ere d estro y ed , b u t n o details are given
[2 5 .3 8 /4 0 ; 50.12]. Rass is a w o rd m eaning ‘w e ll' , b u t it is
im possible to identify the place o r the people.
( G ) T h e people o f T u b b a ' n o d o u b t w ere a S o u th A rabian
people, since the title is held to be th a t o f th e k in g s o f th e
Ḥ im yarites. T h e y are included in a list o f peoples pu n ish ed
fo r u n b elief [50.13], and are cited in 44.37/ 6 ; b u t n o details
o f w h a t happened to th em are given.
( H ) Sabā' (S h e b a ). W h e th e r this is the sam e people u n d e r
an o th er nam e, w e can n o t say. A lo n g acco u n t o f S olom on and
the Q u een o f Sheba is given in sura 27, b u t, as a p u n ish m en t-
sto ry , the fate o f Sheba is dealt w ith o n ly in 3 4 .1 5 /1 4 -1 9 /1 8 ,
and it does n o t con fo rm to the usual type. N o m essenger is
m entioned as havin g been sent to them , b u t th ey h ad a sign
given them – tw o gardens, ev id en tly fru itfu l. T h e y tu rn ed
aw ay, and the flood o f th e dam ( sc. o f Ma’rib ) cam e u p o n
them and apparently ru in ed the fertility o f th eir gardens. In
the latter p a rt o f the sto ry , th ere seem s to b e a reference to the
decay o f the Sabaean caravan tra d e ; and this is ap p aren tly
regarded as a p un ish m en t fo r the len g th en in g o f th e daily
stages to be covered b y th e caravans.
( I ) N oah. S om ething m ay have been k n o w n in pre-Islam ic
A rabia o f the sto ry o f N o ah and the F lo o d , th o u g h the refer­
ences in early A rab p o e try are d o u b tfu l. In the Q u r’ān, the
people o f N o ah are freq u en tly referred to as h av in g been
destroyed fo r unbelief. A s a developed sto ry it is repeated in
som e ten places. U sually N o ah is sen t as a m essenger to his
people; and th ey disbelieve and are d ro w n ed , w hile he and
those w h o believe are saved in the Ship ( A r k ) . In som e o f the
passages, how ever, particu larly in 1 1 .2 5 /7 -4 8 /5 0 , the sto ry
is expanded so as to include details o f the O ld T estam en t
sto ry and elem ents fro m extra-B iblical Jew ish trad itio n . In
an o th er set o f passages (e .g . 4 .1 6 3 /1) N o ah appears as a
p ro p h et, and the p u n ish m en t side o f the sto ry falls in to the
b ackground.
( J ) A braham . A s a ḥ anīf , a p ro p h et, and fo u n d e r o f the
religion o f A braham , he is freq u en tly m en tio n ed . T h e sto ry
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o f his attacking the id o l-w o rsh ip o f his fath er and people, an d ,

w h en disbelieved, w ith d raw in g fro m th em is related in
19.41/ 2 - 4 9 / 50; 2 1 .5 2 /1-72; 26.69-102; and 3 7 .8 3 /1 -1 0 1 /9 9 .
T h is last passage com es nearest to the fo rm o f a p u n ish m en t-
sto ry , b u t th o u g h his people are tw ice referred to in lists o f
earlier unbelievers, w h o presu m ab ly w ere destro y ed , th eir
destru ctio n is n ev er stated. T h e m o st th at is said is th a t th ey
w ere m ade ‘ the w o rst losers ' [ 21.70] o r ‘ the in ferio r ’ [ 37.98 /6 ] .
T h e sto ry is fo u n d in Jew ish trad itio n .
( K ) L ot. T h e sto ry o f L o t appears in several passages w ith ­
o u t an y connection b etw een him and A b rah am b ein g m en ­
tioned. I t is possible th at there m ay have been a local tra d itio n
o f this so rt, fo r in several passages it is indicated th a t the
locality o f the sto ry is k n o w n and can be seen [15.76; 37.137;
?25·40 /2 ] . It conform s to the ty p e o f the p u n ish m en t-sto ry in
th a t L o t is said to have been sen t to his people. H e accuses
them o f indecency and sodom y. W h e n th ey op p o se and
th reaten to expel him , he and his h o u seh o ld are delivered, all
except his w ife, w h o ‘lin g e re d ’. T h e to w n w as th en o v e r­
w helm ed b y an evil rain sent u p o n it, o r b y a g rav el-sto rm
[54.34]. W h ere the sto ry is associated w ith th e angels’ v isit to
A braham , it departs fro m the usual form in th a t L o t is n o
lo n g er a m essenger to his people, b u t is tro u b led w h en the
m essengers com e to him . In 29.26/5 L o t is one o f those w h o
believe in A braham , and in 21.71 he is delivered along w ith
A braham . In 21.74f. he is given ju risd ictio n and kn o w led g e,
so becom ing a p ro p h e t rath er th an the m essenger in a p u n ish ­
m en t-sto ry .
( L ) A l-M u’tafikāt, the overw helm ed o r su b v erted cities
referred to in 9 .7 0 /1, 53.53/ 4 h ., and 69.9 are p ro b ab ly to be
identified w ith the cities o f the Plain, Sodom and G o m o rrah ,
since th ey seem to stan d in place o f the people o f L ot. T h e
A rabic w o rd is pro b ab ly , as H irschfeld su g g ested ,1a adapted
from the H eb rew mahpēkhā, w h ich , in th e O ld T estam en t, is
associated w ith the d estru ctio n o f Sodom .
( M ) P h arao h is som etim es referred to, w ith o u t m en tio n o f
M oses, as an exam ple o f one w h o suffered fo r his u n b elief (e .g .
54.41f.). In tw o passages he is described as dhu l-awtād ,
‘possessor o f the p e g s ’ o r ‘sta k e s’ [3 8 .1 2 /1 1 ; 89.9]. W h a t this
refers to is u n k n o w n . It is im probable th at, as H o ro v itz sug-
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gests,2 it should refer to his b u ildings, and th ere seem s to be

n o th in g in Jew ish tra d itio n to explain it. I t m ay be th a t som e
sto ry a b o u t P h arao h w as c u rre n t in A rabia, b u t the evidence is
slender. U sually the Q u r ’ānic versio n accords w ith th e Bibli­
cal sto ry o f M oses and P h arao h . Som etim es it is reduced to
the ty p e o f a p u n ish m e n t-sto ry as in 23.45 /7 -4 8 / 50, b u t m o re
often it is extended and has fu rth e r details parallel to th e Bibli­
cal account o r to extra-B iblical Jew ish trad itio n . In som e o f
the versions the p u n ish m en t o f P h arao h is a m ere side-issue,
the m ain object being to give an acco u n t o f Moses and the
C hildren o f Israel.
( N ) In 29.39/8 f. and 4 0 .2 3 /4 -2 5 /6 K o rah and H am an are
associated w ith P harao h . In 28.76-82 K o rah figures as one o f
the people o f M oses w h o is g iven g reat w ealth, b u t because
o f his pride and arro g an ce is d estro y ed th ro u g h th e earth
sinking w ith him and his dw elling.
W h e n these stories are exam ined, it w ill be seen th a t A to H
inclusive b elo n g to A rab ian trad itio n , and perh ap s also d e­
tails fro m the others, especially M. M idian, o f course, is
m entioned in the Bible, and in tw o suras o f th e Q u r ’ān
[2 0 .4 0 /2 ; 28.22/1-2 8 , 45] is co n n ected w ith M oses; b u t the
stories in D and E are A rab ian and n o t Biblical, th o u g h 28.45
m ay be taken as co n n ectin g the tw o. O th e r A rab ian m aterial
is referred to in 105 ( th e repulse o f the ex p ed itio n o f the
elep h an t) and perhaps also in 85.1-9, if th a t is in terp reted o f
the m assacre o f C hristians in N a jrān. Since no m essenger is
present in these cases, h o w ev er, th ey d o n o t have the fo rm o f
a p u n ish m en t-sto ry . T h e rem aining stories, I to N , are parallel
to Bibilical stories b u t differ fro m these at vario u s p o in ts. T h e
Q u r ’ān usually presupposes som e k n o w led g e o f its stories
am ong the first hearers, and so the p resu m p tio n is th a t the
stories w ere cu rre n t in A rabia in the fo rm im plied b y th e
Q u r ’ān.
W h e n one fu rth e r considers the m an n er in w h ich the
stories are em ployed in the Q u r’ān, it appears th at th ere are
seven m ain sto ries; and these are in fact included in a list in
2 2 .4 2 /3 -4 4 /3 . T h e y are: N o ah ( I ) , 'Ā d ( A ) , T h a m ū d ( В ) ,
the people o f A brah am ( J ) , the people o f L o t ( K ) , M idian
( D ) , the people o f Moses (M ). It m ay fu rth e r be n o ted th a t C
is a duplicate o f В, E o f D and L o f K. F o r F and G th ere are

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o n ly references, n o t a sto ry . T h e re is o n ly one occurrence o f

H ; and N , th o u g h n o t a duplicate o f M, m ay be called an o u t­
g ro w th from it, since it is also connected w ith Moses. T h e case
fo r considering the p u n ish m en t-sto ries a separate elem ent in
the Q u r ’ān is stren g th en ed w h en it is n o ticed th a t th ey com ­
m only occur to g e th e r in g ro u p s, th o u g h th e co n stitu en ts o f
the g ro u p v ary. T h is is clearest if set o u t in tab u lar fo rm ; to
m ake th e relative len g th s m o re o b v io u s o n ly th e F lü g el
v erse-n u m b erin g is given.

Sura 7 : N oah [5 7 -6 2 ]; ' Ā d [6 3 -7 0 ]; T h a m ū d [7 1 -7 7 ]; L o t

[7 8 -8 2 ]; M idian [83-91].
Sura 9: [list, v. 71] N o ah , "Ād, T h a m ū d, A braham ,
M idian, th e M u’tafikāt.
Sura 1 1 : N o ah [2 7 .5 1 ]; ' Ā d [5 2 -6 3 ]; T h a m ū d [6 4 -7 1 ];
A braham and L o t [7 2 -8 4 ]; M idian [85-98].
Sura 14 : [b rie f reference, v. 9] N o ah , ' Ā d, T h a m ū d.
Sura 21 : M oses and A aro n [49-51 ] ; A b rah am [ 52-73 ] ;
L o t [ 7 4 f.]; N oah [7 6 f .] ; D av id and Solom on, Jo b ,
Jo n ah , Zacharias, M ary, etc. [78 -9 4 ; n o t pu n ish m en t-
stories].
Sura 2 3 : N o a h [2 3 -3 1 ]; u nnam ed, perhaps T h a m ū d
[3 2 -4 3 ]; o th ers unnam ed [4 4 -4 6 ]; Moses [47-50].
Sura 2 5 : M oses, N o ah , ' Ā d, T h a m ū d, ar-R ass [37-42].
Sura 26: M oses [9 -6 8 ]; A b rah am [6 9 -1 0 4 ]; N o a h
[1 0 5 -2 2 ]; ' Ā d [1 2 3 -4 0 ]; T h a m ū d [1 4 1 -5 9 ]; L o t [1 6 0 -7 5 ];
M idian [176-91].
Sura 27 : Moses [7 -14 ]; Sheba [1 5 -4 5 ]; T h a m ū d [4 6 -5 4 ];
L o t [55-59].
Sura 29: N o ah [ 13f.] ; A b rah am [1 5 -2 6 ]; L o t [2 7 -3 4 ];
M idian [ 3 5f. ] ; 'Ā d , T h a m ū d [3 7 ]; Moses [3 8 6 ].
Sura 37 : N o ah [ 7 3 -7 9 ]; A b rah am [8 1 -1 1 3 ]; Moses
[1 1 4 -2 2 ]; Elias [12 3 -3 2 ]; L o t [1 3 3 -3 8 ]; Jo n ah [139-48].
Sura 5 1 : A braham [2 4 -3 7 ]; Moses [3 8 -4 0 ]; ' Ā d [ 4 1f .] ;
T h a m ū d [4 3 -4 5 ]; N o ah [4 6 ].
Sura 53: ' Ā d, T h a m ū d, N o ah , the M u’tafikāt [ 5 1 -5 4 ].
Sura 54: N o ah [ 9 - 1 7 ] ; ' Ā d [1 8 -2 1 ]; T h a m ū d [2 3 -3 2 ];
L o t [33-40]; P h arao h [ 4 1f.].
Sura 69 : T h a m ū d, ' Ā d , P h arao h , the M u’tafikāt [4 -1 0 ].
Sura 89: ' Ā d, T h a m ū d, P h arao h [5-1 3 ].
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It is interesting to look at the slight differences in the versions

o f a single story, but space does not permit this here. It is more
apposite to note that in some suras (e.g. 26) the stories with
the exception o f those o f Moses and Abraham are assimilated
to one another, and may also be marked off from one another
by a refrain. The triad o f Noah, 'Ā d and Thamūd appears
nearly everywhere. In so far as any conclusions can be based on
the dating o f the suras, it would seem that 5 3 , 5 4 , 69 and 89 are
early; and these contain besides this triad the stories o f
Pharaoh (without Moses) and that o f Lot or the Mu’tafikāt.
It would also seem that the fuller stories o f Abraham and
Moses occur only in later passages. That is to say, stories
current in Mecca or in Arabia preponderate in the earlier pas­
sages and suras, and it is only at a later date that Biblical
material is introduced. A further point to note is that the
stories are almost exclusively o f temporal and not o f eschato­
logical punishment. Exceptionally in sura 1 1 there are refer­
ences to ‘ the day o f resurrection’ in some o f the stories,
namely, in that o f 'Ā d [60/3] and o f Pharaoh [98/100f.],
while the series o f stories is followed by a passage on the Last
Judgement [ 1 0 3/5-1 08/1 0]. Resurrection and Judgement are
also mentioned in the story o f Abraham and his people (for
whom there is no obvious temporal punishment) in 26.82-5.
At certain points the details o f the stories appear to be
adapted to the experiences o f Muḥ ammad and his followers.
The stories were presumably already familiar to the Muslims,
and the main points are told briefly. In many suras the stories
are then filled out by accounts, varying from version to ver­
sion (but often similar in the same sura), o f what was said by
the messenger and by his opponents. In these accounts there
are parallels to what is elsewhere set down as having been said
by Muḥ ammad and his Meccan opponents. There is thus some
justification for thinking that other details in the stories may
reflect what was happening to Muhammad. When Sālih, for
example, is said by his opponents to have been one o f whom
they had good hopes [ 1 1 .62/5], this may be taken as con­
firming the statements that Muhammad, before beginning to
receive revelations, had a respected position in Mecca. The
account [in 27.48/9-51 / 2] o f the plot against Ṣ āliḥ has features
which are probably parallel to those o f the Meccan plot to
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assassinate Muḥ ammad which is described in Tradition. Again,

the account o f Noah’s preaching to his people in 7 1 . 1 -20 /1 9,
especially the promise o f rain as a blessing in 1 1 / 10, is more
appropriate to the case o f Muḥ ammad than to that o f N oah;
the distinction between proclaiming publicly and speaking
secretly [ 8/7f. ] would then confirm the Tradition that for a
time he communicated revelations privately before ‘ proclaim­
ing publicly’,3 and the passage would also support the sug­
gestion that Muḥ ammad’s early appeals were accompanied by
the promise o f material prosperity.

After this examination o f the punishment-stories the question

o f the interpretation o f the mathānī may be considered. The
word occurs twice in the Qur’ān. In 15.87 God says to
Muḥ ammad that he has bestowed on him . ‘seven o f the
mathḥ nī and the mighty Qur’ān ’, while in 39.23/4 it is stated
that ‘ God has sent down the best discourse, a book, self-
resembling (consisting o f or containing) mathānī, at which
(book) the skins o f those who fear their Lord do creep, but
afterwards their skins and their hearts grow soft to the remem­
brance o f their Lord’. There has been much discussion about
the interpretation of these passages.
The Muslim commentators mostly take mathānī as the
ordinary Arabic plural o f mathnā, a word which occurs
several times in the Qur’ān with some such meaning as ‘ two­
fold’. In the two instances o f the plural they hold the meaning
to be ‘ things doubled’ or ‘ things repeated’. The favourite
interpretation is then that the seven mathānī are the seven
verses o f the F ātiha, which are frequently repeated in formal
worship and other occasions. Alternatively they may be the
seven long suras, namely, suras 2 to 7 along with another
whose identity is disputed. These two interpretations – the
F ātiha and the seven long suras – may also be justified by
taking a singular ( muthnī or muthnā ) from the fourth stem o f
the root with the idea o f ‘ praise’ ; the mathānī are then recited
to God’s praise or contain it. These interpretations by Muslim
scholars, though giving some sense to the number seven, do
not explain the rest o f the description o f the mathānī.
Some European scholars inclined to the view that the
Arabic word was borrowed, either from the Hebrew mishnā,4

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or more probably from the Syriac or Jewish-Aramaic math­

nīthā.5 The Jewish oral law as a whole is called mishnā, and
the term may also be applied to any particular part o f it; but
this does not explain why the skins o f those who fear the
Lord should creep, and only explains the number seven on
the assumption that mishnā can mean ‘ verse'. The majority
opinion, however, has favoured the interpretation o f ‘ punish­
ment-stories' , either on the ground that mathānī means
‘ things repeated' 6 or because it represents mishnā in the sense
o f ‘ story'.7
There is thus much to be said for the view that the mathānī
are to be understood as the punishment-stories. It was noted
above that there were seven main ones; and the existence o f
other minor ones is exactly in accordance with the implication
o f the phrase ‘seven o f the mathānī' that these were not all.
The punishment-stories also fit the description in sura 39, for
the punishments cause fear, while the deliverance o f the mes­
sengers and their followers may be said to soften the heart.
Some scholars (e.g. Horovitz) have hesitated to accept this
interpretation because 15.87 distinguishes the mathānī from the
Qur’ān. It is not impossible, however, that the punishment-
stories originally had a separate existence. The assumption
that this was so gains some support from the Tradition that a
Meccan called an-Nadr, wanting to bring Muḥ ammad into
derision, procured stories o f Persian kings and recited them
in opposition to him. The Persian stories, if compared with
most o f the contents o f the Qur’ān, would be inept; but if they
were contrasted with the punishment-stories, they would be
more interesting and more varied. The Qur’ānic stories re­
semble one another in two ways. Firstly, the general scheme
is the same: a messenger is sent to a people; he delivers his
message, but is disbelieved and the message rejected; the
punishment o f God then falls upon the people for their un­
belief. Secondly, the form o f words is often similar. I f this
point is thought important, 39.23 /4 may be translated ‘ a book
where the mathānī resemble one another' .

3. The Qur’ān
The word qur’ān occurs frequently in the text and has several
distinct meanings. It may be the verbal noun o f qara'a and

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or more probably from the Syriac or Jewish-Aramaic math­

nīthā.5 The Jewish oral law as a whole is called mishnā, and
the term may also be applied to any particular part o f it; but
this does not explain why the skins o f those who fear the
Lord should creep, and only explains the number seven on
the assumption that mishnā can mean ‘ verse'. The majority
opinion, however, has favoured the interpretation o f ‘ punish­
ment-stories' , either on the ground that mathānī means
‘ things repeated' 6 or because it represents mishnā in the sense
o f ‘ story'.7
There is thus much to be said for the view that the mathānī
are to be understood as the punishment-stories. It was noted
above that there were seven main ones; and the existence o f
other minor ones is exactly in accordance with the implication
o f the phrase ‘seven o f the mathānī' that these were not all.
The punishment-stories also fit the description in sura 39, for
the punishments cause fear, while the deliverance o f the mes­
sengers and their followers may be said to soften the heart.
Some scholars (e.g. Horovitz) have hesitated to accept this
interpretation because 15.87 distinguishes the mathānī from the
Qur’ān. It is not impossible, however, that the punishment-
stories originally had a separate existence. The assumption
that this was so gains some support from the Tradition that a
Meccan called an-Nadr, wanting to bring Muḥ ammad into
derision, procured stories o f Persian kings and recited them
in opposition to him. The Persian stories, if compared with
most o f the contents o f the Qur’ān, would be inept; but if they
were contrasted with the punishment-stories, they would be
more interesting and more varied. The Qur’ānic stories re­
semble one another in two ways. Firstly, the general scheme
is the same: a messenger is sent to a people; he delivers his
message, but is disbelieved and the message rejected; the
punishment o f God then falls upon the people for their un­
belief. Secondly, the form o f words is often similar. I f this
point is thought important, 39.23 /4 may be translated ‘ a book
where the mathānī resemble one another' .

3. The Qur’ān
The word qur’ān occurs frequently in the text and has several
distinct meanings. It may be the verbal noun o f qara'a and

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then denotes the act o f reciting, presumably from memory as

in 17.78/80; 75.1 7f. The sense o f ‘ reading’ given in diction­
aries is not appropriate to the conditions o f Mecca in Muḥ am­
mad’s day. It is probable that at first no attempt was made to
write down the revealed messages, and writing presumably
became the rule only after the Hijra to Medina. Even if the
messages were written down, the writing o f the time appears to
have been little more than a mnemonic device to supplement
the memory. The word q u r'ān may also denote a single
passage recited, as in 10.6 1/2 and 13 .30 /1, and perhaps also
10 .15 / 16 and 72.1. Mostly, however, it seems to refer to some
larger whole containing a collection o f such passages already
delivered or in process o f being delivered. It should not be
assumed, nevertheless, that this collection is identical with
the Qur’ān as we now have it. It has just been noted that at one
point the qur’ān is distinct from the mathānī , while its relation
to ‘ the book’ will be considered in the next section.
‘ This Qur’ān ’, then, in whatever sense is to be given to
the word when it denotes a collection, has been revealed by
God [12 .3] and sent down from him [4.82/4; 16 .10 2/4; 27.6;
76.23]. It could not have been produced otherwise [10 .37/8 ;
17.88/90]. It is to be recited by the Messenger [10 .6 1/ 2 ;
16.98/100; 17.4 5/7; 27.92/4; 87.6; 96.1, 3], and to be
listened to with respect [7.204/3; 47.24/6; 84.21]. It was sent
down not all at once, but in separate pieces [ 1 7 .1 o6/7f.;
25.32/4]. High claims are made for it: it is glorious [5 0 .1;
85.21], mighty [15.8 7], noble [56.77/6], and clear [ 1 5 .1 ;
36.69].
It is evident from such assertions that the Qur’ān referred
to had a special position and was o f great importance. The
implications o f some passages should be noted, however.
The frequent phrase ‘ this Qur’ān ’ must often mean not a
single passage but a collection o f passages, and thus seems to
imply the existence o f other Qur’āns. Similarly the phrase ‘an
Arabic Qur’ān ’ seems to imply that there may be Qur’āns in
other languages. (T he phrases occur in proximity in 39.27/8f.)
When it is further remembered that the verb qara'a is prob­
ably not an original Arabic root, and that the noun qur'ān
almost certainly came into Arabic to represent the Syriac
qeryānā, meaning the scriptural reading or lesson in church,
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the way is opened to the solution o f the problem. The purpose

o f an Arabic Qur’ān was to give the Arabs a body o f lessons
comparable to those o f the Christians and Jews. It is known,
too, not only from Tradition and continuing practice, but also
from the Qur’ān itself that it was thus used liturgically
[17.78/80; 73.20]. It is also implied that this Arabic Qur’ān
was not merely comparable but essentially identical with the
previous revelations, for it confirmed these [10.37/8 ]. Its
teaching was to be found in them [26.196; 53.36/7; 8 7.18f.],
and this agreement was a proof that Muḥ ammad was a mes­
senger [20.133].
On the basis o f his general Qur’ānic studies and an examina­
tion o f the passages where the word itself occurs Richard
Bell put forward the hypothesis o f what he called ' the Qur’ān
period ’, which followed ' an early period’, from which only a
few sign-passages and fragmentary exhortations to worship
God have survived, and preceded the final or ' Book period’.
The Qur’ān-period included the latter part o f Muḥ ammad’s
residence at Mecca and his first year or so at Medina; and it
is characterized by the fact that the revelations received or
revised during this time envisage the production o f an Arabic
Qur’ān giving the gist o f previous revelation.8 The detailed
account o f the Qur’ān-period is derived from a list o f
passages and suras which Bell regarded as belonging to this
period.9
He considered that the Qur’ān-period began about the same
time as the institution o f the Ṣ alāt or formal worship, or at
least after Muḥ ammad had gained some adherents. This was a
point marking a new orientation in his religious activity, and
it was with this point and not with the beginnings o f his
mission that the passages traditionally regarded as early
should be associated. Such are: the command to recite
[96.1-5 ], the command to rise and warn [74 .1-7], the exhorta­
tion (in Bell’s interpretation) to compose the Qur’ān care­
fully [7 3.1, 2, 4b-8], and the assurance o f aid in reciting
[87.1-6, 8,9]. These passages, Bell considered, were originally
for Muḥ ammad himself, but exemplified the style in which the
Qur’ān was to be composed. Founding on the reference to
‘ the coming wrath’ in 74.5 (and the implications o f 96.4f. and
73.5), Bell held that the early passages o f the Qur’ān-period
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consisted mainly o f proclamations o f coming Judgement to

be followed by rewards or punishments in the future life.
A feature o f the Qur’ān-period is the appearance o f edifying
Biblical stories, such as that o f Joseph. It is suggested in 12.3
that Muḥ ammad had previously been neglectful o f these, pre­
sumably in the sense of not realizing their relevance. These
stories o f religious personalities differ from the punishment-
stories, since their point is not the overthrow o f unbelieving
peoples but the example and consequent reward of the person.
Even where persons from punishment-stories are referred to
the emphasis is different; in 37.75/3-82/0 the transformation
o f the story o f Noah from one type to the other may be
observed. These personality-stories may also be grouped to­
gether and linked by introductory phrases or closing refrains
(e.g. 21 ; 38).
The process o f grouping might also be applied to short
didactic-pieces, sign-passages and even punishment-stories.
Bell considered sura 80 a good example o f this, since it con­
sisted o f five pieces separate in origin yet when put together
forming a unity. In sura 55 and the latter part o f sura 77
refrain is used to unify the material. It was probably to the
results o f this process o f grouping that shortly before or after
the Hijra the word sūra came to be applied [cf. 24.1]. If, as
suggested above (p. 58), sura is derived from a Syriac word
meaning ' writing’ or ‘text’, this would imply that the grouped
material was written. The mysterious opening letters also
imply something written, and it is curious that in several cases
the next words are a phrase such as ‘ by the glorious Qur’ān ’
[50; cf. 36, 38]. Following the letters other forms o f reference
to the Qur’ān are found in suras 15, 20, 27 and 4 1; and it is an
important fact, noted by Bell but perhaps not emphasized suffi­
ciently, that in nearly all the suras where there are letters the
first verse or two o f the sura contains a reference to the
Qur’ān or ‘ the book’ or something similar. This suggests
that the letters are somehow connected with the process of
grouping short passages which Bell postulated.
Bell further held that the Qur’ān was ‘ definitely closed’
about the time of the battle o f Badr. One piece of evidence is
that the word qur'ān is seldom found in revelations dated after
this period. Where the word occurs in a passage which appears
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to be o f later date [such as 9 .1 11/ 2 and 73.20] the meaning

can be taken to be ‘a collection o f recitations already com­
pleted’ and not ‘a collection o f revelations still in process o f
being received'. This would apply also to the refrain in 54.17,
2 2 , 3 2 , 40, if these verses are late. This collection of recitations
is not something to be communicated by the Messenger, but
something to be used by the Muslims in the ritual o f prayer.
While it is conceivable that the passages mentioned may refer
to a Qur’ān still in process o f delivery, it is difficult to interpret
2 .18 5 /1 in this way. It is a command to fast during ‘ the
month o f Ramaḍ ān, in which the Qur’ān was sent down as
guidance for the people, and as evidence o f the guidance and
o f the furqān ' . Muslim commentators take this to refer either
to the beginning o f the revelation to Muḥ ammad or to the
sending down o f the heavenly Qur’ān from the presence o f
God to the nearer heaven so as to be available for transmission
to him.
There are other passages, too, in which, though the Qur’ān
is not specifically mentioned, something seems to be sent
down or revealed as a whole: ‘ we have sent it down on a
blessed night’ [44.3/2] or ‘ on the night o f the qadr' [9 7 .1];
‘what we sent down to our servant on the day o f the furqān,
the day the two parties met’ [8.41/2]. The last phrase refers
to the day o f Badr, and the Furqān is thus associated with the
victory. The battle took place in Ramaḍ ān, and the fast is
probably to be regarded as one o f thanksgiving.10 ‘ What was
sent down’ was doubtless some form o f the Qur’ān. The
admonition to Muḥ ammad in 20 .114 /3 not to be in a hurry
with the Qur’ān ‘ until the revealing o f it to him is completed’
may also refer to this event. Perhaps a written form o f the col­
lection o f recitations was now produced as ‘ evidences of the
guidance and o f the furqān ' ; but if this had been so, it is
strange that it has left not even a passing trace in Tradition.
Bell’s hypothesis o f a ‘ Qur’ān-period’ is worthy o f fuller
consideration from scholars than it has so far received. It is
based on careful scrutiny o f the Qur’ān in minute detail and
contains many acute observations. Even if the hypothesis as a
whole is not accepted, scholars must still come to terms with
the underlying facts. The points o f strength in Bell’s view
may be summarized as follows. ( 1 ) There is certainly a move
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from the general use o f al-qur'ān in earlier passages to the

almost exclusive use o f al-kitāb in the latest passages. (2 )
There is much to commend the suggestion o f a gradual change
in the meaning o f al-qur'ān. Some change o f meaning is uni­
versally admitted, since the word may mean either a single
short passage or the complete collection o f revelations. It is by
no means impossible that there was also an intermediate
meaning, namely, a collection o f passages suitable for liturgi­
cal use. (3 ) There are certainly passages which speak o f the
sending down o f the Qur’ān as a whole, and it is improbable
that the original meaning was that it was sent down to the
lowest heaven. It is perhaps worth asking whether this sending
down in the month o f Ramaḍ ān could refer to a series o f
revelations in which there was a repetition o f previous revela­
tions now collected into groups or suras; such a repetition,
even with modifications or additions, could easily have come
in a single day or within a few days. (4 ) Also to be com­
mended is the view that originally isolated passages were
grouped together with some measures o f adaptation. This
grouping need not have been by Muḥ ammad’s conscious
effort, but could have come about through waḥ y or revelation.
The chief weakness in Bell’s hypothesis is that it makes a
sharp distinction between the Qur’ān-period and the book-
period without showing precisely in what the distinction con­
sists (apart from the name). Some o f the evidence rather
suggests that there was a gradual transition from the one usage
to the other. Bell allows that the period when opening letters
appeared spanned the change-over; and some o f the verses
following the letters have both words, e.g. ‘ Hā ’, Mīm. A
revelation from the Merciful, the Compassionate, a Book
whose āy āt have been made separate (or distinct) as an Arabic
Qur’ān for a people who have knowledge’ [4 1.1-3 / 2 ;c f. 1 5 .1 ;
2 7 .1; 28.85f.; 58.77/6f.]. A gradual change would also explain
how al-qur'ān could always be interpreted as equivalent to
‘ the Book’, except where it clearly means a single passage or
the act o f reciting. Another point in which some might find
difficulty is the assertion that from an early date the Qur’ān
spoke o f eschatological punishment, whereas Bell usually in­
sisted that eschatological punishment was not early. This
difficulty is more apparent than real; it presupposes that the
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punishment-stories, which speak o f temporal punishment,

belong to the period before the Qur’ān-period. There is also
some difficulty about the idea o f an early period, but this is
lessened when it is realized that the view that 96.1-5 is the
first revelation is probably only the conjecture o f a later
Muslim scholar, based on the appropriateness o f the opening
word iq ra .' The real difficulty about the conception o f an
early period is the tentative character o f most o f the assertions
about it.

4. The Book
Whatever view is taken o f the hypothesis o f a distinct Qur’ān-
period, it is a fact that the word qur'ān is seldom used in the
latest passages. Instead there are references to ‘ the Book’
( al-kitāb ), and it is implied that this is still in process o f being
revealed. Perhaps the contrast between ‘ the Book’ and ‘ the
Qur’ān’ or ‘recitation’ also implies that the revelations were
now written down shortly after they came to Muḥ ammad.
Certainly his function is now represented not as that o f warn­
ing people o f punishment but as that o f producing a book.
Thus in sura 19 he is commanded: ‘ in the Book mention
M ary. . . Abraham. . . Moses. . . Ishm ael. . . Idris’ [verses
16 , 41/ 2 , 5 1 / 2 , 54/5, 56/7].
The special sense just mentioned must be distinguished
from other meanings o f the word kitāb. It may simply mean
‘something written’, ‘a letter’ [24.33; 27.28f.]. In connection
with the Last Judgement it may mean the record o f a man’ s
deeds, no doubt suggesting to the hearers the kind o f account
that was kept in Meccan business circles. Thus each man is
given his kitāb in his right or left hand according as it shows a
credit or a debit balance [ 1 7 .71/3 ; 69.19, 25; 84.7, 10]. What
is written may also be a kind o f ledger kept by the angels who
watch over the actions o f men [8 2.10-12]. On the Day o f
Judgement the book will be produced [18.49/7], and the pages
spread open [8 1.10 ]. The word is also specially associated
with God’s knowledge, perhaps in a metaphorical sense; e.g.
‘ there is no beast on earth but God provides its sustenance;
he knows its lair and its resting-place (or its resting in the
womb and its time o f birth); all is in a clear book’ [ 11.6 / 8 ],11
The dead are said to remain in the book o f God until the

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punishment-stories, which speak o f temporal punishment,

belong to the period before the Qur’ān-period. There is also
some difficulty about the idea o f an early period, but this is
lessened when it is realized that the view that 96.1-5 is the
first revelation is probably only the conjecture o f a later
Muslim scholar, based on the appropriateness o f the opening
word iq ra .' The real difficulty about the conception o f an
early period is the tentative character o f most o f the assertions
about it.

4. The Book
Whatever view is taken o f the hypothesis o f a distinct Qur’ān-
period, it is a fact that the word qur'ān is seldom used in the
latest passages. Instead there are references to ‘ the Book’
( al-kitāb ), and it is implied that this is still in process o f being
revealed. Perhaps the contrast between ‘ the Book’ and ‘ the
Qur’ān’ or ‘recitation’ also implies that the revelations were
now written down shortly after they came to Muḥ ammad.
Certainly his function is now represented not as that o f warn­
ing people o f punishment but as that o f producing a book.
Thus in sura 19 he is commanded: ‘ in the Book mention
M ary. . . Abraham. . . Moses. . . Ishm ael. . . Idris’ [verses
16 , 41/ 2 , 5 1 / 2 , 54/5, 56/7].
The special sense just mentioned must be distinguished
from other meanings o f the word kitāb. It may simply mean
‘something written’, ‘a letter’ [24.33; 27.28f.]. In connection
with the Last Judgement it may mean the record o f a man’ s
deeds, no doubt suggesting to the hearers the kind o f account
that was kept in Meccan business circles. Thus each man is
given his kitāb in his right or left hand according as it shows a
credit or a debit balance [ 1 7 .71/3 ; 69.19, 25; 84.7, 10]. What
is written may also be a kind o f ledger kept by the angels who
watch over the actions o f men [8 2.10-12]. On the Day o f
Judgement the book will be produced [18.49/7], and the pages
spread open [8 1.10 ]. The word is also specially associated
with God’s knowledge, perhaps in a metaphorical sense; e.g.
‘ there is no beast on earth but God provides its sustenance;
he knows its lair and its resting-place (or its resting in the
womb and its time o f birth); all is in a clear book’ [ 11.6 / 8 ],11
The dead are said to remain in the book o f God until the

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resurrection [30.56]. What God has decreed is in a book

before it happens [57.22].
It has been suggested that the application o f the word kitāb
to the written scriptures o f Jews, Christians and Muslims is
derived from this conception o f the book o f God’s knowledge,
and in some Medinan passages it is difficult to say whether the
reference is to God’s knowledge or to actual written scrip­
tures [8.75/6; 17.4; 33.6]. It is unlikely, however, that this
suggestion is correct. When al-kitāb is used in connection with
Jews or Christians, it always refers not to any heavenly book,
but to the scriptures actually in their hands in written form.
Confirmation o f the truth o f Muḥ ammad’s revelations is to be
sought from those who ‘ recite the Book’ [10.94], or ‘ have
knowledge o f the B ook’ [ 13.43]. The phrase is indeed parallel
to hak-kāthūbh among the Jews and hē graphē among Greek-
speaking Christians. This is doubtless what is intended when
those who hold that angels are female are asked to produce
‘ their Book’ [3 7 .15 7 ;4 3 .2 1 / o ; cf. 35.40/38]. The B o o k is thus
the source and authority for religious belief [cf. 22.8].
In the case o f the religion o f Islam the term ‘ the Book’ be­
came more appropriate at Medina when the revelations to
Muḥ ammad came to include appeals, exhortations and regula­
tions which were not so suitable for recitation in public wor­
ship. At the same time the Muslims were doubtless learning
more about the contents o f the Book in the hands o f the Jews.
The controversy with the Jews and the assertion that Islam
was a religion distinct from Judaism and Christianity further
made it essential that the Muslims should have a Book com­
parable to that o f the other monotheists. This is implicit in
such a verse as: ‘ He has sent down to you (Muḥ ammad) the
Book with the truth, confirming what was before it; and he
sent down the Torah and the Evangel previously as guidance
for the p e o p le ...’ [3 .3 /2 ; cf. 2.89/3; 3.7/5; 4.10 5 /6;
5.48/52; 6.92; 16.64/6; 4 6 .12 / 11, 30/29].
The point at which the function o f the messenger came to
be spoken o f as the production o f a Book cannot be precisely
determined, since the word kitāb is frequently used in various
ways, and the transition from qur'ān to kitāb may have been
gradual. In so far as ‘ the Book’ came into existence, the begin­
ning o f it may have been sura 2, which opens with the w ords:
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‘ Alif, L ām, Mīm. That is the Book, in which there is no doubt,

guidance for the p ious.. . . ’ After an introduction o f a general
nature addressed to believers, and mentioning unbelievers and
Hypocrites, the story o f Adam is given, followed by an appeal
to the Israelites (that is, the Jews o f Medina). This would be
appropriate as the commencement o f the Book. It is also to be
noted that in suras, 3 7, 10, 1 1 , 12, 13, 14, 15 – all those up to
this point which have opening letters – the letters are immedi­
ately followed by an assertion about ‘ the Book’. It may well
be, then, that these suras were given something like their pre­
sent form as parts o f the Book. Sura 2 contains material which
must have been revealed before the break with the Jews, and
therefore before the battle o f Badr. Since the sending down
o f the Qur’ān is connected with the battle o f Badr, it is un­
likely that the Book can have been explicitly begun until some
time later, unless the Qur’ān and the Book were thought o f
for a time as distinct and independent o f one another. Once
the production o f the Book was under way, the presumption
is that earlier material was incorporated into it.
It can be safely asserted that the Book was never completed.
Indeed it is possible that the work o f producing it was aban­
doned, that is, the arranging in an appropriate order o f the
previously revealed passages. The necessities o f a community
fighting for its life against external enemies and the constant
demand for administrative decisions about its internal affairs
and the structure of its social life meant that the rearrangement
o f earlier revelations could be given only a low priority. It is
likely that the larger part o f our present Qur’ān was left by
Muḥ ammad in the form in which we have it, as suggested
above. The present text would then substantially represent the
Book, and so the Book must have contained (in principle) all
that had come to Muḥ ammad by revelation. On Bell’s assump­
tion o f a Qur’ān limited to certain passages suitable for
liturgical recitation, passages which had been included in this
limited Qur’ān might have been further revised to fit them for
inclusion in the Book. He suggested that this might have
happened in the case o f suras 13 and 14 ; in sura 12 he thought
that the two openings – verse 3 and verses 1 and 2 – belonged
to the Qur’ān and the Book respectively. The Book was thus
to be the complete corpus o f his revelations, comprising the

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sign-passages, the punishment-stories, the restricted Qur’ān

and any further passages which might be revealed to him.
Thus the conception o f ‘ the Book’ is in fact the conception o f
the Qur’ān as we now have it.

5. Other names
Certain other words are also used in the Qur’ān for what is
revealed. These emphasize different aspects o f the message,
but are not so central as the terms already considered.
(a) tanzīl. The word tanzīl is the verbal noun from nazzala,
‘ to send down’, and so means ‘ the sending down’. It is note-
worthy that the phrase tanzīlu l-kitāb occurs in the headings
o f suras 32, 3 9 , 4 0 ,4 5 , 46, all o f which except 39 have mysteri­
ous letters. The heading o f 4 1, however, runs: 'H ā’ Mīm, a
tarz ī l from the M erciful. . . a Book… ; and. tanzīl might
therefore mean ‘ what is sent down’ or ‘ a revealed message’.
There is something similar in 20.4/3 and 36.5/4 (where it is
perhaps an alternative heading) and also in 26.192, 56.80/79
and 69.43. In so far as this word may be regarded as a name
for the Qur’ān or part o f it, it emphasizes its revealed char­
acter. It usually occurs in proximity to the terms ‘Qur’ān ’ or
‘ Book’ or both.
(b ) dhikr, dhikrā, tadhkira. These nouns are from the verb
dhakara, ‘ to remember, to mention’, which in the second stem
dhakkara has the meaning ‘ to remind, to admonish’. In
several passages Muḥ ammad is instructed to remind or ad­
monish people, and in 88.21 he himself is called an admonisher,
mudhakkir. The three nouns cited are often used in association
with this sense o f the verb; dhikr is thus found in 7.63 / 1 , 69/7;
12.10 4 ; 38.87; 68.52 and 81.27; dhikrā is found in 6.69/8, 90;
1 1 . 114 /6 , 12 0 /1 and 74 .31/4 ; tadhkira is found in 69.48;
73.19 and 76.29. In so far as these words are applied to the
revealed message or a part o f it the aspect intended is obvious
and was certainly present. Indeed in 38.1 the Qur’ān is
described as dhū dh-dhikr, ‘ having the reminder’. It should be
noted, however, that these words have a rich semantic develop­
ment in Arabic religious writing. Even in the Qur’ān dhikr has
sometimes [as in 2.200/196; 5.9 1/3; 62.9; 63.9] the sense o f
public or private worship. This usage might be influenced by
Hebrew or Syriac where words from cognate roots are used to
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sign-passages, the punishment-stories, the restricted Qur’ān

and any further passages which might be revealed to him.
Thus the conception o f ‘ the Book’ is in fact the conception o f
the Qur’ān as we now have it.

5. Other names
Certain other words are also used in the Qur’ān for what is
revealed. These emphasize different aspects o f the message,
but are not so central as the terms already considered.
(a) tanzīl. The word tanzīl is the verbal noun from nazzala,
‘ to send down’, and so means ‘ the sending down’. It is note-
worthy that the phrase tanzīlu l-kitāb occurs in the headings
o f suras 32, 3 9 , 4 0 ,4 5 , 46, all o f which except 39 have mysteri­
ous letters. The heading o f 4 1, however, runs: 'H ā’ Mīm, a
tarz ī l from the M erciful. . . a Book… ; and. tanzīl might
therefore mean ‘ what is sent down’ or ‘ a revealed message’.
There is something similar in 20.4/3 and 36.5/4 (where it is
perhaps an alternative heading) and also in 26.192, 56.80/79
and 69.43. In so far as this word may be regarded as a name
for the Qur’ān or part o f it, it emphasizes its revealed char­
acter. It usually occurs in proximity to the terms ‘Qur’ān ’ or
‘ Book’ or both.
(b ) dhikr, dhikrā, tadhkira. These nouns are from the verb
dhakara, ‘ to remember, to mention’, which in the second stem
dhakkara has the meaning ‘ to remind, to admonish’. In
several passages Muḥ ammad is instructed to remind or ad­
monish people, and in 88.21 he himself is called an admonisher,
mudhakkir. The three nouns cited are often used in association
with this sense o f the verb; dhikr is thus found in 7.63 / 1 , 69/7;
12.10 4 ; 38.87; 68.52 and 81.27; dhikrā is found in 6.69/8, 90;
1 1 . 114 /6 , 12 0 /1 and 74 .31/4 ; tadhkira is found in 69.48;
73.19 and 76.29. In so far as these words are applied to the
revealed message or a part o f it the aspect intended is obvious
and was certainly present. Indeed in 38.1 the Qur’ān is
described as dhū dh-dhikr, ‘ having the reminder’. It should be
noted, however, that these words have a rich semantic develop­
ment in Arabic religious writing. Even in the Qur’ān dhikr has
sometimes [as in 2.200/196; 5.9 1/3; 62.9; 63.9] the sense o f
public or private worship. This usage might be influenced by
Hebrew or Syriac where words from cognate roots are used to
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denote parts o f or kinds o f religious service; but it could be

a simple development o f one o f the meanings o f dhikr A llah in
Arabic, namely, man’s remembrance o f God.
( c ) furqān. The word furqān, which occurs seven times in
the Qur’ān, appears to be derived from the Jewish-Aramaic
purqān or, more probably the Syriac purqāna with the basic
meaning o f ‘salvation'.12 The Arabic rootfa ra q a , 'to separate’,
however, may have affected the precise connotation o f the
word. It is mostly associated with revelation, and for this
reason has often been regarded as an alternative name for the
Qur’ān. The occurrences o f the word may be classified as
follows:
( 1 ) the Furqān as something given to Moses
2.53/0 : … when we gave Moses the Book and the Furqān.
21.48/9: We gave Moses and Aaron the Furqān and illumina­
tion and a reminder for those who show piety.
(2 ) the Furqān promised to the Muslims (before Badr)
8.29: O believers, if you show piety towards God, he will
appoint for you a Furqān and will absolve you from your
evil deeds and will forgive you.
( 3 ) the Furqān is sent down to Muḥ ammad on the day o f Badr
8 .4 1 / 2 :… if you have believed in God and what we sent
down to our servant on the day o f the Furqān, the day the
two parties met.
2.185 / 1 : the month o f Ramaḍ ān in which the Qur’ān was
sent down as guidance for the people and as Evidences o f
the guidance and o f the Furqān.
(4 ) other references to the sending down o f the Furqān to
Muḥ ammad
3.3/2: he has sent down to thee the Book with the truth, con­
firming what was before it, and he sent down the Torah
and the Evangel aforetime as guidance for the people, and
he sent down the Furqān.
2 5 .1: Blessed be he who has sent down the Furqān upon his
servant that he may be to the worlds a warner.
These occurrences o f the word appear to come in revelations
which may be dated shortly before and after the battle o f
Badr.13 In 8.29 (which on general grounds is dated about the
time o f Badr) the Furqān has not yet been received by the

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Muslims, whereas 8.41/2 identifies the D ay o f the Furqān

with the D ay o f Badr. The passage containing 2.53/0 is an
appeal to the Jews to prepare for the Last Judgement by
accepting the guidance from Muḥ ammad, and must be much
earlier than Badr; and 21.48/9 is probably o f similar date. The
root faraqa is used in 5.25/8 in a prayer to God to ‘ separate'
or ‘ discriminate’ (fa-fru q) between Moses (with Aaron) and
the reprobate people, where the implication probably is that
the brothers are not to suffer for the sins o f the people. In an­
other account [7 .14 5 /2-156 /5] o f the giving o f the tablets o f
the Law to Moses and the incident o f the calf (with which the
Furqān is connected in 2.53/0), the worshippers o f the calf
are treated differently from those who did evil and repented
[15 1/ 0 - 15 3 / 2 ] ; and this is a discrimination, even if the root
faraqa is not used. In view o f the words in 156/5 ‘ we have
become Jews (in devotion) towards thee’, it is further pos­
sible that the Furqān is to be thought o f as the separation o f a
community o f believers from the unbelievers. Just before
Badr the Muslims had been concerned to distinguish them­
selves from the Jews as a community, and at Badr a ‘separation’
was made between the Muslims and the Meccan pagans.14
In the last resort, however, the meanings suggested, such
as ‘ salvation’, ‘ deliverance’ and ‘ separation’ do not wholly
fit the last three passages in the above list in that these include
the word ‘ sent down’ ( nazzala, anzala). By this time these
words had become almost technical terms for ‘ revelation’ o f a
message by an angel intermediary; and it is difficult to see how
an event such as a victory in battle could be ‘ sent down’ in
this way. Could it perhaps be the conviction o f divine approval
and acceptance which came to Muḥ ammad on the day o f Badr,
though not necessarily in any form o f words other than the
Qur’ān? I f so, it is also possible that it was in the same month
o f Ramadān that the Qur’ān as a whole was ‘ sent down’ in a
single night (as discussed above); and this might explain the
connection o f the Qur’ān and the Furqān. The interpretation
o f the verses mentioning the Furqān is highly speculative,
however, and not altogether relevant to the present subject.
In so far as there is a conclusion here, it is that, if the Furqān
is a part o f the Qur’ān, it is the aspect o f it expressing the signi­
ficance o f the victory o f Badr – the deliverance o f the Muslims
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and their separation from the unbelievers, the assurance o f

divine approval, the establishment o f the Muslims as a distinct
community. It can also be asserted with confidence that the
term furqān continued in use for only a short period; and the
reason for this is presumably that the significance o f Badr for
the Muslims changed somewhat after the reverse at Uḥ ud and
again after the later successes.

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 NINE

THE D O C T R I N E S OF TH E Q U R ’Ā N

1 . The doctrine o f God1

The doctrine o f God is central to the Qur’ān. Like the Bible
the Qur’ān assumes the existence o f God and does not argue
for it. In the earlier passages the points that are emphatically
asserted are that God is good and that he is all-powerful.
These points are supported by calling attention to the ‘ signs’
in nature (as explained in the first section o f the previous
chapter). All sorts o f natural phenomena have been ordered
in such a way that they contribute to the maintenance o f
human life and to the comfort and convenience o f individuals.
It is in accordance with the emphasis on God’s goodness that
the suras o f the Qur’ān commence with the formula 'I n the
name o f God, the Merciful, the Compassionate’.
God’s omnipotence appears above all in his power to create.
He is the creator o f everything – o f the heavens and the earth
and what is between them [ 13 .16 / 17 ; 50.38/7; etc.]. The
alleged deities o f the pagans are unable to create anything
[25.3; 46.4/3], not even a fly [22.73/2]. The creation o f a
thing comes about when God says to it ‘ B e’ ; ‘ when he wills a
thing, he simply says to it “ B e” and it is’ [40.68/70 and fre­
quently]. This is not unlike the fia t ascribed to God in the
Bible – ‘ and God said, Let there be light; and there was light’
[ Genesis, 1.3]. It should be noted, however, that there is a
great difference in emphasis at this point between the Bible
and the Qur’ān. The Biblical doctrine o f creation is essentially
what is found in the first chapter o f Genesis, that is, the initial
or original creation o f the universe. The six ‘ days’ o f creation
are indeed mentioned in the Qur’ān [32 .4 /3; 4 1.9 /8 -10 /1 1 ;
etc.]; but they are given far less prominence than in the Bible.
Most o f the descriptions o f creation in the Qur’ān are o f God’s
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continuing activity in the present. What is usually regarded as

the first revelation [96.1 f.] runs: ‘ Recite in the name o f thy
Lord who created – created man from a blood-clot' (or
embryo). Thus God's creative power is regarded as being
present in the origination o f every human being. Moreover it
is not restricted to origination, but also manifests itself in the
various transformations which occur in the course o f develop­
ment; thus God ‘ creates’ each stage o f the embryo from the
previous one.2
The greater part o f the Qur’ān (though not the early
passages) emphasizes that God is the only deity and that he
has no peers or partners. This insistence is in opposition to
the beliefs o f the Arab pagans o f the time. Among these be­
liefs three strands may be noticed. Many o f the nomads had
scant belief in the traditional deities and are rather to be
described as humanists o f a kind. Then there appear to have
been polytheists as these are commonly conceived; that is,
they acknowledged a number o f gods all roughly equal. It has
commonly been assumed by students o f Islam that this was
the main form o f pagansim which was being attacked by the
Qur’ān. Careful reading o f a number o f passages, however,
shows that there was a third type o f belief among the more
thoughtful o f Muḥ ammad’s contemporaries. They acknow­
ledged the existence o f A llāh as the supreme god, but regarded
the other ‘ gods’ as lesser divine beings.3 In some cases they
may have held that these lesser deities were intercessors with
the supreme god [39.3/4]. The assertions o f the Qur’ān
about the idols vary in emphasis. Sometimes they appear to be
regarded – doubtless because this was the view o f the hearers –
as angels or even jinn4; but at other times they are declared to
be mere names employed by men without any authorization.5
It should also be noted that the term ‘ daughters o f G od ’
applied to certain deities6 does not imply the type o f family
relationship found in Greek mythology but stands for a more
abstract relationship; the interpretation o f the phrase is
roughly 'l esser divine beings subordinate to the supreme
deity’, or ‘ lesser beings sharing in the quality o f divinity’.
That God is one and unique is appropriately the first article
o f the Islamic Confession o f Faith or Testimony ( shahāda):
‘ there is no deity but God ’ ( lā ilāha illā llāhu). This formula is
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found in the Qur’ān exactly in 37.35/4 [cf. 4 7 .19 /2 ]; and

similar assertions, such as ‘ there is no deity but he’, are fre­
quent. The negative side o f this doctrine is the insistence on
the heinousness o f shirk, ‘ giving partners’ ( sc. to God) or
‘ associating’ (sc. other beings with him). In later Islam it was
generally agreed that the one sin which excluded a man from
the community o f Muslims was shirk; by it he became a
mushrik, an ‘ associater ' or ‘ polytheist’. The word commonly
translated ‘ infidel’ or ‘unbeliever’ is kāfir , with the correspond­
ing noun kufr. Since kufr seems to have meant originally
‘ ingratitude’, it may be that the meaning o f ‘ unbelief’ came
from the idea that not to acknowledge the signs o f God’s
power and goodness and to worship him was a mark o f in­
gratitude. The opposite o f the kāfir is the ‘ believer’ or mu' min
who acknowledges the signs and who has imān, ‘ belief’ or
‘ faith’. In the Qur’ān the common word for a follower o f the
Qur’ānic religion is mu'min; the word muslim meaning ‘ one
who surrenders or submits himself (to G o d )’ is less frequent
and only occurs in later passages.
The omnipotence o f God is sometimes asserted in what to
the European appear to be extreme forms. Man’s will is com­
pletely subordinate to God’s will, so that man cannot do or
will anything unless God wills it. With regard to accepting
the Reminder or believing men are told that ‘ you will not so
will except it be that God w ills’.7 In other respects also God’s
will overrides the wills o f men. Sometimes it appears to be his
previous decree or determination o f something, as when it is
said o f Lot ‘ we delivered him and his household, except his
wife, whom we had decreed (qaddarnā ) to be o f the lingerers’
(27.57/8). On the other hand, God may be the real agent o f
events which appear to be the work o f human agents. Thus
God is asserted to be the author o f the victory at Badr: ‘ you
(Muslims) did not kill them, but God killed them, and you
(Muḥ ammad) did not shoot ( sc. arrows) when you shot, but
God shot’ [8 .17]. The corollary o f this belief in the overriding
will o f God is that no harm can come to a man except what
God wills. When in Muḥ ammad’s later years the Muslims
complained if they suffered any misfortune, he was told to say
to them: ‘ nothing will befall us except what God has written
(decreed) for u s’ [9 .5 1; cf. 57.22].
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 D O C T R I N E S OF T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

God’s overriding control of events is also expressed through

various subordinate conceptions such as his guidance, favour
or help on the one hand, and on the other his leading astray
( idlāl ) and abandoning ( khidhlān) and placing a seal on the
hearts. A few examples may be given :

I f God wills to guide a man, he enlarges his breast for

islām, surrender (to God), and if he wills to lead a man
astray, he makes his breast narrow and contracted…
[6.125]. Had God willed he would have made you one
community; but he leads astray whom he will and guides
whom he will [16.93 / 5 ].
I f God helps you (yanṣ ur-kum), there is none to overcome
you; but if he abandons you (yakhdhul-kum), who indeed
will help you after him? [3.160/54].
Had it not been for God’s bounty and mercy (fa ḍ l, raḥ ma)
towards you, you would have followed Satan except a few
[4.83/5; cf. 24.21].

The teaching o f the Qur’ān as a whole, however, main­

tains human responsibility at the same time as it asserts divine
omnipotence. This is really implicit in the doctrine o f the
Last Judgement; and later Muslim theologians argued that
God’s justice (which the Qur’ān asserts) would not allow
him to punish anyone for an act for which he was not
responsible. There are also many passages which show that
God’s activity o f guiding or leading astray follows upon un­
satisfactory actions or attitudes on the part o f the individuals
concerned.
By this (simile God has coined) he leads astray many and
by this he guides many; and he leads astray only the evil­
doers [2.26/4].
Those who do not believe in God’s signs, God does not
guide [16.104/6].
Truly I (G o d ) am forgiving to him who repents and be­
lieves and acts uprightly, and who also accepts guidance
( ihtadā ) [20.82/4].
How will God guide a people who disbelieved after
believing?… God does not guide the wicked people
[3.86/0].
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In the end, then, the Qur’ān simply holds fast to the comple­
mentary truths o f God’s omnipotence and man’s responsibility
without reconciling them intellectually. This is basically
also the position o f the Bible, though many western Chris­
tians have placed the chief emphasis on man’s responsibility
where most Muslims would have placed it on God’s omni­
potence.
The names o f God have tended to play a large part in later
Islamic thought, following on the verses in the Qur’ān which
state that to God belong the most beautiful names ( al-asmā'
al-husnā ) [7.180/79; 17 .110 ; 20.8/7; 5 9 · 4 ]· A list was later
compiled o f ninety-nine names, and these were used as the
basis o f meditations, especially in association with the subḥ a or
‘ rosary’. The names are found in the Qur’ān, though some
are not in the exact form given in the list; and there are also
names in the Qur’ān not usually included in the list, o f which
there are different versions.8 A common feature o f Qur’ānic
style is to have a verse ending with two names o f God, such as
‘ Thou art the Knowing, the W ise’ [2.32/0].
While the ninety-nine names are descriptive, there is also
a proper or denotative name allāh, which is added at the begin­
ning or the end o f the list o f ninety-nine. It is probably con­
tracted from the Arabic a l-ilāh, ‘ the go d’ or ‘ the deity’,
though some modern scholars have preferred to think that it
was derived from the Aramaic or Syriac alāhā. Inscriptions
and pre-Islamic poetry show that the word was in use in
Arabia before Islam. It could have stood for ‘ the god’ o f a
particular tribe, or for ‘ the supreme go d ’ in which men were
coming to believe, or for ‘ God ’ in the monotheistic sense.9
The Qur’ān presupposes that most men already believe in the
existence o f A llāh, and by its teaching restricts the word to its
monotheistic interpretation.
One o f the other names ar-Raḥ mān, ‘ the Merciful’, ap­
proaches at times in the Qur’ān the status o f a proper name.
It is also known from inscriptions to have been used in Arabia
before Muḥ ammad’s time, and seems to have been employed
by at least some o f the ‘prophets' who appeared at the close of
Muḥ ammad’s life. A similar word is common in Jewish writ­
ings and is occasionally found in Syriac; but adoption from
these sources is unlikely, since the form o f the word could be

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a regular Arabic one. Moreover, the occurrence o f the word

as a proper name is most frequent not in the earliest passages
but in the suras o f N öldeke’s second Meccan period, such as
sura 19.10 Hubert Grimme11 suggested that the use o f this
name is associated with an emphasis on God’s mercy, rahma,,
and also that this emphasis corresponded to the tensions
arising among the Muslims from failure and persecution and
indicated a growing knowledge o f the Christian scriptures in
particular. About this there can be no certainty. The sudden
appearance o f this name remains something o f a mystery; but
its disappearance may have come about because ignorant per­
sons tended to think that A llāh and ar-R aḥ mān were two
separate gods, as is indeed mentioned as a possibility by
Muslim commentators on 17 .1 1 0:
Say: Call on God or call on the Merciful; however you call
upon him, his are the beautiful names.

2. Other spiritual beings

Even i f the ordinary nomadic Arab did not take belief in the
gods seriously, he was fully convinced o f the existence o f jinn
(singular jin n ī, ‘ genie’ ).12 These were shadowy spirits who
seldom assumed a distinct personality or name. They were
associated with deserts, ruins and other eerie places, and might
assume such forms as those o f animals, serpents and other
creeping things. They were vaguely feared, but were not
always malevolent. Though created from fire and not, like
man, from clay [5 5 .14 / 1 3f.; 1 5.26f.], their end is likewise to
serve or worship God [51.56]. Messengers are sent to them
from God [6.130], and they may become either believers or
unbelievers [ 7 2 . 1 1 , 14 ; etc.]. It is asserted that on one occasion
a company o f jinn listened to Muḥ ammad proclaiming the
Qur’ān and that some o f them became Muslims [7 2 .1-19 ; cf.
46.29/8-32/1]. The unbelievers among them may go to Hell
[6.128; 11.119 / 2 0 ; 3 2 .13 ; 4 1.25/4], but it is not explicitly
stated that the believers may go to Heaven.
A madman was majnūn, that is, affected by jinn; but jinn
sometimes assisted men to special knowledge [cf. 37.36/5].
The word for ‘ poet’ , shā 'ir, seems to imply that he was in­
spired by some such being, since it means ‘one who is aware’

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a regular Arabic one. Moreover, the occurrence o f the word

as a proper name is most frequent not in the earliest passages
but in the suras o f N öldeke’s second Meccan period, such as
sura 19.10 Hubert Grimme11 suggested that the use o f this
name is associated with an emphasis on God’s mercy, rahma,,
and also that this emphasis corresponded to the tensions
arising among the Muslims from failure and persecution and
indicated a growing knowledge o f the Christian scriptures in
particular. About this there can be no certainty. The sudden
appearance o f this name remains something o f a mystery; but
its disappearance may have come about because ignorant per­
sons tended to think that A llāh and ar-R aḥ mān were two
separate gods, as is indeed mentioned as a possibility by
Muslim commentators on 17 .1 1 0:
Say: Call on God or call on the Merciful; however you call
upon him, his are the beautiful names.

2. Other spiritual beings

Even i f the ordinary nomadic Arab did not take belief in the
gods seriously, he was fully convinced o f the existence o f jinn
(singular jin n ī, ‘ genie’ ).12 These were shadowy spirits who
seldom assumed a distinct personality or name. They were
associated with deserts, ruins and other eerie places, and might
assume such forms as those o f animals, serpents and other
creeping things. They were vaguely feared, but were not
always malevolent. Though created from fire and not, like
man, from clay [5 5 .14 / 1 3f.; 1 5.26f.], their end is likewise to
serve or worship God [51.56]. Messengers are sent to them
from God [6.130], and they may become either believers or
unbelievers [ 7 2 . 1 1 , 14 ; etc.]. It is asserted that on one occasion
a company o f jinn listened to Muḥ ammad proclaiming the
Qur’ān and that some o f them became Muslims [7 2 .1-19 ; cf.
46.29/8-32/1]. The unbelievers among them may go to Hell
[6.128; 11.119 / 2 0 ; 3 2 .13 ; 4 1.25/4], but it is not explicitly
stated that the believers may go to Heaven.
A madman was majnūn, that is, affected by jinn; but jinn
sometimes assisted men to special knowledge [cf. 37.36/5].
The word for ‘ poet’ , shā 'ir, seems to imply that he was in­
spired by some such being, since it means ‘one who is aware’

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or ‘ one who perceives’. The kāhin or ‘ soothsayer’ may have

had his own special prompter, a spirit or genie, who inspired
him to give answers on all sorts o f questions. The oracles
which the kāhin gave his clients were often cryptic, garnished
with oaths to make them more impressive, and usually
couched in saj ' (rhythmic and assonanced prose) resembling
the earlier passages o f the Qur’ān. The oracles might give
prognostications for the future, the solution o f past mysteries,
or decisions on litigious questions.13 Superficially Muḥ ammad
was not unlike men o f this class, and the Qur’ān therefore
finds it advisable to deny that he was a kāhin or inspired by
jinn [52. 29; cf. 69.42]. Many varieties o f jinn were known to
the Arabs, but only the 'ifr īt is separately mentioned in the
Qur’ān [27.39].
Angels are frequently mentioned, though not in the earliest
passages. The Arabic word, mal'ak, and more particularly its
plural malā 'ika, is thought to have been derived from Ethiopic,
but was probably familiar to the Arabs before Muḥ ammad’s
time. In the popular mind angels and jinn were roughly
identified: and it is instructive that at one point the Qur’ān
says Iblīs was one o f the jinn [18.50/48] whereas elsewhere he
is spoken o f as a fallen angel [2.34/2; 7 .1 1 / 1 0 ; etc.]. The
Qur’ān speaks as if the conception o f angels had been accepted
by some pagans, since they are said to demand an angel as
messenger [ 4 1.14 / 13 ; cf. 43.53], or had adopted angels as
objects o f worship or goddesses [43.1 9 / 1 8f.; cf. 37.149-53;
53.28]; but it is also possible that it is only the Qur’ān (and
not the pagans) which asserts that the beings worshipped by
the pagans are in fact angels.
The angels are subordinate and created beings [2 1.2 6 ]; they
are messengers o f God [ 1 5·8; 35. 1 ] and in particular the
bearers o f the revelation, a function which sometimes is said
to be performed collectively [16 .2 ; 97.4] and sometimes by
Gabriel especially [2 .9 7 /1; cf. 81.19-25]. The angels are also
watchers over men and recorders o f their deeds [ 1 3 . 1 1 / 1 2 ;
82.10-12], and they call in the souls o f men at death [ 16.28 / 30,
32/4]. It is presumably as recorders that they are present on
the D ay o f Judgement [2.210/06; 39.75; 69.17]. They also
surround the throne o f God and sing his praises [40.7;
42.5/3]. Apart from Gabriel the only angel named is Michael

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in 2.98/2. There is also mentioned, however, along with the

angels a mysterious being called ‘ the Spirit’, ar-rūḥ , or ‘ the
faithful Spirit’ [only in 26.193]. Where it is associated with
the angels it is best regarded as one o f them [as in 16.2; 40.15;
70.4; 78.38; 97.4]. Later Muslim exegetes take the Spirit to be
Gabriel, and in view of its special connection with Muḥ am­
mad himself and with revelation in general there would seem
to be no objection to this identification [42.52]. The Qur’ānic
use o f the word rūḥ , however, raises many problems which
cannot be dealt with here.14
Contrasted with the angels are the demons or satans
( shayāṭ īn, sing, shayṭ ān). Just as the believers have angels as
guardians and helpers [8 .9 ,12 ; cf. 6.61 ], so a demon is assigned
to each unbeliever and prompts him to evil [19 .83/6 ; 43.36/5-
39/8; cf. 23.97 /9 f.; 7.27/6; 41.25/4]. There are some refer­
ences to a contemporary belief that the demons tried to observe
the inhabitants o f Paradise by stealth and were driven away
by stones which appear to men as shooting stars [15 .16 -18 ;
37.6-10].
Besides the ordinary demons there is ash-shayṭ ān, who
might be taken to be the demon par excellence, and so the
Devil or Satan. In the Qur’ān ash-shayṭ ān or Satan is ap­
parently the same person as Iblīs. He is an angel deposed for
his pride in refusing to worship the man whom God has just
created [2.34/2-36/4; 7/1 1 /10 -2 2 /1 ; etc.]; the one who re­
fused to worship is always Iblīs, but Satan is often mentioned
in a later verse. After his refusal, however, he is allowed by
God to tempt men, to urge them to evil and unseemliness, and
to make evil deeds seem fair to them [ 1 7.61 / 3-64 / 6; 2.168 / 3f .;
8.48/50; 16.63/5]. He whispers in the breasts o f men [7.20/19 ;
20 .120 /18 ; 114.4-6], and may even insinuate something into
the messages revealed to prophets [22.52 /1 ]. His footsteps are
not to be followed for he is a betrayer of men [25.29 /31],
and will repudiate their service at the last [ 14.22/6f.]. There
has been much discussion o f whether shayṭ ān is an Arabic
word or not, and no agreement has been reached. It is clear
that the word was in use in Arabic in pre-Islamic times, but it
may have meant a snake or a being something like the jinn.
Even if the word is Arabic, the singular seems to have been
influenced in meaning by the Hebrew S āṭ ān, probably through

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the Ethiopic Shayṭ ān. This development may also have been
pre-Islamic.15

3. Prophethood; other religions

The Qur’ānic conception o f the messenger ( rasūl ) and pro­
phet ( nabī ) has already been described in chapter 2, section 3.
It was an essential part o f this conception that the message
brought to Muḥ ammad from God by the angels was basically
the same as messages brought to other prophets, especially
those named in the ‘ punishment stories’. In some passages the
impression is given that each messenger is sent to a different
community, and that when the community rejects the message
and is punished it disappears. This holds in the case o f the
Arabian prophets, the ‘ people o f L o t’, and others. On the
other hand it is recognized that there is at least a genealogical
continuity in the case o f some o f the prophets: ‘ God chose
Adam and Noah, the family o f Abraham and the family o f
'I mrān above the worlds, descendants one o f the other… ’
[3.33/0 ]. Further problems arose for the community o f Mus­
lims as they had further contacts especially with the Jews o f
Medina and heard these deny the similarity o f the Qur’ān and
their scriptures. In the last year or two o f Muḥ ammad’s life as
his rule expanded northwards the Muslims experienced com­
parable hostility from Christians.
When Muḥ ammad first went to Medina he received mes­
sages for ‘ the people o f the Book’ (that is, primarily the Jew s),
as in 5 .15 /18 and 19/22. When it became clear that the Jews
were not going to recognize his prophethood, he was en­
couraged by the thought that they had in the past rejected and
killed messengers who had been sent to them [3 .18 1/7 7 -
18 4 / 1; 5.70/4]. Another point was that the Jews and Chris­
tians put themselves in a false position by rejecting one
another ‘ though they both recite the Book’ [2 .113 /0 7 ]. The
difficulty that there were basic differences between the Qur’ān
on the one hand and on the other the scriptures o f the Jews
and Christians (usually called the Torah and the Evangel or
Gospel), and the further difficulty o f differences between the
Torah and the Evangel, were met apparently by regarding
these scriptures as only part o f the Book [3.2 3/2; 4.44/7,
5 1/4 ], and even holding that they had divided up the Qur’ān
1 56
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

the Ethiopic Shayṭ ān. This development may also have been
pre-Islamic.15

3. Prophethood; other religions

The Qur’ānic conception o f the messenger ( rasūl ) and pro­
phet ( nabī ) has already been described in chapter 2, section 3.
It was an essential part o f this conception that the message
brought to Muḥ ammad from God by the angels was basically
the same as messages brought to other prophets, especially
those named in the ‘ punishment stories’. In some passages the
impression is given that each messenger is sent to a different
community, and that when the community rejects the message
and is punished it disappears. This holds in the case o f the
Arabian prophets, the ‘ people o f L o t’, and others. On the
other hand it is recognized that there is at least a genealogical
continuity in the case o f some o f the prophets: ‘ God chose
Adam and Noah, the family o f Abraham and the family o f
'I mrān above the worlds, descendants one o f the other… ’
[3.33/0 ]. Further problems arose for the community o f Mus­
lims as they had further contacts especially with the Jews o f
Medina and heard these deny the similarity o f the Qur’ān and
their scriptures. In the last year or two o f Muḥ ammad’s life as
his rule expanded northwards the Muslims experienced com­
parable hostility from Christians.
When Muḥ ammad first went to Medina he received mes­
sages for ‘ the people o f the Book’ (that is, primarily the Jew s),
as in 5 .15 /18 and 19/22. When it became clear that the Jews
were not going to recognize his prophethood, he was en­
couraged by the thought that they had in the past rejected and
killed messengers who had been sent to them [3 .18 1/7 7 -
18 4 / 1; 5.70/4]. Another point was that the Jews and Chris­
tians put themselves in a false position by rejecting one
another ‘ though they both recite the Book’ [2 .113 /0 7 ]. The
difficulty that there were basic differences between the Qur’ān
on the one hand and on the other the scriptures o f the Jews
and Christians (usually called the Torah and the Evangel or
Gospel), and the further difficulty o f differences between the
Torah and the Evangel, were met apparently by regarding
these scriptures as only part o f the Book [3.2 3/2; 4.44/7,
5 1/4 ], and even holding that they had divided up the Qur’ān
1 56
 D O C T R I N E S OF T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

[ 1 5.c)of.; cf. 23.53/5]. The Jews in particular were also

accused o f concealing part o f the scriptures [2.42/39, 76 /1,
140/34, 14 6 /1, 1 5 9 / 4 , 174/69; 3.7 1/6 4 ; 5 .15 / 18 ; 6.91]. In
some cases this seems to have meant that they concealed
verses in the Bible foretelling the coming o f Muḥ ammad as a
prophet [7 .157 /6 ; 61.6]. In other passages the Jews are
accused o f deliberately ‘corrupting’ or ‘ altering’ the scrip­
tures [2.75/o; 5 .13 / 16 , 4 1/5 ], and from the examples given in
4.46/8f. this seems to mean playing with words to make fun
o f the Muslims.16 In later times this doctrine o f the ‘ corrup­
tion’ ( taḥ rīf ) o f the Jewish and Christian scriptures was
developed in such a way that Muslims generally came to re­
gard the existing texts as valueless.
Corresponding to these criticisms o f the People o f the
Book is the positive conception o f ‘ the religion o f Abraham’.
The essence o f this religion is surrender or submission
( islām) to the Lord o f the worlds [2.130 /24 f.]. The person
who practises it is a ḥ a n if or —which is practically the same
thing – a muslim (as noted on p. 15 above). Thus it can be
said that Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian but a
ḥ anīf and muslim [3.67/0]. This leads to the conception o f
three parallel religions [as in 5.44/8-50/5], firstly that of the
Torah given to Moses, then that o f the Evangel given to
Jesus, and then that o f the Qur’ān given to Muḥ ammad. The
Evangel ‘ confirms’ the Torah, and the Qur’ān ‘ confirms’ the
previous two scriptures; but Jews, Christians and Muslims
will each be judged by their own revelation. Apart from the
charges o f concealment and corruption o f the scriptures
already mentioned, the Qur’ān seems to be criticizing Jews and
Christians for ‘ dividing up their religion and becoming sects’
[6 .1 59 /60]. Muḥ ammad and his followers are certainly follow­
ing the true religion o f Abraham [4 .125 /4 ; 6.1 61 / 2 ; 16.123/4;
22.78/7]; and this virtually implies that Jews and Christians
are not, though the developed form o f the doctrine that they
had ‘ corrupted the scriptures’ did not appear until some time
after Muḥ ammad’s death.
In general the teaching o f the Qur’ān is in accordance with
that o f the Old Testament. Such differences o f detail as there
are in the story o f Joseph and in ceremonial matters are peri­
pheral. There is no mention o f the writing prophets, though

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their concern for social justice is present. The Biblical title o f

‘ Messiah’ (masīḥ ) is accepted and applied to Jesus, but there
appears to be little realization o f its original significance.
Indeed the chief point o f difference between the Qur’ān and
the Old Testament is the absence from the former o f any
profound conception o f sacrifice and a sacrificing priesthood.
On the other hand, there are considerable differences be­
tween the Qur’ān and the New Testament. It should be noted,
however, that so far as the actual statements o f the Qur’ān are
concerned, the differences are not so great as they are some­
times supposed to be. Modern scholars, Christian and Muslim,
tend to read later controversies into the wording o f the
Qur’ān . Thus the rejection o f the doctrine that ‘God is one o f
three’ [ 5.73/7] is usually taken to be a denial o f the Christian
doctrine o f the Trinity; yet strictly speaking what is rejected
is a doctrine o f tritheism which orthodox Christianity also
rejects. Similarly the rejection o f the fatherhood o f God the
Father and the sonship o f God the Son is strictly speaking a
rejection o f fatherhood and sonship in a physical sense; and
this Christianity would also reject. The Virgin Birth is taught
[19 .16 -33/4 ], but is interpreted simply as a miracle. The
denial that Jesus died on the cross [4 .157/6 -159 /7] is primarily
a denial that the crucifixion was a Jewish victory; but, in line
with the absence o f the conception o f sacrifice, it means that
the Qur’ān never speaks o f the atonement or saving work o f
Jesus.17

4. The doctrine o f the Last Judgement

After the doctrine that God is one the doctrine o f the Last
Judgement may be reckoned the second great doctrine o f the
Qur’ān . In essentials this is the doctrine that on the Last Day
men will be raised to life and will appear before God to be
judged and to be assigned to Paradise or Hell according as
their deeds are mainly good or mainly bad. In some respects
this Judgement, as affecting the world as a whole, corresponds
to the catastrophe which overtakes particular unbelieving
communities in the punishment-stories. The designation of
Muḥ ammad as a ‘ warner’ may refer either to the temporal
catastrophe or to the eschatological Judgement, but the empha­
sis varies from time to time. The eschatological Judgement is
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in 2.98/2. There is also mentioned, however, along with the

angels a mysterious being called ‘ the Spirit’, ar-rūḥ , or ‘ the
faithful Spirit’ [only in 26.193]. Where it is associated with
the angels it is best regarded as one o f them [as in 16.2; 40.15;
70.4; 78.38; 97.4]. Later Muslim exegetes take the Spirit to be
Gabriel, and in view of its special connection with Muḥ am­
mad himself and with revelation in general there would seem
to be no objection to this identification [42.52]. The Qur’ānic
use o f the word rūḥ , however, raises many problems which
cannot be dealt with here.14
Contrasted with the angels are the demons or satans
( shayāṭ īn, sing, shayṭ ān). Just as the believers have angels as
guardians and helpers [8 .9 ,12 ; cf. 6.61 ], so a demon is assigned
to each unbeliever and prompts him to evil [19 .83/6 ; 43.36/5-
39/8; cf. 23.97 /9 f.; 7.27/6; 41.25/4]. There are some refer­
ences to a contemporary belief that the demons tried to observe
the inhabitants o f Paradise by stealth and were driven away
by stones which appear to men as shooting stars [15 .16 -18 ;
37.6-10].
Besides the ordinary demons there is ash-shayṭ ān, who
might be taken to be the demon par excellence, and so the
Devil or Satan. In the Qur’ān ash-shayṭ ān or Satan is ap­
parently the same person as Iblīs. He is an angel deposed for
his pride in refusing to worship the man whom God has just
created [2.34/2-36/4; 7/1 1 /10 -2 2 /1 ; etc.]; the one who re­
fused to worship is always Iblīs, but Satan is often mentioned
in a later verse. After his refusal, however, he is allowed by
God to tempt men, to urge them to evil and unseemliness, and
to make evil deeds seem fair to them [ 1 7.61 / 3-64 / 6; 2.168 / 3f .;
8.48/50; 16.63/5]. He whispers in the breasts o f men [7.20/19 ;
20 .120 /18 ; 114.4-6], and may even insinuate something into
the messages revealed to prophets [22.52 /1 ]. His footsteps are
not to be followed for he is a betrayer of men [25.29 /31],
and will repudiate their service at the last [ 14.22/6f.]. There
has been much discussion o f whether shayṭ ān is an Arabic
word or not, and no agreement has been reached. It is clear
that the word was in use in Arabic in pre-Islamic times, but it
may have meant a snake or a being something like the jinn.
Even if the word is Arabic, the singular seems to have been
influenced in meaning by the Hebrew S āṭ ān, probably through

155
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

38.52; 55.56-8; 56.35/4-40/39; 78.33] which describe the

maidens who are to be companions o f the blessed. They are
‘ spotless virgins, amorous, like o f age’, resembling hidden
pearls or ruby and coral, with swelling breasts, untouched by
men or jinn, who modestly keep their eyes cast down and are
enclosed in pavilions. All these references are usually dated in
the Meccan period. In the Medinan period there is mention of
‘ purified spouses’ [2.2 5/3; 3. 1 5 / 1 3 ; 4.57/60], but it is not
clear whether these are the houris or the actual believing
wives. It is certainly the teaching o f the Qur’ān that believing
men, women and children shall enter Paradise as families
[13.23; 40.8 ; cf. 36.56; 43.70]. Since these images are
attempts to suggest what is essentially beyond man’s capacity
to conceive it is unnecessary to seek a single consistent picture.
The fundamental assertion o f the Qur’ān is that the life o f
Paradise is one which satisfies man’s deepest desires and which
involves warm human relationships.

5. Regulations for the life o f the community

In addition to its doctrinal teaching the Qur’ān contains
liturgical and legal or social prescriptions for the life o f the
community o f Muslims. These rules were greatly elaborated
by Muslim jurists in later times to constitute what is now
known as ‘ Islamic law ’ or ‘ the Sharī ' a ' . The present section
indicates the general tenor of these rules without entering
into details. The first four to be mentioned belong to the
fundamental ‘ religious ’ obligations which are often called ‘ the
Five Pillars o f Religion’. The remaining pillar, usually the
first to be named, is the Shahāda or Confession o f Faith which
has already been described (p. 25, 149).
(a) Prayer or worship. Prayers in the sense o f formal public
worship (ṣ alāt) seems to have been part o f the practice of
Muhammad’s followers from the first. Opponents are said to
try to stop the practice [ 9 6 . 9 f.]. The details o f this formal
worship were settled by the actual custom o f Muḥ ammad and
the first Muslims rather than by Qur’ānic prescription. The
worship is essentially adoration and consists o f a series o f
physical acts accompanied by certain forms o f words. The
climax is when the worshippers touch the ground with their
foreheads in acknowledgement o f the might, majesty and
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mercy o f God. When the rules were standardized, it became a

duty for Muslims to perform the worship five times a day; but
the five times are not mentioned clearly in the Qur’ān . Eve­
ning, morning, twilight and noon are said to be commanded in
30.1 7 /1 6f., and the afternoon prayer is held to be intended by
the ‘ middle prayer’ in 2.238/9. Daybreak, sunset and night
are mentioned in various places [ 1 1 .1 1 4 / 6 ; 17.78/8of.; 20.130;
50.39/8f.]. It is known from sura 73 that prayer for a large
part o f the night was a practice o f the Muslims at Mecca, but
that this rule was later abrogated (b y verse 20) so that rising
at night ceased to be obligatory. A t first prayer was made
facing Jerusalem, but at the time o f the break with the Jews
the qibla or direction o f prayer was changed to Mecca.20
Special emphasis was placed on the midday prayer on Fridays
[cf. 62.9]. Prayers are always preceded by ablutions [4.43/6].
(b) Legal alms or poor-tax. This prescription, the zakāt,
was perhaps originally a kind o f tithe, as much for the purifi­
cation o f the giver’s soul as for the relief o f the needy. The
practice began at Mecca. In Medina it was made incumbent on
Muslims, presumably because o f the difficult circumstances o f
the poorer Emigrants and perhaps also because o f necessities
o f state. The essential demands on nomadic groups and others
who wanted to become Muslims and allies o f Muḥ ammad was
that they should perform the salāt and give the zakāt.21
(c ) The fa st o f Ramaḍ ān. Fasting is not mentioned in the
Meccan passages, but soon after the Hijra to Medina the Jewish
fast o f the ‘Ā shūrā’ is held to have been prescribed for the
Muslims by 2.183/79.22 This would be part o f the process by
which the Islamic religion was assimilated to Judaism. After
the break with the Jews the fast o f the month o f Ramaḍ ān was
substituted [2 .18 5 /1], possibly as a thanksgiving for the
victory o f Badr.23 The fast consists o f total abstinence from
food, drink, smoking and sexual intercourse from before sun­
rise until after sunset on each o f the thirty days o f the month.
(d ) The pilgrim age to Mecca. A pilgrimage to places in the
neighbourhood o f Mecca and perhaps also to Mecca itself
(ḥ ajj, tumra') was a pre-Islamic practice. About the time o f the
break with the Jews this was taken into ‘ the religion o f Abra­
ham’ [22.26/7-33/4; cf. 2.196/2]. After the slaughter at Badr
it was presumably dangerous for Muslims to go to Mecca.
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

Muḥ ammad was prevented by the Meccans from making the

pilgrimage in 628 as he had hoped, but was allowed to do so in
629 by the treaty o f al-Ḥ udaybiya [cf. 47.27]. Shortly after the
conquest o f Mecca in 630 the idolaters were forbidden to
approach the Ka'ba [9.28]; and Tradition says that they were
debarred from the pilgrimage a year later. The detailed regula­
tions for the pilgrimage are not recorded in the Qur’ān .24
(e) M arriage and divorce. There are several passages in the
Qur’ān dealing with marriage and divorce.25 The matter is
complicated by the fact that previously some o f the Arabs
who became Muslims had followed a matrilineal system o f
kinship. Associated with this were forms o f polyandry in
which a woman had several ‘ husbands’ and physical paternity
was neglected. Thus the permission for a man to have four
wives [based on 4.3] is not the limitation o f a previous un­
limited polygamy but an attempt to deal with the problem
o f surplus women (originally after the numerous male deaths
at Uḥ ud) while at the same time limiting a woman to one
husband at a time. The Islamic system may be considered a
reform in that, when it was observed, the physical paternity of
a child was always known. Divorce was easy, but it was
enjoined that after divorce a woman should spend a waiting-
period (' idda) before remarriage, and this enabled one to
know whether she was pregnant by the previous husband
[2.226; etc.].
( f ) Inheritance. The rules for inheritance were complex,
doubtless because o f the complexity o f the social situation. It
was probably customary among the Arabs, or at least among
the Meccans, to give instructions before death about the dis­
posal o f the property [cf. 36.50]. In 2.180/76 the making o f a
will becomes obligatory for Muslims; the will has to be wit­
nessed, but it is not stated that it has to be written. A few
verses give succinct rules for the division o f estates [4 .11 /12 -
14 /18 , 176 /5]. The shares o f parents, children, brothers and
sisters are laid down. No special privilege is given to the first­
born. The right o f women to hold property (o f which there
are instances in pre-Islamic times) is recognized, and shares
are prescribed for women – usually half o f a man’s share. No
share is assigned to a widow, but it was a duty to make pro­
vision for her [2.240/1]. The aim o f these regulations was
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 D O C T R I N E S OF T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

probably to ensure that property which had hitherto been

partly communal was fairly divided among the nearest kin and
was not appropriated by a strong individual.
(g ) Food-laws. Several Meccan passages are directed against
pagan food-taboos, and characterize as ingratitude the refusal
to partake o f the good things provided by God. The Jewish
regulations about clean and unclean animals and similar mat­
ters must have come to the notice o f the Muslims after the
Hijra, and were doubtless found irksome. While the accession
o f the Jews to Islam was hoped for it was laid down that food
allowable for the People o f the Book was allowable for the
Muslims [5.5/7]. Later, as tension with the Jews increased,
the Qur’ān asserted that the food-laws were a punishment laid
on the Jews by God for their rebelliousness, and so not
applicable to the Muslims [4.160/58; etc.]. Muslims were in
fact given simple rules (especially 5.3/4) which are remini­
scent o f those given to Gentile Christians in Acts, 15.29, but
also include the prohibition o f pork.
(h ) W ine-drinking.Pre-Islamic poets boasted o f their feats
in wine-drinking. It was conspicuous luxury-consumption,
since wine made from grapes had to be brought from con­
siderable distances and was expensive. Apart from the fact that
the trade was largely in the hands o f Jews and Christians,
Muḥ ammad had disagreeable experiences with followers who
came drunk to public worship [cf. 4.43/6]. Though wine had
been mentioned as one o f the delights o f Paradise, its evil
effects were also realized [cf. 2.219/6], and it was finally for­
bidden altogether [5.90/2].
(i) Usury. In a commercial centre like Mecca the taking o f
interest was presumably a normal practice. The Qur’ānic
disapproval o f interest belongs to the Medinan period and
appears to be directed against the Jews rather than against the
Meccans. In 4 .16 1/59 the Jews are accused o f having taken
usury although they had been forbidden to do so. The most
natural explanation o f this would be to suppose that in the
first year or so after the Hijra the Jew s had refused to give
contributions in response to Muhammad’s appeal but had said
they were willing to lend money at interest. By adopting this
position they were refusing to acknowledge Muhammad’s
claim to be proclaiming a religion identical with theirs; and
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

this was probably a large part o f the reason for the prohibition
o f usury [3.130 /2 5 f .; cf. 2.275/ 6-281 ].26
(j) Miscellaneous regulations. There are Qur’ānic prescrip­
tions on many other matters, some important, others ap­
parently o f less moment, though none is treated at any length.
Slavery, which had been common in Arabia, was accepted as
an institution, but it was laid down that slaves should be
treated kindly [4.36/40],and provision was madefor the liber­
ation o f a slave, which was regarded as a pious act [ 24.33].27
Contracts are to be fulfilled [5 .1], and debts are to be re­
corded in writing [2.282]. Adultery and fornication are to be
severely punished, but a charge o f adultery must first be
proved by four witnesses [4.2-4, 13 ]; theft is punished by the
cutting off o f a hand [5.38/42]. There is the prohibition o f
the gambling practice called maysir, in which lots were drawn
for the various portions o f a camel which was to be slaughtered
[2.219/6; 5.90/2]. Appropriate conduct is indicated for those
who meet the Prophet in public audiences or private inter­
views [49.1-5 ; 58.12/13 ; etc.]. There are rules for the division
o f the spoils after razzias [8.1, 4 1/2 ; 59.6-10]. In short the
Qur’ān gives, at least in outline, a solution o f the practical
difficulties o f the growing community in so far as previous
custom was inapplicable.28
When later Muslim scholars worked out a complete system
o f law, they had to take into consideration Muhammad’s
practice as well as the prescriptions o f the Qur’ān . In many
cases Muḥ ammad had adopted some practice without any
specific revelation as a basis and probably by modifying pre­
vious custom. In this way, although there are many legislative
passages in the Qur’ān , it is not the sole source o f Islamic law.

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 TEN

MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP AND THE QUR’ Ā N

i. Interpretation and exegesis

The work o f Muslim scholars on the text o f the Qur’ān was
described in a previous chapter and need not be mentioned
here. Ignaz Goldziher in his magistral study o f the history o f
the exegesis o f the Qur’ān 1 insisted that even work on the text
involved a form o f interpretation, and o f this he gave examples.
This stage merges into the ‘ traditional’ interpretation. The
Qur’ān is full o f allusions, which were presumably clear at
the time o f its revelation, but were far from clear to later
generations. Thus men appeared who claimed to know who
was referred to in a particular passage, and what the incident
was which occasioned a passage. In such matters it was easy
to allow oneself to be carried away by imagination, and there
were many unreliable purveyors o f stories. Eventually, how­
ever, careful scholars sifted out the accounts which might be
regarded as authentic, showing how and when a particular
passage was revealed. This became a subdivision o f the dis­
cipline known as ‘ the occasions o f revelation ’ ( asbāb an-nuzūl).
The standard work on this subject is taken to be that o f al-
W āḥ idī (d. 1075), o f which there are now printed editions.
This work is complemented by that o f the later Qur’ānic
scholar as-Suyūtī (d. 1505), entitled Lubāb an-nuqūl f ī asbāb
an-nuzūl, which has also been printed. In the early period there
was also much irresponsible elaboration o f Qur’ānic stories,
using Biblical and extracanonical Jewish and Christian
material, Arab legend, and often sheer invention.
As time went on, especially after non-Arabs became Mus­
lims, it became necessary to have explanations o f verses and
phrases o f the Qur’ān whose meaning had ceased to be
obvious. It was necessary to show the precise meaning o f a
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

rare word or the correct way to take a grammatical construc­

tion or the reference o f a pronoun. The first great name in
Qur’ānic exegesis, and indeed the founder o f the discipline is
held to be Ibn-'Abbās, a cousin o f Muhammad’s, who was
from ten to fifteen years old in 632 and who lived until about
687. Such was his reputation, however, that all sorts of inter­
pretations were falsely ascribed to him to gain acceptance for
them, and thus little can be known with certainty about his
views. It appears to be the case, however, that he employed
the method of referring to pre-Islamic poetry in order to
establish the meaning o f obscure words.2 A less sceptical view
of early Qur’ānic exegesis has recently been put forward by a
Turkish Muslim scholar, Fuat Sezgin.3 On the basis o f the
much greater number o f manuscripts now known containing a
tafsīr or Qur’ān -commentary by an early author Sezgin argues
that it is possible to form a good idea o f the teaching o f at
least several pupils o f Ibn-'Abbās. Most o f these manuscripts,
however, have not yet been carefully studied, and it is too
early to know whether they will yield information o f much
significance.
The earliest important commentary on the Qur’ān which is
extant and readily accessible is the great work o f the historian
Muḥ ammad ibn-Jarī r aṭ-Ṭ abarī (d. 923), first printed in
Cairo in 1903 in thirty volumes and reprinted more than once.
As the title (J ām i' al-bayān 'an ta 'wīl al-Q ur’ān) suggests,
this is a compendium o f all that was best in the earlier ‘ tradi­
tional exegesis’. For most verses of the Qur’ān aṭ-Ṭ abarī gives
not merely his own interpretation but also quotes the state­
ments o f Ibn-'Abbās and other early authorities, in each case
with the isnād or chain o f transmitters through whom it has
come to him. There may be a dozen authorities or more for a
single difficult phrase. At many points the authorities differ;
and there aṭ-Ṭ abarī , after expounding the opposing views and
giving the supporting statements puts forward his own view
and his reasons for it.4 From this vast work it would be pos­
sible to gain much information about the interpretations given
by earlier commentators such as al-Ḥ asan al-Baṣ rī (d. 728);
but it is not certain that the results would be commensurate to
the efforts involved, since the most distinctive points o f
exegesis might well have been omitted. The manuscripts
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 MUSLIM SC H O LARSH IP AND THE QUR’ Ā N

mentioned by Sezgin with the views o f early interpreters may

have been compiled by later scholars from works such as that
o f aṭ -Ṭ abarī.
There are numerous other commentaries on the Qur’ān ,
o f which lists will be found in the reference works o f Brockel-
mann and Sezgin. Only a few o f outstanding interest need be
mentioned here.
A commentary which modern scholars are finding o f in­
creasing value is that o f az-Zamakhsharī (d. 114 3 ), entitled
Al-kashshāf an ḥ aqā 'iq at-tanzīl, ‘ The unveiler o f the realities o f
revelation’. Officially az-Zamakhsharī has not had much in­
fluence in the Islamic world because he belonged to the group
o f heretical theologians known as the Mu'tazilites, who
ascribed greater freedom to the human will than did the Sun­
nites and denied the hypostatic existence o f the divine attri­
butes. Only at a very few points, however, do his theological
views affect his interpretation o f the Qur’ānic text; and on the
other hand he has the great merits o f profound grammatical
and lexicological knowledge and a sound judgement.
What has often been regarded, especially by European
scholars, as the standard commentary on the Qur’ān is that
called Anwār at-tanzīl wa-asrār at-ta 'wīl, ‘ The lights o f revela­
tion and the secrets o f interpretation’, by al-Bayḍ āw ī (d.
1286 or 12 9 1). This was intended as a manual for instruction
in colleges or mosque-schools, and therefore aims at giving in
concise form all that was best and soundest in previous com­
mentaries, including important variant interpretations. T o a
great extent al-Bayḍ āw ī follows az-Zamakhsharī , though in
his zeal for conciseness he sometimes becomes cryptic. He
belonged to the main stream o f Sunnite philosophical theo­
logy, and therefore removed az-Zamakhsharī ’s Mu'tazilite
errors. A European edition o f this work in two volumes
was published at Leipzig in 1846 and 1848, edited by H. L.
Fleischer; and two sections (those on suras 3 and 12 ) have
been translated into English, although owing to the nature
o f the material they are barely intelligible to those who are
not also studying the Arabic text.5
Between az-Zamakhsharī and al-Bayḍ āw ī came the theo­
logian Fakhr-ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī (d. 12 10 ), who among many
other works wrote an extensive commentary o f the Qur’ān .
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

The distinctive feature o f this commentary is that it includes

long philosophical and theological discussions on many mat­
ters in accordance with the writer's standpoint, that o f the
later A sh'arite school o f Sunnite philosophical theology.
A popular short commentary is that of the Jalālayn or ‘ the
two Jalāls’, namely, Jalāl-ad-Dīn al-Maḥ allī (d. 1459) who
began it, and his pupil, the great scholar Jalāl-ad-Dīn as-
Suyūṭ ī (d. 1505), who completed it. This gives the gist o f the
accepted views in the briefest possible form.
As a modernizing theological movement has developed in
the Islamic world during the last century this has been re­
flected in a number o f new commentaries.6 In Egypt the most
notable is Tafsīr al-M anār, the work o f a group o f scholars
associated with the periodical A l-M anār7; while from the
Indian subcontinent comes the impressive work o f Mawlana
Abul-Kalam Azad.8

2. The theologians
As was seen above (chapter 4, section 4) the dramatic form of
much o f the Qur’ān is that it is the direct speech o f God.
Even where this is not the case, as in passages spoken by
angels, the assumption is that they say what they have been
commanded to say by God. In the theological discussions
about to be described, however, the case o f verses commanded
by God but not ‘ dramatically’ spoken by him was not dis­
tinguished from the first. Both sides took it for granted that
in the Qur’ān God was speaking.
It is not clear how the discussion began.9 Some European
scholars thought that it had grown out o f Christian thinking
about ‘ the Word o f G o d ’ ; but, while some ideas may have
been suggested from this quarter, it will be shown that the
discussions were not academic but related to important intra-
Islamic political questions. It might have been considered
obvious that, since the Qur’ān had appeared at certain points
in time during the last twenty years or so o f Muhammad’s
life, it could not be regarded as having existed from all
eternity. Nevertheless in the caliphate o f al-Ma’mūn (81 3– 33)
one finds many o f the central body o f Sunnite theologians
maintaining that the Qur’ān is the eternal and uncreated word
or speech o f God. (The Arabic is kalām A llāh, properly ‘ the
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

The distinctive feature o f this commentary is that it includes

long philosophical and theological discussions on many mat­
ters in accordance with the writer's standpoint, that o f the
later A sh'arite school o f Sunnite philosophical theology.
A popular short commentary is that of the Jalālayn or ‘ the
two Jalāls’, namely, Jalāl-ad-Dīn al-Maḥ allī (d. 1459) who
began it, and his pupil, the great scholar Jalāl-ad-Dīn as-
Suyūṭ ī (d. 1505), who completed it. This gives the gist o f the
accepted views in the briefest possible form.
As a modernizing theological movement has developed in
the Islamic world during the last century this has been re­
flected in a number o f new commentaries.6 In Egypt the most
notable is Tafsīr al-M anār, the work o f a group o f scholars
associated with the periodical A l-M anār7; while from the
Indian subcontinent comes the impressive work o f Mawlana
Abul-Kalam Azad.8

2. The theologians
As was seen above (chapter 4, section 4) the dramatic form of
much o f the Qur’ān is that it is the direct speech o f God.
Even where this is not the case, as in passages spoken by
angels, the assumption is that they say what they have been
commanded to say by God. In the theological discussions
about to be described, however, the case o f verses commanded
by God but not ‘ dramatically’ spoken by him was not dis­
tinguished from the first. Both sides took it for granted that
in the Qur’ān God was speaking.
It is not clear how the discussion began.9 Some European
scholars thought that it had grown out o f Christian thinking
about ‘ the Word o f G o d ’ ; but, while some ideas may have
been suggested from this quarter, it will be shown that the
discussions were not academic but related to important intra-
Islamic political questions. It might have been considered
obvious that, since the Qur’ān had appeared at certain points
in time during the last twenty years or so o f Muhammad’s
life, it could not be regarded as having existed from all
eternity. Nevertheless in the caliphate o f al-Ma’mūn (81 3– 33)
one finds many o f the central body o f Sunnite theologians
maintaining that the Qur’ān is the eternal and uncreated word
or speech o f God. (The Arabic is kalām A llāh, properly ‘ the
170
 MUSLIM SC H O LARSH IP AND THE QUR’ Ā N

speech o f G od ’ and to be distinguished from kalimat A llāh,

‘ God’s w ord’, a phrase applied to Jesus in 4 .17 1/6 9 .) Other
persons, notably the Mu'tazilite theologians who were in
favour with al-Ma’mūn, opposed to this the thesis that the
Qur’ān was the created speech o f God and was not eternal.
The opposition between these two points o f view became
such that before the end o f the reign o f al-Ma’mūn an Inquisi­
tion ( miḥ na) was established, and all persons in official posi­
tions like judges and provincial governors were required to
affirm publicly that they believed that the Qur’ān was the
created and not uncreated speech o f God. The Inquisition
continued fitfully until shortly after al-Mutawakkil came to
the throne in 848.
At first sight it seems strange that an abstruse theological
point o f this kind should have political repercussions. An
examination o f the situation, however, shows that it was linked
with a power struggle between what may be called the ‘ auto­
cratic’ bloc and the ‘ constitutionalist’ bloc, each o f which
represented several bodies o f common interest grouped to­
gether. The theological dispute specially affected the ulema or
religious scholars on the constitutionalist side and the secre­
taries or civil servants on the autocratic side. The latter were
inclined towards the views o f the Shī 'ite sect, part o f which at
least insisted on the charismatic or divinely inspired quality o f
the ruler o f the community o f Muslims. I f this point was
accepted, it meant that the ruler by his personal inspiration
would be able to override the religious law as hitherto under­
stood and practised. A t the same time the power o f the civil
servants and administrators would be increased. The ruler’s
power would be all the greater if it was also agreed that the
Qur’ān was created, since what was created by God was de­
pendent only on his will, and he could presumably have willed
to create it otherwise.
On the other hand, if the Qur’ān was the uncreated speech
o f God and (as they also maintained) an eternal attribute o f
his being, it could not be changed and could not be set aside
even by the ruler o f the Muslims (whose special charisma or
inspiration was not accepted by those who held this view ). It
followed that the affairs o f the Islamic empire must be ordered
strictly in accordance with the provisions o f this eternal
17 1
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

speech o f God. Since the accredited interpreters o f this eternal

speech o f God were the ulema, it further followed that accept­
ance o f the uncreatedness o f the Qur’ān enhanced the power
o f the ulema at the expense o f that o f the civil servants.
The policy o f the caliph al-Ma’mūn and his immediate suc­
cessors, o f which one expression was the establishment o f the
Inquisition, may be regarded as a compromise. Although
belief in the createdness o f the Qur’ān was insisted on in
opposition to the constitutionalist bloc, the demands o f the
autocratic bloc were by no means fully accepted. Thus neither
bloc was altogether satisfied with the compromise. Most o f
the ulema weakly submitted to the demand to make a public
affirmation o f the new doctrine, although Ahmad ibn-Hanbal
refused to do so and suffered as a result, and one or two men
lost their lives.10 It was not this protest, however, which led to
a change o f policy under al-Mutawakkil but the failure o f the
compromise to remove the tensions within the caliphate. The
abandonment o f the Inquisition was one o f several steps by
which the heartlands o f the Islamic world were made pre­
dominantly Sunnite and have remained so, with the exception
o f Persia, until the present day. The uncreatedness o f the
Qur’ān became a central point o f dogma, with the practical
corollary that the ordering o f state and society was based in
principle on the Sharī'a or revealed law as contained in the
Qur’ān supplemented by the Traditions about Muhammad’s
standard practice. Theological discussion passed on to such
ramifications o f the dogma as the question whether man’s
uttering (la fz) or pronouncing o f the Qur’ān was created or
uncreated; but such matters belong rather to the history o f
theology.11

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 ELEVEN

THE QUR ’ Ā N AND

O C C I D E N T A L SCHOLARSHIP

1 . Translations and studies

The scholarly concern o f Europeans with the Qur’ān may be
said to have begun with the visit o f Peter the Venerable, Abbot
o f Cluny, to Toledo in the second quarter o f the twelfth
century. He became concerned with the whole problem o f
Islam, collected a team o f men and commissioned them to pro­
duce a series o f works which together would constitute a
scholarly basis for the intellectual encounter with Islam. As
part o f this series a translation o f the Qur’ān into Latin was
produced by an Englishman, Robert o f Ketton (whose name
is often deformed into Robertus Retenensis) and was com­
plete by Ju ly 114 3. Unfortunately this translation and the
companion works did not lead to any important developments
o f scholarly Islamic studies. Numerous books were written in
the next two or three centuries, but Islam was still the great
enemy, feared and at the same time admired, and what was
written was almost exclusively apologetics and polemics,
sometimes verging on the scurrilous and the pornographic.1
The upsurge o f energy at the Renaissance, the invention o f
printing and the advance o f the Ottoman Turks into Europe
combined to produce a number o f works on Islam in the first
half o f the sixteenth century. These included an Arabic text o f
the Qur’ān , published at Venice in 1530, and the Latin transla­
tion o f Robert o f Ketton, published along with some other
works at Bâle in 1543 by Bibliander.2 Interest continued in the
seventeenth century, and among various books which appeared
there may be mentioned the first translation o f the Qur’ān
into English (16 4 9 ); this was made by a Scotsman, Alexander
Ross, who also wrote a book on comparative religion, and
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

was based on a French translation and not directly on the

Arabic.3 A new standard o f scholarship was reached by the
Italian cleric Ludovici Marracci who in 1698 at Padua pro­
duced a text o f the Qur’ān based on a number o f manuscripts,
accompanied by a careful Latin translation. Marracci is said to
have spent forty years o f his life on Qur’ānic studies and was
familiar with the chief Muslim commentators. A comparable
level o f scholarship was attained by George Sale, whose Eng­
lish translation, accompanied by a ‘ Preliminary Discourse’
giving a brief objective account o f Islam, appeared at London
in 1734. Sale’s interpretation was based on the Muslim com­
mentators, especially al-Bayḍ āw ī, and was accompanied by
explanatory notes. There have been many subsequent editions
o f this book, and the translation and notes are still o f value.4
The nineteenth century saw further advances in Qur’ānic
scholarship, beginning with Gustav F lügel’s edition o f the
text in 1834, o f which there have been many subsequent
editions, some being revised by Gustav Redslob. The chief
advances in the study o f the Qur’ān were made by persons
who were also, and indeed primarily, interested in the life o f
Muhammad. The first o f these was Gustav Weil whose bio­
graphy o f Muḥ ammad (18 4 3), unfortunately not based on the
best sources, was followed by a Historische-kritische Einleitung
in den Koran (Bielefeld, 1844; second edition 1878). The two
successors o f Weil, Aloys Sprenger and William Muir, both
spent many years in India and there found older and better
sources for the biography. To Sprenger belongs the credit o f
first discovering these sources and realizing their importance.
His first essay in biography appeared in English at Allahabad
in 18 51, and was not completed, being ultimately replaced by
a three-volume work in German, D as Leben und die Lehre des
M oḥ ammad (Berlin, 18 6 1– 25). Some 36 pages in the intro­
duction to the third volume are devoted to the Qur’ān , dis­
cussing the distinction between Meccan and Medinan suras
and the collection o f the Qur’ān . Muir followed in Sprenger’s
footsteps, but, as noted on p. 112 , went more thoroughly into
the chronology o f the suras. His conclusions on this question
were contained in an essay on the ‘ Sources for the Biography
o f Mahomet’ which was attached to his L ife o f Mahomet
(London, four vols., 1858– 6 1; subsequently abridged and

17 4
 q u r ’Ān an d o c c id en t a l sc h o la r sh ip

revised in various editions); and they are stated more fully in

The Coran, its Composition and Teaching; and the Testimony it
bears to the H oly Scriptures (London, 1878).
The growing interest in Islamic studies in Europe led the
Parisian Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1857 to
propose as the subject for a prize monograph ‘ a critical history
o f the text o f the Coran’. It was specified that the work was to
‘ rechercher la division primitive et le caractère des différents
morceaux qui le composent; déterminer autant qu’il est
possible, avec l’aide des historiens arabes et des commen­
tateurs et d’après l'examen des morceaux eux-mêmes, les
moments de la vie de Mahomet aux quels ils se rapportent;
exposer les vicissitudes que traversa le texte du Coran, depuis
les récitations de Mahomet jusqu’à la récension définitive qui
lui donna la forme où nous le voyons; déterminer d’après
l'examen des plus andens manuscrits la nature des variantes
qui ont survécu aux ré censions’. The subject attracted three
scholars: Aloys Sprenger; the Italian Michele Amari, who was
beginning to make a name for himself as the historian o f
Islamic Sicily; and a young German Theodor N öldeke who in
1856 had published a Latin disquisition on the origin and
composition o f the Qur’ān . The latter scholar won the prize,
and an enlarged German version o f the prize-gaining work
was published at G öttingen in 1 860 as Geschichte des Qorāns,
and became the foundation o f all later Qur’ānic studies.
The subsequent history o f N öldeke’s book is itself a veri­
table saga. In 1898 the publisher suggested a second edition;
and as N öldeke himself could not contemplate this, the task
was entrusted to a pupil, Friedrich Schwally. Schwally took
up the task with traditional German thoroughness; but be­
cause o f the thoroughness and for various other reasons the
publication o f the second edition was spread out over many
years. The first volume, dealing with the origin o f the Qur’ān,
eventually appeared at Leipzig in 1909; and the second, on
‘ the collection o f the Qur’ān ’, in 1919. Schwally, however,
died in February 1919, after virtually completing the manu­
script, and it had to be seen through the press by two col­
leagues. Schwally had also done no more than preliminary
work for a third volume on the history o f the text, but his
successor at K önigsberg, Gotthelf Bergsträsser, agreed to

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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

make himself responsible for the volume. Tw o sections o f the

volume (about two-thirds o f the whole) were published in
1926 and 1929. A further quantity o f important material had
come to light by this time and delayed the third section. Next
Bergsträsser died unexpectedly in 1933; and it fell to yet
another scholar, Otto Pretzl, to bring the work to completion
in 1938, sixty-eight years after the first edition and forty
years after the first suggestion o f a second edition. It is truly a
remarkable work o f scholarly cooperation, and deservedly
maintains its position as the standard treatment o f the subject,
even though some parts o f it now require revision.
N öldeke’s 1 860 volume by no means exhausted the prob­
lems o f Qur’ānic study. He himself made further contribu­
tions, notably in the opening section ‘Zur Sprache des Korans’
(pp. 1-30) o f his Neue B eiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissen-
schaft (Strassburg, 1910). Hartwig Hirschfeld after some
earlier work on the Qur’ān published in 1902 in London his
New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis o f the Qoran,
o f which something has been said above (p. 112 ). The
‘ socialist’ biographer o f Muhammad, Hubert Grimme, in con­
nection with his work on the biography, pursued independent
lines o f research into the composition and chronology o f the
Qur’ān as described above (p. 112 ). While the twentieth
century has seen many further books and articles on the
Qur’ān , the most notable work o f a general kind has been
Koranische Untersuchungen by Jo sef Horovitz (Berlin, 1926),
which deals with the narrative sections o f the Qur’ān and the
proper names. Arthur Jeffery’s Foreign Vocabulary o f the
Q u r'an ( Baroda, 1938 ) is a useful reference volume, summariz­
ing much previous work and making fresh contributions;
there have o f course been many advances in the last thirty
years. His M aterials fo r the Study o f the Text o f the Qur'an
(p. 44 above) is a mark o f his interest in the field in which
Bergsträsser was also working. The volume containing Ignaz
Goldziher’s lectures on D ie Richtungen der islamischen Koran­
auslegung (Leiden, 1920) is outstanding in its field (cf. p. 167
above).
In the last half-century three men have devoted a large part
o f their time to Qur’ānic studies. The oldest o f these, Richard
Bell, set out the first-fruits o f his work on the Qur’ān in the
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 q u r ’Ān and o c c id e n t a l sc h o la r sh ip

form o f lectures on The Origin o f Islam in its Christian

Environment (London, 1926). The major results o f his work,
though in a slightly incomplete form, are to be found in his
translation – The Qur’ān : Translated, with a critical re-arrange­
ment o f the Surahs (two vols., Edinburgh, 1 9 3 7 , 1 9 3 9 ) · Un­
fortunately it has not proved possible to publish the mass of
notes which he left, explaining in detail the reasons for his
conclusions. This lack is partly made good by his articles
( mentioned in the list below) and partly by his Introduction to
the Q u r'an (Edinburgh, 1 9 5 3 ) , o f which the present volume
is a revised version.
In the case o f Régis Blach0ère the study o f the life o f the
prophet, entitled L e Problème de Mahomet (Paris, 1952) and
based on the premiss that the Qur’ān is the only reliable source,
appeared after the other work on the Qur’ān . This latter was
focussed on a translation: L e Coran: traduction selon un essai
de reclassement des sourates (three vols., Paris, 1947– 5 1). The
dating and arrangement o f the suras has already been discussed
( p. 1 12 ). The first o f the three volumes is entirely devoted to
an introduction, o f which a second edition was published
separately in 1959. This deals with the collection o f the text,
the variant readings, the history o f the text and similar matters.
Specially valuable is the section on ‘ amélioration graphique’
or improvement o f the script, since this includes the results o f
the study o f existing ancient copies o f the Qur’ān .
It is well known to the colleagues o f Rudi Paret that he has
been working for many years on the Qur’ān . As in the case o f
Bell a small book o f a general kind came first: Mohammed und
der Koran (Stuttgart, 1 9 5 7 ) . This is a short account o f the life
o f the prophet which for the most part passes over the mili­
tary and political aspects and concentrates on the religious
aspects, especially those for which there is Qur’ānic material.
He has also published some articles, such as ‘ Der Koran als
Geschichtsquelle’ (D er Islam , xx xvii/19 6 1, 24-42). At the
centre o f his work, however, has been the Qur’ān itself; and a
complete German translation appeared in four ‘Lieferungen’
between 1963 and 1966 at Stuttgart. The interpretation o f
each term has been based on an exhaustive comparison o f all
the instances o f it and o f cognate terms throughout the Qur’ān .
The reader may thus have a high degree o f confidence that he
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

has been given an accurate rendering o f what the Qur’ān

meant for the first hearers. There is no structural analysis,
apart from a division into paragraphs; and there are no notes
apart from explanatory additions to the text and footnotes
giving a literal rendering where for the sake o f style or clarity
the main translation is somewhat free. Further publications
are promised in the shape o f a commentary or discussions o f
various problems. It is to be hoped that these, which will in­
deed be the ‘ crown o f a lifeswork’ will not be long delayed.
O f English translations o f the Qur’ān those by J. M. Rod-
well (18 6 1) and E. H. Palmer (1880) were not without merit,
but are now passed over in favour o f more recent ones. That
o f Marmaduke Pickthall ( The M eaning o f the Glorious Koran,
an explanatory translation; London, 1930), though it does not
read well, is interesting as the work o f an Englishman who
became a Muslim and had his translation approved by Muslim
authorities in Cairo. Another translation by a Muslim is that
in the Penguin Classics (1956), The Koran, by N. J. Dawood,
an Iraqi with an excellent command o f English. His translation
is very readable, since his aim is that it should always be
meaningful to a modern man, but this leads to some departures
from the standard interpretations. The most satisfactory
English translation so far is that o f Arthur J. Arberry o f Cam­
bridge. He first published The H oly Koran, an Introduction
with Selections (London, 1953), which was an experimental
translation o f selected passages using various methods. This
was followed in 1955 by a complete translation entitled The
Koran Interpreted (two volumes, London). The method
adopted for this was to put the whole into short lines, regard­
less o f the length o f the Arabic verses but varying to some
extent according to the subject-matter. The diction is care­
fully chosen; and the translation as a whole has managed to
suggest something o f the grace and majesty o f the original
Arabic. The present writer’s Companion to the Q u r'an
(London, 1967), based primarily on the Arberry translation,
is intended to provide the English reader with a minimum o f
explanatory notes.

The following is a small selection o f useful books and articles

not otherwise mentioned in the text or notes o f this volume.
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 q u r ’Ān and o c c id en t a l sc h o la r sh ip

A fairly complete list o f articles will be found in the relevant

sections o f J. D. Pearson’s Index Islamicus, 1906– 1955 (Cam ­
bridge, 1958) and supplements. Books as well as articles,
mostly with brief comments, are listed in Abstracta Islam ica,
published annually as a supplement to Revue des études
islamiques (Paris). Books and articles up to 1922 are dis­
cussed in the work o f Pfannmüller mentioned in note 2 to this
chapter.

Older w orks:
Christian Snouck-Hurgronje: ‘ La légende qorānique
d’Abraham et la politique religieuse du Proph0ète
Mohammed’ (1880; French translation by G. H. Bousquet,
Revue africaine, 95 [19 5 1], 273-88).
I. Schapiro: D ie haggadischen Elemente im erzählenden Teile
des Korans (first section only), Leipzig, 1907.
J . Barth: ‘ Studien zur Kritik und Exegese des Qorāns’, D er
Islam , vi ( 1 9 1 5 – 16), 113-48.
B . Schrieke: ‘ Die Himmelsreise Muhammeds’, ibid. 1-30.
Wilhelm Rudolph: D ie Abhängigkeit des Qorāns von Judentum
und Christentum, Stuttgart, 1922.
W . W . Barthold: ‘ Der Koran und das Meer’, Zeitschriftder
deutschenmorgenländischen Gesellschaft, 83 (1929 ), 37-43.
Karl Ahrens: ‘ Christliches im Qoran: eine Nachlese’, ibid.
84 (19 30 ), 15-68, 148-90.
Heinrich Speyer: D ie biblischen E rzählungen im Qoran,
Gräfenhainichen, 1931 (reprinted 1961).
D. S i d e r s k y : Les origines des légendes musulmanes dans le Coran,
P a r is , 1 9 3 3 .
K . A h r e n s : Muhammedals Religionsstifter, L e ip z ig , 19 3 5 .

Articles by Richard Bell on Qur’ānic subjects (complete list):

'A duplicate in the Koran; the composition o f Surah xxiii’,
Moslem World, xviii (1928), 227-33.
‘ Who were the Hanīfs ? ’, ibid, xx (1930), 120-4.
‘ The Men o f the A 'r āf (Surah vii: 4 4 )’, ibid, xxii (19 32 ),
43-8.
‘ The Origin o f the 'Id al-Adḥ ā ’, ibid, xxiii (19 3 3 ), 117-20.
‘ Muhammad’s C all’, ibid, xxiv (19 34 ), 13-19 .
‘ M u h a m m a d ’ s V i s i o n s ’ , ibid. x x i v . 1 4 5 - 5 4 .

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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

‘ Muhammad and previous Messengers’, ibid. xxiv. 330-40.

‘ Muhammad and Divorce in the Qur’ān ’, ibid. xxix (19 39 ),
55-62.
‘ Surat al-Hashr: a study o f its composition’, ibid, xxxviii
(1948), 29-42.
‘ Muhammad’s Pilgrimage Proclamation ’, Journal o f the
Royal Asiatic Society, 1937, 233-44.
‘ The Development o f Muhammad’s Teaching and Prophetic
Consciousness’, School o f Oriental Studies Bulletin, Cairo,
June 1935, 1-9.
‘ The Beginnings o f Muhammad’s Religious A ctivity’,
Transactions o f the Glasgow U niversity Oriental Society, vii
( 1 9 3 4 – 5 ), 16-24.
‘ The Sacrifice o f Ishmael’, ibid. x. 29-31.
‘ The Style o f the Qur’ān ’, ibid, xi (19 4 2 -4 ), 9-15.
‘ Muhammad’s Knowledge o f the Old Testament’, Studia
Semitica et Orientalia, ii ( W. B. Stevenson Festschrift),
Glasgow, 1945, 1-20.

Other recent works:

Michel Allard, etc.: Analyse conceptuelle du Coran sur cartes
perforées, The Hague, 1963 (2 vols. and cards); explained
by Allard in ‘ Une méthode nouvelle pour l’étude du
Coran’, Studia Islamica, xv (19 6 1), 5-21.
D irk Bakker: M anin the Q u r'an, Amsterdam, 1965.
Harris Birkeland: The L ord guideth: studies onprim itive Islam ,
Oslo, 1956.
Régis Blachère: L e Coran (Collection ‘ Que sais-je?’ ), Paris,
1966.
Robert Brunschvig: ‘ Simples remarques négatives sur le
vocabulaire du Coran’, Studia Islamica, v (1956), 19-32.
Maurice Causse: ‘ Théologie de rupture et de la communauté:
étude sur la vocation prophétique de Moïse d’après le
Coran ’, Revue de l 'histoire et de la philosophie religieuses, i
(1964), 60-82.
Jo sef Henninger: Spuren christlicher Glaubenswahrheiten im
Koran, Schöneck, 19 51.
Toshihiko Izutsu: God and M an in the Koran: semantics o f the
Koranic Weltanschauung, Tokyo, 1964.
— Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur'an, Montreal, 1966.

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 q u r ’Ān an d o c c id e n t a l sc h o la r sh ip

Arthur Jeffery: ‘ The Qur’ān as Scripture’, M uslim World, xl

(1950 ), 41-55, 106-134, 185-206, 257-75.
Jacques Jomier: ‘ Le nom divin “ al-Rahmān ” dans le Coran’,
M élanges Louis Massignon, Damascus, 1957, ii. 361-81.
— The Bible and the Koran (tr. Arbez), New York, 1964.
Ilse Lichtenstadter: ‘ Origin and Interpretation o f some
Koranic Symbols ’, Arabic and Islamic Studies in honor o f
Hamilton A . R . Gibb (ed. G.M akdisi), Leiden, 1965,
426-36.
John Macdonald: ‘ Joseph in the Qur’ān and Muslim
Commentary: a comparative study', M uslim World, xlvi
(1956), 113-31,2 0 7 -2 4 .
D. Masson: L e Coran etla révélationjudéo-chrétienne, 2 vols.,
Paris, 1958.
Julian Obermann: ‘ Islamic Origins: a study in background
and foundation’, The Arab Heritage, ed. N .A .Faris,
Princeton, 1946, 58-120.
Daud Rahbar: God o f Justice: a study in the ethical doctrine o f
the Q u r'an, Leiden, 1 960.
— ‘ Reflections on the Tradition o f Qur’ānic Exegesis’,
M uslim W orld, lii (1962), 269-307.
Helmer Ringgren: ‘The Conception of Faith in the Qur’ān ’ ,
Oriens, iv (19 5 1), 1-20.
— ‘ Die Gottesfurcht im Koran’, Orientalia Suecana,, iii
(1954), 118-34.
Irfan Shahid: ‘A Contribution to Koranic Exegesis’, Arabic
and Islamic Studies . . . Gibb (as above), 563-80.
S.H. al-Shamma: The Ethical System underlying the Qur 'an,
T übingen, 1959.

2. Problems facing the non-Muslim scholar

(a ) The question o f truth. When the question is asked, ‘ Is the
Qur’ān true?’ it has to be countered by another, ‘ What does
that question mean?’ Before we can say whether the Qur’ān is
true or not, we have to clarify our minds on the whole prob­
lem o f the relationship o f language to experience and more
particularly to religious experience or, better, to man’s experi­
ence o f life in its totality. This is a vast subject which can only
be adumbrated here.
18 1
 q u r ’Ān an d o c c id e n t a l sc h o la r sh ip

Arthur Jeffery: ‘ The Qur’ān as Scripture’, M uslim World, xl

(1950 ), 41-55, 106-134, 185-206, 257-75.
Jacques Jomier: ‘ Le nom divin “ al-Rahmān ” dans le Coran’,
M élanges Louis Massignon, Damascus, 1957, ii. 361-81.
— The Bible and the Koran (tr. Arbez), New York, 1964.
Ilse Lichtenstadter: ‘ Origin and Interpretation o f some
Koranic Symbols ’, Arabic and Islamic Studies in honor o f
Hamilton A . R . Gibb (ed. G.M akdisi), Leiden, 1965,
426-36.
John Macdonald: ‘ Joseph in the Qur’ān and Muslim
Commentary: a comparative study', M uslim World, xlvi
(1956), 113-31,2 0 7 -2 4 .
D. Masson: L e Coran etla révélationjudéo-chrétienne, 2 vols.,
Paris, 1958.
Julian Obermann: ‘ Islamic Origins: a study in background
and foundation’, The Arab Heritage, ed. N .A .Faris,
Princeton, 1946, 58-120.
Daud Rahbar: God o f Justice: a study in the ethical doctrine o f
the Q u r'an, Leiden, 1 960.
— ‘ Reflections on the Tradition o f Qur’ānic Exegesis’,
M uslim W orld, lii (1962), 269-307.
Helmer Ringgren: ‘The Conception of Faith in the Qur’ān ’ ,
Oriens, iv (19 5 1), 1-20.
— ‘ Die Gottesfurcht im Koran’, Orientalia Suecana,, iii
(1954), 118-34.
Irfan Shahid: ‘A Contribution to Koranic Exegesis’, Arabic
and Islamic Studies . . . Gibb (as above), 563-80.
S.H. al-Shamma: The Ethical System underlying the Qur 'an,
T übingen, 1959.

2. Problems facing the non-Muslim scholar

(a ) The question o f truth. When the question is asked, ‘ Is the
Qur’ān true?’ it has to be countered by another, ‘ What does
that question mean?’ Before we can say whether the Qur’ān is
true or not, we have to clarify our minds on the whole prob­
lem o f the relationship o f language to experience and more
particularly to religious experience or, better, to man’s experi­
ence o f life in its totality. This is a vast subject which can only
be adumbrated here.
18 1
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

A starting-point might be a distinction between a cerebral

knowledge o f religious ideas and an experiential knowledge o f
these same ideas. This distinction is found in other fields also.
A student may be taught the scientific account o f the various
things that happen to a man’s body when he is drunk; but, if
he has lived a sheltered life, has never been slightly drunk, and
has never seen a drunk man, his knowledge remains cerebral.
The point is even more obvious with sexual intercourse. The
person who has had no actual experience cannot from reading
novels or scientific textbooks form an adequate idea o f the
‘ feel’ o f the experience. The person without experience may
have a perfect cerebral knowledge, but only experience can
give experiential knowledge.
The case of religious ideas is even more complex. The ideas
may sometimes deal apparently with objective external reali­
ties, sometimes with a man’s inner states. Children brought
up in a community o f the adherents o f a religion normally
acquire a cerebral knowledge o f the ideas o f the religion long
before they have an experiential knowledge. For one thing
some o f the profounder experiences associated with religion
come only to a few and only after the attainment o f some
degree o f maturity. For another thing, since one cannot point
to interior states as one can point to external objects like
plants, a person may not always recognize in his experience
the things o f which he has cerebral knowledge. One day it
will come with a flash o f illumination that ‘ This (in my pre­
sent experience) is that which I have known about for years’ .
Normally a person can only reach important levels o f
religious experience through participating in the life o f the
community in which he has been brought up and basing his
activity on its ideas. There are exceptions, but this is the
normal case. It is not easy for a person brought up in a
Christian environment to appreciate the religious ideas o f
Islam, far less to make them the basis o f a satisfactory life. The
same is true for the Muslim with Christian ideas. This means
that it is Christian ideas which give the Christian the best
chance o f attaining a richer and deeper experience, and like­
wise Muslim ideas the Muslim. Moreover we know that some
such experience has actually been attained among both
Christians and Muslims. At the same time we have no even
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 q u r ’Ān and o c c id en t a l sc h o la r sh ip

approximately objective criterion to decide whose experience

o f life is richer and deeper.
One o f the effects on the scholar o f studying a religion
other than that in which he was brought up is to produce a
more sophisticated attitude in him. He no longer naïvely
accepts words at their face value. Phrases like ‘ the uncreated
speech o f G od ’ or ‘ the comfort o f the Holy Spirit’, he now
realizes, do not mean a simple object in the way the phrase
‘ that tree ’ means the object at the end o f the garden. Rather he
has come to understand that he is primarily concerned with
realities, which enter into ‘ man’s experience o f life as a whole’,
but at which language can only imperfectly hint. From this
sophisticated standpoint the scholar can regard the Christian
and the Muslim as being both concerned with the same
realities-beyond-language, though each uses his own system
o f ideas and o f language to deal as best he can in his practical
living with these realities. The scholar can further see that
both these systems are effective for those brought up in the
community based on the system; and fortunately he does not
require to decide which is the more effective, since in his own
practical living he must make use – perhaps in a sophisticated
form – o f the system o f ideas in which he was brought up.
It follows from this that truth is to be regarded as belonging
not to separate propositions in a book, but to a whole system
o f ideas as embodied in the life o f a community. Because this
is so there is no uncommitted standpoint from which different
sets o f ideas can be objectively compared. The only possible
comparison is one which is linked with a decision to abandon
one’s own community and attach oneself to some other. Such
a decision, however, comes at a relatively naïve level. At the
more sophisticated level o f the scholar just described, he sees
that the systems o f ideas followed by Jews, Christians, Mus­
lims, Buddhists and others are all true in so far as they enable
human beings to have a more or less satisfactory ‘ experience
o f life as a whole’ . So far as observation can tell, none o f the
great systems is markedly inferior or superior to the others.
Each is therefore true. In particular the Qur’ān is in this sense
true. The fact that the Qur’ānic conception o f the unity o f
God appears to contradict the Christian conception o f the
unity o f God does not imply that either system is false, nor
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

even that either conception is false. Each conception is true in

that it is part o f a system which is true. In so far as some con­
ception in a system seems to contradict the accepted teaching
o f science – or, that o f history in so far as it is objective – that
contradiction raises problems for the adherents o f the system,
but does not prove that the system as a whole is inferior to
others. That is to say, the Qur’ānic assertion that the Jews did
not kill Jesus does not prove that the Qur’ānic system as a
whole is inferior to the Christian, even on the assumption that
the crucifixion is an objective fact.
What then is the non-Muslim scholar doing when he studies
the Qur’ānic system o f ideas? He is not concerned with any
question o f ultimate truth, since that, it has been suggested,
cannot be attained by man. He assumes the truth, in the rela­
tive sense just explained, o f the Qur’ānic system o f ideas. He
is interested, however, in looking at these ideas in their
relationships to one another, at their development over the
centuries, at their place in the life o f the community, and
similar matters; and he also tries to express his thoughts and
conclusions in ‘ neutral’ language which will neither deny the
truth o f the ideas in the relative sense nor improperly assert
their ultimate truth in some naïve sense.
(b ) The question o f sources. Nineteenth-century European
scholars were, as we now think, excessively concerned with
the attempt to discover the ‘ sources’ o f Qur’ānic statements.
Modern work on this subject may be said to have begun in
1833 with the book (in German) of Abraham Geiger entitled
What has Muhammad taken from Judaism ?5 Numerous other
scholars entered the lists, and there was quite a battle between
those who thought Judaism was the main source and those
who thought it was Christianity. Some o f the more recent
works will be found in the list above. Since the study o f
sources has been objected to by Muslims, it seems worth while
making some remarks o f a general kind.
Firstly, the study o f sources does not explain away the ideas
whose sources are found, nor does it detract from their truth
and validity. Shakespeare’s play o f Hamlet remains a very
great play even after we have found the ‘ source’ from which
Shakespeare derived the outline o f the story. No more does
our knowledge o f the source tell us anything o f importance
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 q u r ’Ān and o c c id e n t a l s c h o la r sh ip

about the creative processes in Shakespeare’s mind. This is

admittedly not an exact parallel with the Qur’ān, yet men have
often thought that there was some divine inspiration in the
work o f great poets and that we can properly speak o f a
‘ creative’ process.
Secondly, even those who accept the doctrine that the
Qur’ān is the uncreated speech o f God may properly study
‘ sources ’ in the sense o f external influences on the thinking o f
the Arabs in Muhammad’s time. It is repeatedly asserted in
the Qur’ān that it is ‘ an Arabic Qur’ān ’ ; and this implies
that the Qur’ān is not merely in the Arabic language but is
also expressed in terms o f the conceptions familiar to the
Arabs. Thus 23.88/90 has frequently been misunderstood by
European scholars because it makes statements about God
in terms o f the distinctively Arab conception o f ijāra or
‘ the giving o f neighbourly protection’. Again many o f the
‘ narratives ’ o f the Qur’ān are in an allusive style which pre­
supposes that the hearers already have some knowledge o f
the story.
If these two points are accepted, it will be seen that the
study o f sources and influences, besides being a proper one,
has a moderate degree o f interest. It tells us something about
the spread o f ideas and other cultural features in Arabia before
the revelation o f the Qur’ān . We can perhaps also learn
something o f the general laws which cause peoples to take
over certain ideas from their neighbours and to reject certain
other ideas. Such matters are o f interest to students o f the
social sciences and to like-minded general readers. Such a
study o f sources and influences, o f course, also raises theo­
logical problems for the Muslim, or rather gives additional
complexity to old problems. The doctrine o f the uncreated
Qur’ān already raises the problem o f the relation o f the
eternal and the temporal. It may be asserted that the temporal
events mentioned in the Qur’ān are eternally known to God,
but this still leaves questions unanswered. How can imperfect
human language represent the perfection o f divine thought?
I f it is held that language is created by God, this seems to
imply that God works through secondary causes; and the
relation o f these secondary causes to God who is the primary
cause of all events, is but another form o f the relation between
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I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T H E Q U R ’ Ā N

the temporal and the external. Thus the problem has really
only taken on another form.
The Qur’ān has been studied and meditated on for about
fourteen centuries, and much has been achieved. Y et in this
strange new world o f the later twentieth century when Mus­
lims are in closer contact with devout and convinced non-
Muslims than at any time since the first century o f Islam, there
is need for still further study o f the Qur’ān and study along
new lines; and this must be undertaken by both Muslims and
non-Muslims.6

186
 A B B R E V IA T IO N S

Bell, Origin = R ichard Bell, The Origin o f Islam in its

Christian Environment, L on don , 1926
(reprinted 1968).
Bell, Translation = d o., The Q ur'an, translated with a critical
re-arrangement o f the Surahs, 2 vols.,
E din burgh , 19 3 7 , 19 39.
E I 1, E I 2 = The Encyclopaedia o f Islam, first edition,
Leiden, 1913-42; second edition, Leiden and
London, 1960-
E I( S ) = A Shorter Encyclopaedia o f Islam, Leiden,
1913.
Jeffery = Arthur Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of
oreign Vocabulary the Qur’ān , Baroda, 1938; cf. p. 85.
F
Mecca = W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at
Mecca, O xfo rd , 19 53.
Medina = do., Muhammad at Medina, Oxford, 1956.
NS = Nöldeke and Schwally, Geschichte des
Qorāns, second edition, Leipzig, 1909– 38
(reprinted Hildesheim, 1961); cf. pp. I75f.
Origin = see Bell, Origin.
Translation = see Bell, Translation.
Watt, Integration = W. Montgomery Watt, Islam and the
Integration o f Society, London, 1961.

187
 NOTES

Chapter One
1 . C f . C h a r le s D ie h l a n d G e o r g e s M a r ça is , Le Monde Oriental de
395 à z 08z ( H i s t o i r e G é n é r a l e ) , P a r is , 1 9 3 6 , 1 2 3 - 5 7 .
2 . A v a r ia n t r e a d in g w it h o n l y a d iffe r e n c e in p o in t in g g i v e s
e x a c t ly th e o p p o s it e s e n s e ; b u t th is c a n h a r d ly b e c o r r e c t , s in c e
a t n o d a te a t w h ic h th e p a s s a g e is l i k e l y t o h a v e b e e n r e v e a le d
h a d th e r e b e e n a n o t a b le P e r s ia n d e fe a t . C f . n s , i. 4 9 b
3 . L e id e n , 1 8 9 2 ; a th e sis f o r a G e r m a n d o c t o r a t e .
4 . E . g . B o o k , a c c o u n t : 6 9 . 1 9 , 2 5 ; 8 4 .7 ,1 0 . R e c k o n i n g : 6 9 .9 0 ,2 6 ;
8 4 .8 . B a la n c e : 2 1 . 4 7 / 8 ; 1 0 1 . 6 / 5 , 8 / 6 . P l e d g e : 5 2 . 2 1 ; 7 4 . 3 8 / 4 1 .
H i r e : 5 7 . 1 9 / 1 8 , 2 7 ; 8 4 .2 5 ; 9 5 .6 . L o a n : 2 . 2 4 5 / 6 ; 5 . 1 2 / 1 5 ;
5 7 . 1 1 , 1 8 / 1 7 ; 6 4 . 1 7 ; 7 3 .2 0 .
5. A Study o f History , L o n d o n , 19 3 4 , iii. 7 - 2 2 , e sp . 1 3 f.
6 . C f . G . R e n t z , a r t . ‘ ' A r a b ( D ja z ī ra t a l - ) ' , s e c t, v i ( e t h n o g r a p h y )
in E I 2,
7 . C f . P h i lip K . H it t i, History o f the Arabs, s e v e n t h e d ., L o n d o n ,
1 9 6 1 , 4 9 -6 6 . S o u t h A r a b i a n in flu e n c e s o n t h e I s la m ic r e lig io n
w e r e e m p h a s iz e d b y H u b e r t G r im m e , e .g . in ‘ D e r L o g o s in
S ü d a r a b ie n ’ , Orientalische Studien Theodor N öldeke gewidmet,
L e i p z i g , 19 0 6 , i. 4 5 3 - 6 1 ; 'S ü d a r a b is c h e L e h n w ö r t e r im K o r a n ' ,
Zeitschriftf ür Assyriologie, x x v i ( 1 9 1 2 ) , 1 5 8 - 6 8 .
8. C f. Medina, 1 9 2 ; D . S . M a r g o lio u t h , The relations between
Arabs and Israelites prior to the Rise o f Islam , L o n d o n , 1 9 2 4 ;
W e r n e r C a s k e l , in Studies in Islamic Cultural History ( e d .
G . v o n G ru n e b a u m ), M en ash a, 19 5 4 , p . 43 sp e a k s o f Je w s as
b e a r e r s o f N a b a t e a n c u lt u r e .
9 . T h e r e is m u c h m a te r ia l a b o u t C h r i s t i a n i t y in A r a b i a . C f .
E I ( S ) , a r t . ‘ N a ṣ ār ā ’ , s e c t io n A ( A . S . T r i t t o n ) ; a ls o W a t t ,
Medina, 3 1 5 .
10 . J u l i u s W e llh a u s e n , Reste arabischen Heidentums, s e c o n d e d .,
B e r lin , 1 8 9 7 ; I b n - a l - K a l b ī ’ s Book o f Idols is tr a n s la t e d b y
N a b ih A m i n F a r i s , P r in c e t o n , 1 9 5 2 .
11. Mecca, 2 4 f.

189
NOTES

1 2 . C f. 2 9 .6 1,6 3 ,6 5 ; 2 3 .8 4 / 6 - 8 9 / 9 1 ; 3 9 .3 8 / 9 ; 4 3 .8 - 1 5 / 1 4 ; 6 .I 3 6 / 7 ;
4 1 . 9 / 8 ; e t c . S e e a ls o p . 1 1 7 .
1 3 . C f . E I 2 a r t . ‘ ḥ a n ī f ’ ( W a t t ) ; a ls o A n n e x B , p p . 1 5 f.
Muhammad at Mecca
1 4 . T h e f o l l o w i n g a c c o u n t is b a s e d o n W a t t ,
and Muhammad at Medina. T h e r e is a s h o r t e r s ta t e m e n t in
Muhammad Prophet and Statesman, O x f o r d , 1 9 6 1 . C f . a ls o
T o r A n d r a e , Mohammed, the Man and his Faith , tr . M e n z e l,
N e w Y o r k , 1 9 3 6 , 1 9 6 0 ( e m p h a s iz i n g th e r e li g i o u s d e v e lo p ­
m e n t); and E I1, a rt. ‘ M u ḥ a m m a d ’ ( F r a n t s B u h l) .
1 5. S in c e th e I s la m ic y e a r c o n s is t s o f t w e lv e lu n a r m o n t h s o r 3 5 4
d a y s , r e c o u r s e m u s t b e h a d to t a b le s in o r d e r to d i s c o v e r
c o r r e s p o n d i n g I s la m ic a n d C h r is t ia n d a te s . S im p le t a b le s a r e
g i v e n in S i r W o l s e l e y H a i g ’ sComparative Tables o f
Muhammadan and Christian Dates, L o n d o n , 1 9 3 2 , a n d G . S . P .
F r e e m a n - G r e n v i l l e ’ s , The Muslim and Christian Calendars,
L o n d o n , 1 9 6 3 . T h e fu lle s t a n d m o s t s a t is fa c t o r y ta b le s f o r
th o s e w h o w a n t t o k n o w th e d a y o f th e w e e k a n d th e m o n t h
a r e in Wüstenfeld-Mahler'sche Vergleichungs-Tabellen,
e d it e d b y B e r t o ld S p u le r , W ie s b a d e n , 1 9 6 1 . T o fa c ilit a t e
c o m p a r is o n s w it h B y z a n t in e h is t o r y , d a te s in th is Introduction
a re g i v e n in th e C h r is t ia n fo r m .

Chapter Two
1 . E . g . 2 5 . 5 / 6 , w h e r e it a c c o m p a n ie s a n a c c u s a tio n o f f r a u d ; th e
p h r a s e o c c u r s n in e tim e s . F r o m th e Translation it a p p e a r s th a t
R ic h a r d B e l l t h o u g h t it b e lo n g e d to th e e a r ly M e d in a n p e r io d
a n d w a s s o m e t im e s u s e d b y J e w s ; b u t th e p a s s a g e s w h e r e it
o c c u r s a r e u s u a lly r e c k o n e d to b e M e c c a n . C f . N S , i. 1 6 ;
Je ffe r y , Foreign Vocabulary, S.V .
2 . C f . N o r m a n D a n ie l,Islam and the West, The M aking o f an
1mage, E d i n b u r g h , 1 9 6 0 , c h a p t e r 2 .
3. On Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History, v a r io u s
e d it io n s , L e c t u r e I I , ‘ T h e H e r o as P r o p h e t : M a h o m e t : I s l a m ’
(8 M ay 18 4 0 ).
4 . Mohammedder Prophet, S t u t t g a r t , 1 8 4 3 ; c f. p . 1 7 4 a b o v e .
5. C f . p . 1 7 4 a b o v e .
6. C f. p . 17 4 a b o v e .
7. Mohammed and the Rise o f Islam , L o n d o n , 19 0 5 .
8. C f . N S , i, 1 - 5 a n d c o r r e s p o n d i n g s e c t io n o f fir s t e d it io n .
9. In E I 1 a r t . ‘ M u ḥ a m m a d ’ , ad fin .
10 . Origin , e s p . 7 1 - 8 3 .
1 1. Mohammed, the Man and his Faith , e s p . 4 7 - 5 2 .
12 . Mohammed, 4 8 f .; h e r e fe r s t o 7 5 . 1 6 - 1 9 ( m o v e m e n t o f th e
t o n g u e ) a n d 8 7 .6 - 8 .

190
 NOTES

1 3 . T h e s a m e p h r a s e is u s e d in 3 . 4 4 / 3 9 a n d 1 1 . 4 9 / 5 1 .
1 4 . B e l l, Origin , 9 7 f.
1 5 . 2 2 . 5 2 / 1 , w h ic h is s a id to r e f e r to th e in c id e n t o f th e ‘ s a ta n ic
v e r s e s ’ c o n n e c t e d w it h 5 3 . 1 9 , 2 0 ; c f. p . 8 8 .
1 6 . C f . N a b ia A b b o t t , Aishah the Beloved o f Mohammed, C h ic a g o ,
1 9 4 2 , 6 1 , w i t h r e fe r e n c e s to th e s o u r c e s ; a ls o A n d r a e ,
Mohammed, 15 4 .
17 . C f. p . 1 15 .
1 8 . 3 . 2 1 / 0 ; 4 . 1 3 8 / 7 ; 9 . 3 , 3 4 ; 3 1 . 7 / 6 ; 4 5 . 8 / 7 5 8 4 . 2 4 . T h i s u s a g e is
n o t d is c u s s e d b y J e f f e r y , Foreign Vocabulary, s . v .
1 9 . P . 2 5 a b o v e ; c f. a ls o 1 2 . 1 0 9 ; 1 6 . 4 3 / 5 ; 2 1 . 7F. W i f e : 1 3 . 3 8 .
2 0 . C f . J e f f e r y , Foreign Vocabulary, s . v . ; a ls o J o s e f H o r o v i t z ,
Koranische Untersuchungen, B e r li n , 1 9 2 6 , 4 7 ( p p . 4 4 - 5 4 o f th is
w o r k d e a l w it h ‘ d ie K o r a n is c h e P r o p h e t o l o g i e ' ) .
2 1 . C f . lis t s in 4 . 1 6 3 / 1 a n d 6 .8 4 - 9 . Idrī s is c a lle d a p r o p h e t in
1 9 . 5 6 / 7 ; s o m e E u r o p e a n s c h o la r s f a v o u r a n id e n t ific a t io n o f
Idrī s w it h a f ig u r e in G r e e k le g e n d ( c f . A . J . W e n s in c k , a r t .
‘ I d r ī s ’ in E I1; H o r o v i t z , 8 8 ) , w h ile M u s lim s h a v e u s u a lly
id e n t ifie d h im w it h th e E n o c h o f th e B ib le , a n d t h is v i e w s e e m s
to h a v e b e e n a c c e p t e d b y A . J . W e n s in c k a t a la t e r d a te ( The
Muslim Creed, C a m b r id g e , 1 9 3 2 , 2 0 4 ) ; C . C . T o r r e y s u g g e s t e d
th a t Idrī s w a s a c o r r u p t io n o f E s d r a s o r E z r a ( The Jewish
Foundation o f Islam , N e w Y o r k , 1 9 3 3 , 7 2 ) : c f . a ls o J e f f e r y ,
Foreign Vocabulary, s .v .
22. C f . W e n s in c k , Muslim Creed, 2 0 3 f . ; a ls o E I 1 , a r t s . ' nabi '
( J . H o r o v i t z ) , ‘ rasū l ' ( W e n s i n c k ) ; W e n s in c k , ‘ M u h a m m e d
u n d d ie P r o p h e t e n ’ , Acta Orientalia, ii ( 1 9 2 4 ) , 1 6 8 - 9 8 .
23. C f . J e f f e r y , Foreign Vocabulary, s .v .
2 4 . C f . 4 2 . 1 0 / 8 ; 2 4 . 4 8 / 7 ; § 2 3 o f th e C o n s t it u t io n o f M e d in a
( Medina, 2 2 3 ; W a tt, Islamic Political Thought, E d in b u rg h ,
1 9 6 8 , 1 3 2 ) ; a ls o Medina, 2 3 0 .
2 5 . C f . 4 .4 1 / 5 ; 1 6 . 8 9 / 9 1 . T h e v e r s e 1 0 . 4 7 / 8 , ‘ w h e n t h e ir
m e s s e n g e r c o m e s ( t o a c o m m u n i t y ) , ju d g e m e n t w ill b e g i v e n
(quḍ iya) b e t w e e n th e m f a i r l y ’ , is p r o b a b l y a ls o t o b e u n d e r ­
s t o o d e s c h a t o lo g i c a lly ( c o n t r a r y to th e v i e w e x p r e s s e d in
Medina, 2 2 9 ; c f. R . P a re t, r e v ie w o f Medina in Der Islam ,
x x x v /19 5 7 ).
26. E I 2, a r t . “ A r a b i y y a ’ , A . ii ( 1 ) , w it h fu r t h e r r e fe r e n c e s .
27. C f. p. 4 a b o ve .
2 8 . C f . F r a n t s B u h l, Das Leben Muhammeds, L e i p z i g , 1 9 3 0 , 55
w it h r e f e r e n c e ; th e e x t e n s io n o f w r i t i n g in A r a b i a is d is c u s s e d
o n p p . 5 2 -6 .
29. See n s, ii. 1 1 - 1 4 f o r fu ll r e fe r e n c e s .
30 . C f. Je ffe r y , Foreign Vocabulary, s .v .

191
NOTES

31. Cf. A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies, Cambridge, 1928, ii. 21.

32. Cf. Jeffery, s.v.
33. For discussions of ummī see esp. Horovitz, Koranische
Untersuchungen, 52f.; R. Paret, art. ‘ Ummī' in E I( S ) .
34. Cf. Mecca, 40, 46.
35. E.g. Ibn-Hishām, Sīra, ed. F. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen,
1 858– 60, 747; the English translation by Alfred Guillaume
(London, 1955) is entitled The L ife o f Muhammad: a
translation o f (Ibn) Ishāq's S īrat Rasūl A llāh, and has
Wüstenfeld's paging on the margin.
36. Cf. Medina, 5f.
37. Ibn-Hisham, 226f. ( ṣ aḥ īfa is rendered ‘ manuscript', ‘ sheet'
and ‘ page' in the English translation).
38. Cf. n s, i. 46f.
39. Cf. al-Bayḍ āwī, az-Zamakhsharī and other commentators on
6.93; also Ibn-Hishām, 818ff.

Chapter Three
1. The versions of the report are discussed in n s, ii, 1 1 - 1 5 ;
detailed references are given p. 11, note 4.
2. Ibn-Sa' d, Ṭ abaqāt, Leiden, 1904, etc., iii. 1 .202.8f.; cf. ns , ii.
15, n. 2.
3. Friedrich Schwally (in ns , ii. 20) could find the names of only
two such persons.
4. See p. 55.
5. Arthur Jeffery, M aterialsfo r the Study o f the Text o f the Qur'ān,
Leiden, 1937, 212L (Arabic text, 24L). The edition o f Ibn-
Abī-Dāwūd’s K itāb al-M aṣ āḥ i f is part of this book.
6. ns , ii. 50-54.
7. Cf. p. 83 above.
8. Cf. Jeffery, M aterials, 13 ; and note 5 above.
9. Op. cit., 7; ns , ii. 27-30. It is notable that a prominent position
is given in late traditions to the collection by al-Miqdād (b.
' Amr) b. al-Aswad, although nothing is said about him by
early writers on the Qur'ānic text (cf. n s , iii, 172f.).
10. ns , ii. 33-8.
11. Ash-Shahrastānī, M ilal, ed. Cureton, 95; cf. n s , ii. 94.
12. Cf. R. Blachère, Introduction au Coran, Paris, 1947, (see also
p. 177 for this book).
13. Full name: Abū-Bakr Aḥ mad ibn-Mūsā. Cf. Blachère, 127-30;
NS, iii. 110-23; Louis Massignon, L a Passion d ' … al-H allaj,
Paris, 1922, i. 241-3.
14. Cf. n s , iii. 108.
19 2
 NOTES

15. For reff. see A .J. Wensinck, Handbook o f early Muhammadan

Tradition, Leiden, 1927, 130 (s.v. Kur’ān). The interpretation
of aḥ ruf as ‘ dialects’ is to be rejected (NS, i. 51).
1 6. Or Ibn-Muqsim; also known as Abū-Bakr al-' Aṭ ṭ ār; cf. Y āqūt,
Irshād, London (Gibb Memorial Series), 1923, etc., vi.
498-501. For the incident cf. NS, iii. 122f.
17. For fuller details cf. NS, iii. 186-9 and Blachère, 118-23. There
are variant death-dates for some of these scholars.
18. Journal des Savants, 1832, 536.
19. Historisch-Kritische Einleitungin den Koran, second edn.,
Bielefeld, 1878, 52.
20. N S , ii. 82.
21. Einleitung, 74.
22. Ibid., 76.
23. N
Loen
wdR
oens,ea19rc0h2e,138
f.sintotheCompositionandExegesisoftheQoran,
24. Ibn-Hishām
Thought, 130-4.
,341-3;W att, Medina, 221-5; Islamic Political
25. Ibn-Hishām, 747f.
26. Goldziher, Koranauslegung (see ch. X, note 1), 24; al-Bayḍ āwī
ad loc.; etc.
27. Al-Bukhā rī, Shahādāt, 1 1 ; Muslim, Fadḍā' il al-Qur’ān, 2; cf.
NS, i. 47.
28. A fairly full account of these is given in NS, i. 234-61.
29. Cf. Watt, Integration, 192; J. Schacht, art. ‘ Zinā” in E I (S ).
30. NS, i. 242f ; Jeffery, Materials, 198.
31. Jeffery, Materials, 32.
32. Cf. Watt, Medina, 304; also art. ‘ Ḥ anif' in E I2.
33. Cf. Watt, Mecca, 102.

Chapter Four
1. Edward Sell, The Faith o f Islam, 3rd edition, London, 1907,
contains as appendix A ' Ilmu' t-tajwīd, where there is a fuller
account of the divisions, the symbols to guide the reader, and
similar matters.
2. Cf. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary, S.V..; though originally
accepted by Nöldeke, this was rejected in NS, i. 30.
3. Bell, Origin, 52; approved by Jeffery, l.c.
4. Mark 12.26; Luke 20.37.
5. New Researches, 141-3.
6. ‘ Ursprung und Bedeutung der koranischen Siglen’ , Der Islam,
xiii (1923), 191-226.
193
NOTES

7. In his Geschichte des Qorāns, 1 860, 215f.

8. Cf. NS, ii. 68-78, esp. 75-7.
9. ‘ The mystical letters of the Qur’ān', Studia Islamica, xvi
(1962), 5 -11.
10. But cf. Hebrews, 6.13.
11. Arabic lā uqsimu; it is uncertain whether the lā should be
regarded as negative or intensive (cf. al-Bayḍ āwī on 56.75 /4);
in his Translation Bell prefers the negative, but the intensive
seems to give better sense. The uncertainty confirms the
suggestion of a formula.
12. Direct address is found in the following verses:
(a) O ye people: 2.21/19, 168/3, 172/67; 4.1,170/68,174;
10.23/4, 57/8; 22.1,5,73/2; 31.33/2; 35.3,5,15/16; 49.13.
(b) O ye who have believed: 2.104/98,153/48, 17 8 /3 , 183/79,
208/4, 254/ 5, 264/6, 267/9, 278,282; 3.100/95, 102/97,
118/4, 130/25, 156/0,200; 4.19/23, 2 9 / 3 3 , 4 3 /6 , 59/62,
7 1 / 3 , 9 4 / 6 , 1 3 5 / 4 , 136 /5, 144/3; 5.1,2,6/8,8/1 1 , 1 1 /14,
35/9,51/6,54/9,57/62,87/9,94/5,95/6 ,101,105 / 4,
106/5; 8.15,20,24,27,29,45 / 7; 9.23,28,34-38,119/ 20,123 / 4;
22.77/6; 24.21.27,58/7;33.9,41,49/8,53,56,69;47.7/ 8,33/5;
49.1,2,6,11,12; 57.28; 58.9 /10,11/12,12/13; 59.18;
60.1,10,13; 61.2,10,14; 63.9; 64.14; 65.11; 66.6,8. Cf.
29.56.
(c) O thou messenger: 5.41/5, 67/71.
O thou prophet: 8.64/5, 65/6; 9 .7 3 / 4 ; 33.1,28,45/4,
50 / 4 9 , 5 9 ; 60.12; 65.1; 66.1,9.
O thou heavily burdened: 73.1.
O thou clothed in the dithār : 74.1.
( d) O Children of Israel: 2.40/38, 47/4, 49/6, 122/16,
124/18; 20.80/2.
O People of the Book: 3.65 / 58, 70/63, 71/64; 4.171/69;
5.15/18,19/22.

Chapter Five
1. Göttinger gelehrte Anzeigen, 1909, i; cf. Wiener Zeitschriftf ür
die Kunde des Morgenlandes, xxii (1908), 265-86, ‘ Zur Strophik
des Qurāns’ ; also H. Haham, ibid., xxviii (1914), 370-5.
2. Die Propheten in ihrer ursprünglicken Form… , Vienna, 1896,
i. 20-60, 21 1 f.
3. Cf. Alfred Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination, London,
1938, 245-50, etc.
4. The chief asseverative passages are: 36.1-5/4; 37.1-4; 38.1f.;
43.2/ 1f.;44.1-6/ 5;50.1 ;5 1 .1 -6; 52.1-8; 53.1-3; 56.75/4-80/79;
194
 NOTES

68.1-4; 69.38-43; 74.32/5-37/40; 75.1-6; 77.1-7; 79.1-14(?);

81.15-19; 84.16-19; 85.1-7; 86.1-4,11-14; 89.1-5/4; 90.1-4;
91.1-10 ; 92.1-4; 93.1-3; 95.1-5; 100.1-6; 103.1 f. (In some
cases there is doubt where the passage ends.)
5. ‘ When’-passages, introduced by idhā : 56.1-9; 69·13- 17(?);
74.8-10 ; 75.7-12,26-30; 77.8-13; 79.34-41; 8 1.1-14; 82.1-5;
84.1-6; 99.1 -6; 110 .1-3(?). Do., introduced by yawma:
70.8-14; 78.18-16; 80.34-7; 101.4/3f.
6. Cf. F. Bühl, ‘ Ü ber Vergleichung und Gleichnisse im Qur’ān ’,
Acta Orientalia, ii (1924), 1-11.
7. T. Sabbagh, La métaphore dans le Coran, Paris, 1953.
8. Such at least would be one of the suggestions of the word to
Arab ears; but in its application to the party o f 'Abd-Allāh
ibn-Ubayy it has doubtless acquired something of the meaning
of the Ethiopic menāfeq, ‘ hypocrite’.
9. Volkssprache und Schriftsprache im alten Arabien, Strasbourg,
1906.
10. The Cairo Geniza (Schweich Lectures for 1941), London,
1947, 78-84; Goldziher Memorial Volume (ed. Somogyi),
Budapest, 1948, i. 163-82; ‘ The Arabic Readers of the Qur’ān ’,
Journal o f Near Eastern Studies, viii (1949), 65-71. His main
contention is that the Qur’ān was recited, as modern colloquials
are spoken, without i' rāb or case-endings.
11. Neue Beiträgez ur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft, Strasbourg,
1910, 2-4.
12. Carl Becker, Der Islam, i (1910), 391.
13. NS, ii. 59, n, 1 .
14. Histoire de la Littérature arabe, Paris, 1952, i. 66-82;
Introduction, 156-69.
15. Ancient West Arabian, London, 1951, xii, 1-4; ‘ The
Beginnings of Classical Arabic’, Studia Islamica, iv (1955),
19-37; E I2, art. ' Arabiyya, A, ii ( 1 ) : Eng. ed. i. 565f.
16. Cf. Arabiya, Berlin, 1950, 1-5.
17. Quoted in Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary, 10.
18. Baroda, 1938 (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series, vol. 79).

Chapter Six
1. Cf. pp. 40-4 above.
2. Cf. pp. 55f. above.
3. Translated by Majid Khadduri under the title Islamic
Jurisprudence: Shāft'ï s Risāla, Baltimore, 1961.
4. E.g. K. an-nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh by Abū-Ja' far an-Naḥ ḥ ās
(d. 949), printed Cairo, 1938.

195
NOTES

5. Chapter 47; in the edition of Cairo, 1935, this is ii. 20-27.

6. It was features of this kind which led Geyer to assume a kind
of sonnet-formation; cf. p. 72 above.
7. 3.33/off., 45/off.; 7.16off.; 10.7-10/11; 13.2ff.; 14.24/9ff.;
16.1off., 48/5off., 51/3ff.; 25.45/7ff., 53/5ff., 61/2f.;
27.59/6off.; 31.15-20; 40.57/9ff., 69/71ff.; 41.9/8ff.; 43.9/8ff.
For details see Bell’s Translation.
8. To be exact, verse 18/16 rhymes in -ī(l), while of later verses
27/6, 30/28, and those mentioned below rhyme in -ā(l).
9. It seems from the Translation that Bell thought of one verse
as ending at muḥ arraran in 35/1 and another possibly at the
first unthā in 36/1, and perhaps a third at Zakariyyā' in 37/2.
Verse(s) 33-4/30 could be an addition to help the insertion of
the passage. Another possibility is to let 33/0 originally end
at 'Imrān.
10. The change of pronoun is concealed by Bell’s translation of
anfusa-kum as ‘ your own people’. On the other hand, the
Constitution of Medina (cf. Watt, Medina, 221f.) speaks about
ransoms, and the verse probably refers to that.
11. For details see Bell’s Translation, ad locc.
12. 69.3; 74.27; 77.14; 82.17; 83.8,19; 86.2; 90.12; 97.2;
101.3/2,10/7; 104.5. A. Fischer, ‘ Eine Qorān-Interpolation’
(N öldeke-Festschrift, Giessen, 1906, 33-55) thinks also that
10 1.10/7f. are a later addition.
13. Cf. p. 88 above. For Bell’s theory of the original meaning of
this verse, cf. his Origin, 97f.
14. The more striking cases are: 2.10 1/95ff., 135/29ff., 144/39ff.,
183/79ff., 196/2ff.; 3.48/3ff., 68/1ff., 102/97ff., 110 /o6ff.,
143/37ff., 152/45ff., 170/6ff., 181/77ff.; 4.23/7ff., 131/of.;
5.41/5f., 48/52ff., 72/6ff., 90/2f.; 6.87ff.; 7.40/38f., 165/3ff.;
8.72/3f.; 9.86/7ff., (8 1/ 2ff.), 1 1 1 /2f., 117 / 8f.; 1o.104ff.;
1 1 .4o/2ff.; 13.19ff.; 15.87ff.; 16.16ff.; 17.45/7; 27.38ff.;
34.51/0ff.; 35.29/6ff.; 36.79ff.; 39.47/8f., 69ff.; 40.30/1 f . ;
45.27/6ff.; 50.22/1ff.; 54.43ff.; 57.13f.; 59.5ff.; 63.7f.;
72.25/6ff.; 74.31ff.; 8o.33ff. For details see Bell’s Translation.
15. Richard Bell, on the basis of his written-document hypothesis,
thought there had been an interweaving of alternative versions
in 3.126/2-129/4 and 36.1-6/5.
16. A more elaborate analysis of this passage will be found in
K. Wagtendonk, Fasting in the Koran, Leiden, 1968, 47-81.
17. Cf. Bell, ‘ The Origin of the 'īd al-aḍ ' ḥ ā', Moslem World,
xxiii (1933), 1 1 7ff.
18. Cf. Bell, ‘Muhammad’s Pilgrimage Proclamation’, Journal o f
Royal Asiatic Society, 1937, 233ff.
196
 NOTES

19. Other complicated passages are analysed by Bell in the

articles ' The Men of the A 'rāf (vii. 44)', Moslem World, xxii
(1932), and ‘ Surat al-Ḥ ashr ( 59)’, ibid, xxxviii (1948); see
pp. 179f.

Chapter Seven
1. For the history of this work see pp. 175f.
2. J.M . Rodwell’s translation of the Qur’ān (1861, etc.) gives
the suras in Nöldeke’s order with one or two changes in the
early suras.
3. See p. 174 above.
4. Mohammed, vol. 2, ‘ Einleitung in den Koran; System der
Koranischen Theologie’, Münster i. W., 1895, esp. 25ff. There
is some discussion of the views of Grimme and others in
Frants Buhl, ‘ Zur Kuranexegese’, Acta Orientalia,, iii (1924),
97-108.
5. London, 1902. This followed on earlier works in German:
J üdische Elemente im Koran, Berlin, 1878; Beiträge zur
Erklärung des Koran, Leipzig, 1886.
6. 2 voIs. Paris, 1949, 1951, with an introductory volume, 1947
(seep. 177).
7. Mohammed, vol. 1, ‘ Das Leben’, Münster i. W., 1892.
8. ‘ Une nouvelle biographie de Mohammed’, Revue de l'Histoire
des Religions, xxx (1894), 48-70,149-78; reprinted in
Verspreide Geschriften, Bonn, 1923, i.
9. Mohammed, the Man and his Faith, esp. ch. 3.
10. Origin, 89f., 102-6.
11. A fuller exposition of these points is given in Watt,
Muhammad Prophet and Statesman, 22-34; cf. also Mecca,
62-72. It is to be noted that the later appeal to the Jews
(2.47/4-53/0) speaks of God’s goodness and mentions the
Last Day briefly; cf. also the appeal to the Bedouin,
16.70/2-73/5.
12. Cf. Julius Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidenturns,2 Berlin,
1 897, 21 8-22.
13. 39.3 /4,43/4f. See also Index, S.V. and chapter 1, note 12.
14. Cf. Edmund Beck, ‘ Die Gestalt des Abraham am Wendepunkt
der Entwicklung Muhammeds’, Muséon, lxv (1952), 73-94;
Beck minimizes the originality of the Qur’ān .

Chapter Eight
1 . Cf. A .F .L . Beeston, Journal o f Semitic Studies, xiii (1968),
2 5 3 - 5·
197
NOTES

1a. Beiträge zur Erklärung des Qorans, Leipzig, 1886, 37; cf.
Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen, 13f.
2. Ibid., 1 30.
3. Ibn-Hishām, Sīra, ed. W üstenfeld, 157, 166.
4. Abraham Geiger, Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judentum
aufgenommen?, Bonn, 1833 (Leipzig, 1902), 58.
5. N S , i. 1 15; cf. also Nöldeke, Neue Beiträge, 26.
6. Aloys Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad,
second edition, Berlin, 1869, 3 vols., i. 462.
7. Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen, 26f.
8. Cf. Translation, vii.
9. The list is (in Nöldeke’s order): 96.1-8; 74.1-7; 87.1-9;
73.1-8; 90 .1-11; 102; 92; 91.1-10; 80; 99; 82; 8 1.1-14 ;
84.1-6, 7-12; 100; 79; 78; 88; 89; 75; 69; 5 1; 52; 56; 70; 55;
54; 37; 44; 50; 20; 26; 15; 38; 36; 43; 27; 14; 12; 39; 42; 10;
13.
10. This is also the conclusion of K. Wagtendonk in Fasting in the
Koran, 143.
11. Cf. also: 6.59; 2 7 .7 5 / 7 ; 3 4 . 35; etc.
12. Cf. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary, S.V.
13. Bell later rejected the view expressed in his Origin, 1 1 8, that
the word occurred in late Meccan passages; this was based on
the assumption that suras 21 and 25 were Meccan.
14. In the recent discussion of furqān by Wagtendonk he appears
to take it as the battle of Badr ( Fasting in the Koran, 67, 87,
etc.).

Chapter Nine
1. Cf. E I2, art. ‘ Allāh’ (Louis Gardet), section 1.
2. Cf. 23.12-14, quoted on p. 91 above. God’s shaping of the
child in the womb is mentioned occasionally in the Bible; e.g.
Job, 31.15.
3. Relevant passages are: 6.136/7; 29.61-5; 23.84/6-89/91;
30.33/2; 39.8/ 1 1 , 38/9; 43.8-15/14.
4. In 37.149-66; 43.16/15-20/19 and 53.27/8f. female deities
appear to be regarded as angels either by their worshippers or
by other people. For jinn cf. 6.100; 34.40/39f.; 37.158.
5. 53.23.
6. 16.57/9; 53.19-21; and passages quotedinnote3 above.
7. 76.29f.; cf. 81.27-9; 74·56/5;10
.9
f
8. Afull accountwill befoundinEI2, art. ‘(al-)asmā’ al-husnā’
(Louis Gardet). TherearelistsinT.P. Hughes, A Dictionary
19 8
 NOTES

o f Islam, London, 1885, 1935, art. ‘ God’ ; and in J. Windrow

Sweetman, Islam and Christian Theology, London, 1945,
i / 1 .21 5f.
9. Cf. Wellhausen, Reste2, 217-19.
10. Cf. NS, i. 12 1; also 111-14 .
11. Mohammed, Münster, 1892 – 5; cf. also p. 112.
12. Cf. E I2 art. ‘ Djinn’, adinit. ( D. B. Macdonald, H. Massé);
also Wellhausen, Reste2, 148-59; Paul Arno Eichler, Die
Dschinn, Teufel und Engelim Koran, Leipzig, 1928.
13. Cf. Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination, esp. 243-9.
14. Some are discussed in Thomas O’Shaughnessy, The
Development o f the Meaning o f Spirit in the Koran, Rome, 1953.
See also Index, S.V.
15. Cf. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary, S. V.; Horovitz, Koranische
Untersuchungen, 120f.
16. More fully discussed in Watt, ‘ The early development of the
Muslim attitude to the Bible’, Transactions o f the Glasgow
University Oriental Society, xvi (1957), 50-62, esp. 50-53.
17. Cf. Geoffrey Parrinder, Jesus in the Qur'an, London, 1965;
Michel Hayek, Le Christ de l'Islam, Paris, 1959, esp. ch. 1;
Watt, ‘ The Christianity criticized in the Qur’ān ’, Muslim
World, lvii (1967), 197-201; also in Atti del I I I Congresso di
Studi Arabic Islamici, Napoli, 1967, 651-6. Cf. also
T. O’Shaughnessy, The Koranic Concept o f the Word o f God
(Biblica et Orientalia, no. 11), Rome, 1948; R . C. Zaehner,
At Sundry Times (in America The Comparison o f Religions),
London, 1958, Appendix ‘ The Qur’ān and Christ’.
18. Cf. R. Bell, ‘ The men on the A 'rāf ’, Moslem World, xxii
(1932), 4 3 ff.
19. For Paradise cf. arts. ‘ Djanna', section A (L. Gardet), in E I2,
The main article on Hell will be ‘ Nār ’, but there is a short
article ‘ Djahannam’.
20. See Index under ' qibla'.
21. Cf. E I ( S ) , art. ‘zakāt’ (J. Schacht); Watt, Mecca, 165-9;
Medina, 306.
22. Wagtendonk, Fasting in the Koran, 47-9,80, allows that the
Muslims observed the fast of the ‘ Āshūrā ’, but considers that
2.183/79 does not prescribe it.
23. Wagtendonk, esp. 143. For other discussions of the fast, cf.
E I ( S ) , arts. ‘ Ramaḍ ān ( C .C. Berg), ‘ Sawm’ (J. Schacht);
also S. D. Goitein, Studies in Islamic History and Institutions,
Leiden, 1966, 90-110 ( ‘ Ramadan, the Muslim Month of
Fasting’ ).
24. For the pilgrimage cf. E I 2, art. ‘ Hadjdj’ (A .J. Wensinck,
199
NOTES

etc.); Ahmad Kamal, The Sacred Journey ( London, 1961), a

manual for Muslim pilgrims.
25. For details see Index, S.V. Divorce, Marriage. A fuller
discussion will be found in Watt, Medina, 272-89. Cf. Sara
Kohn, Die Eheschliessung im Koran, London, 1934.
26. Cf. Watt, Medina, 296-8.
27. Cf. ibid., 293-6.
28. Further details will be found in the Index.
Chapter Ten
1. Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung, Leiden, 1920,
1952. A brief survey of the work of Islamic scholars will be
found in NS, ii. 156-87.
2. Cf. Goldziher, Koranauslegung, 65-81.
3. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, i, Leiden, 1967, 19-49
( ‘ Qur’ānauslegung’ ). It is noteworthy that he has far more
material in this category than Carl Brockelmann in his
Geschichte der arabischen Literatur (2 vols., second edition),
Leiden, 1943, 1949 and (3 supplementary volumes) Leiden,
1937 – 42. These are usually referred to as G A L and G A L S .
The pages corresponding to the section in Sezgin are G A L ,
i. 202-5 and G A L S , i. 330-6.
4. Cf. Goldziher, 85-98; Sezgin, 323-5,327f.
5. D.S. Margoliouth, Chrestomathia Baidawiana: the commentary
o f E l-Baidāwī on Sura I I I translated and explainedfor the use o f
students o f Arabic, London, 1894. A .F .L . Beeston, Baiḍ āwī's
Commentary on Surah 1 2 of the Qur’ān ; text, accompanied by an
interpretative rendering and notes, Oxford, 1963.
6. Cf. J. M. S. Baljon, Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation,
1880– 1 960, Leiden, 1961; also Kenneth Cragg, Counsels in
Contemporary Islam, Edinburgh, 1965, esp. ch. 11.
7. Cf. J. Jomier, Le commentaire coranique du Manār, Paris, 1954.
8. The Tarjumān al-Qur’ān, edited and rendered into English by
Syed Abdul Latif, vols. 1 and 2, London, 1962, 1967.
9. Cf. Watt, ‘ Early Discussions on the Qur’ān’, Moslem World,
xl (1950). 27-40, 96-105; some of this requires to be revised
in the light of Integration, 173f., 240f.
10. Cf. Walter M. Patton, Ahmed ibn Ḥ anbal and the M iḥ na,
Leiden, 1897.
11. Cf. Wensinck, The Muslim Creed, Index, S.V. ‘ Kuran’.
Chapter Eleven
i. Cf. R. W. Southern, Western Views o f Islam in the Middle Ages,
Cambridge, Mass., 1962, esp. 37-40; also Norman Daniel,
200
 NOTES

Islam and the West: the Making o f an Image, Edinburgh, 1 960.

At the basis of these and other studies is an article by Marie-
Thérèse d’Alverny, 'Deux traductions latines du Coran au
Moyen Age', Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen
Age, xvi (1948), 69-131. Cf. J. Kritzeck, ‘ Robert of Ketton’s
Translation of the Qur’ān ’, Islamic Quarterly, ii (1955),
309-12.
2. Fuller bibliographical details will be found in Gustav
Pfannmütiller’s Handbuch der Islam-Literatur, Berlin, 1923,
esp. 138-50, 206-29. There is a short account of Qur’ānic
scholarship in Europe from about 1800 to 1914 in NS, ii.
193-219. The earlier European translations and those into
French are described in Blachère, Introduction, vii-xix, while
attempts to classify the suras chronologically are described in
the same work, 247-63. Cf. also Johann F ück, Die
arabische Studien in Europa vom 12. bis . . . 19. Jahrhundert,
Leipzig, 1944; Die arabische Studien in Europa bis in den
Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1955.
3. The Alcoran o f Mahomet. Translated out of Arabique into
French, by the Sieur du Ryer, and newly englished . . . ,
London, 1649.
4. The edition by E.M. Wherry, entitled A comprehensive
Commentary on the Qur’ān : comprising Sale’s Translation and
Preliminary Discourse with notes and emendations, London and
Boston, 1882- 6, is pleasanter typographically than most other
recent editions, but the additional notes are of poor quality
and detract from the value of Sale’s work.
5. Cf. ch. 8, note 4.
6. A fuller discussion of some of the points raised in this chapter
will be found in Watt, Islamic Revelation and the Modern
World, Edinburgh University Press, 1970.

201
TΑΒL E F O R C O N V E R T I N G V E R S E - N U M B E R S

The left-hand column gives Flügel's numbers; the corresponding

numbers in the Egyptian text are obtained by adding or subtracting
as shown. At the points of transition this applies only to part of a
verse in one of the editions.

[1] 1– 6 + 1 [ 3] 18 0 – 19 0 + 3 [7] 2 8 – 103 + 2

[2] 1– 1 9 +1 1 9 1 –193 + 2 103 – 1 3 1 + 3

1 9 – 38 + 2 194 + 1 131 –139 + 4
38– 61 + 3 1 9 6 – 198 + 1 1 4 0 – 143 + 3
6 1 – 63 + 4 [4] 3– 5 + 1 144–1
6
4 + 2
6 3 – 73 + 5 7 – 13 – 1 1 4 7 – 1 57 + 1
73_ 1 3 7 + 6 4
1 – 2 1 6 6 – 186 + 1
13 8 – 172 + 5 15 – 3 1 9 1 – 205 + 1
173– 2 12 + 4 1 6 – 29 – 4 [8] 3 7 – 43 – 1
213– 216 + 3 3 0 – 32 – 5 4 4 – 64 – 2
217– 218 + 2 32 – 45 – 4 6 4 – 76 – 1
2 1 9 – 220 + 1 4 5 – 47 – 3 [9] 6 2 – 130 –1
2 3 6 – 258 –1 4 7 – 48 – 2 [ 10 ] 1 1 – 80 – 1
2 5 9 – 269 – 2 4 9 – 70 – 3 [11] 6 – 1
270 – 273 – 3 7 0 – 100 – 2 7– 9 – 2
2 7 3 – 274 – 2 1 0 0 – 106 – 1 1 0 – 22 – 3
2 7 4 – 277 – 1 1 1 8 – 156 + 1 2 2 – 54 – 2

[ 3] 1– 4 + 1 15 6 – 170 + 2 55 – 77 – 3
4 – 18 + 2 1 7 1 – 172 + 1 7 7 – 84 – 2
19 – 27 + 1 1 7 4 – 175 + 1 84– 87 – 1
2 7 – 29 + 2 [ 5] 3– 4 – 1 8 8 – 95 – 2
2 9 – 30 + 3 5– 8 – 2 9 6 – 99 – 3
30– 31 + 4 9 – 18 – 3 99– 12 0 – 2

3 1 – 43 + 5 1 8 – 19 – 2 12 0 – 122 – 1

4 3 – 44 + 6 2 0 – 35 – 3 [12] 9 7 – 103 – 1
4 4 – 68 + 7 3 5 – 52 – 4 [13] 6 – 18 – 1
69– 91 + 6 53– 70 – 5 2 8 – 30 + 1
9 2 – 98 + 5 7 0 – 82 – 4 [14 ] 10 – 11 – 1
99– 122 + 4 8 2 – 88 – 3 12– 13 – 2
1 2 2 – 126 + 5 8 8 – 93 – 2 14– 24 – 3
12 6 – 14 1 + 6 9 3 – 98 – 1 2 5 – 26 – 4
1 4 1 – 145 + 7 1 0 1 – 109 + 1 2 7 – 37 – 5
14 6 – 173 + 6 [6] 66– 72 +1 37 – 4
1 7 4 – 175 + 5 1 3 6 – 16 3 – 1 3 7 – 41 – 3
17 6 – 179 + 4 [7] 1 – 28 +1 4 1 – 42 – 2

202
 TABLE FOR CO NVERTING VERSE-NU M BERS

[14 ] 4 2 – 45 – 1 [22] 2 6 – 43 – 1 [ 40] 3 3 – 39 – 2

46 – 47 – 2 4 3 – 77 + 1 4 0 – 56 – 3
4 7 – 51 – 1 [23] 2 8 – 34 – 1 5 6 – 73 – 2
[16 ] 2 2 – 24 – 1 35– 117 – 2 7 3 – 74 – 1
25– 110 – 2 117 – 1 [ 4 1] 1 – 26 + 1
1 1 0 – 128 – 1 [24] 1 4 – 18 + 1 [ 42] 1– 11 + 2
[17 ] 1 0 – 26 – 1 4 4 – 60 + 1 12 – 31 + 1
2 7 – 48 – 2 [25] 4 – 20 – 1 3 1 – 42 + 2

4 9 – 53 – 3 2 1 – 60 – 2 4 3 – 50 + 1
5 3 – 106 – 2 6 0 – 66 – 1 [ 43] 1 – 51 + 1
10 6 – 108 – 1 [26] 1 – 48 + 1 [ 44] 1 – 36 + 1
[18 ] 2– 21 + 1 228 – 1 [ 45] 1 – 36 + 1
23– 31 + 1 [27] 4 5 – 66 – 1 [ 46] 1 – 34 + 1
3 1 – 55 + 2 6 7 – 95 –2 [ 47] 5 – 16 – 1
5 6 – 83 + 1 [28 ] 1 – 22 + 1 1 7 – 40 – 2
8 3 – 84 + 2 [29 ] 1 – 51 + 1 [ 50 ] 1 3 – 44 + 1
8 5 – 97 + 1 [30 ] 1 – 54 + 1 2 7 – 58 – 1

[19 ] 1– 3 + 1 [31] 1 – 32 + 1 [ 55] 1– 16 + 1

8– 14 – 1 [32] 1– 9 + 1 [ 56] 2 2 – 46 + 1
2 7 – 76 – 1 [33] 4 1 – 49 + 1 66– 91 + 1
7 7 – 78 – 2 [34 ] 1 0 – 53 + 1 [ 57] 1 3 – 19 + 1
7 9 – 91 – 3 [35] 8 – 20 – 1 [ 58] 3 – 21 – 1
9 1 – 93 – 2 20– 21 + 1 [ 7 1] 5 – 22 + 1
– 1 2 1 – 25 + 2 2 6 – 29 – 1
9 3 – 94
[20] 1– 9 + 1 2 5 – 34 + 3 [72] 2 3 – 26 – 1
1 6 – 34 – 1 3 5 – 41 + 2 [74] 32 – 1
40– 41 – 1 4 2 – 44 + 1 33 – 2
4 2 – 63 — 2 [36 ] 1 – 30 + 1 3 4 – 41 –3
6 4 – 75 – 3 [37] 2 9 – 47 + 1 4 1 – 42 – 2

7 5 – 79 – 2 4 7 – 100 + 2 4 2 – 51 – 1
8o– 8 1 – 3 101 + 1 5 4 – 55 + 1
8 l – 88 – 2 [38 ] 1 – 43 + 1 [ 78] 41 – 1
8 9 – 90 – 3 7 6 – 85 – 1 [80 ] 1 5 – 18 + 1
9 0 – 94 – 2 [39] 4 – 1 [8 9 ] 1 – 14 + 1
9 4 – 96 – 1 5– 9 –2 1 7 – 25 – 1
10 6 – 115 + 1 1 0 – 14 – 3 [ 98] 2– 7 + 1
1 1 5 – 12 1 + 2 1 4 – 19 –2 [ 10 1] 1– 5 + 1
12 2 – 123 + 1 1 9 – 63 – 1 5– 6 + 2
[21] 29– 67 – 1 [4 0] 1– 2 + 1 6– 8 + 3
[22] 19 – 21 – 1 19 – 32 – 1 [ 10 6] 3 + 1

203
 TABLE OF SURAS

Listed in the order of the 'Uthmānic Recension, and indicating for

each sura: ( 1) usual title in Arabic; (2) title in English; (3) the
number o f verses in the official Egyptian text, followed (after a
diagonal) by the number in Flügel's text where the two differ;
(4) the length as shown by the number of lines in Redslob’s edition
of Flügel's text (the bismillāh in this edition occupies a full line,
which has been counted); (5) the initial letters where they occur
(for convenience, a lif is here indicated by A ); and (6) the chrono­
logical order according to Muir, Nöldeke, Grimme and the official
Egyptian text. The numbers in parentheses indicate the verses which
are regarded as belonging to a different time from that o f the main
part of the sura; only Flügel’s numbering is given.

205
 TABLEOFSURAS
Verses Lines Initials
[1] A l-fātiḥa TheOpening 7 6
[2] Al-baqara TheCow 286 715 ALM
[3] Ā A n
l 'Im
-n is
rān TheFamilyof'Im
'
ā Th eWom en
rān 200 409
176/5 445
ALM
[4] Al-mā'ida TheTable 120 332
[5] Al-an'ām TheCattle 165 358
[6]
[7] A A
l-a'rāf TheHeights
l- a n fā l The Sp
oils
206/5 398
149
ALM
S
[8] At-tawba Repentance
[9] 1725
9//3
603 01
[10] Yūnus Jonah 109 215 ALR
[11] Hud Hud 123 221 ALR
[12] A Yūsuf Joseph 111 209 ALR
[13] Ibrr-r a'd TheThunder 43 99 ALMR
[14] Al-Ḥāhīm Abraham 52 99 ALR
128 21857
99
[15] ijr Al-Ḥ ijr ALR
[16] An-naḥl TheBee
[17] Al-isr'ā TheNightJourney 111 195
[18] Al-kahf TheCave 110 184
[[2
19 M aryam M ary 98 114 khy's
0]] Tā'Hā' Ṭ ā’Hā’ 135 ṬH
112 159
78 1145
[2 1 ] Al-anbiy'ā TheProphets
[22] Al-ḥajj ThePilgrim age 50
[23] A Al-mu'm inūnTheBelievers 118 129
[24] A n-nūr TheLight 64 159
[[2 5]] Asl-hf-usrhquā'a
26 n TheFurqān
r'ā ThePoets 77
227/8 169
109
Ṭ SM
ṬS
88 137
93/5
An-nam l TheAnt
[[27]] A
28 l-qaṣaṣ TheStory 168 Ṭ SM
206
 TABLE OF SURAS

MuirNöldeke Grimme Egyptian

[1] 6 48 5
[2] 94 9v1v(partslaterafew 9379 (192-6 later) 87 (281 later)
.M eccan)
[3] 108 97 (parts later) 100 89
[4] 107 100 101 92
[5] 109 114 (parts earlier) 95 (1-14 later) 112
[6] 81 89(91?) 89 55 (20,23,91,93,
114,152-4,Med.)
[7] 91 87 (156-8,Med.) 88 (156-8,Med.) 39 (163-9,Med.)
[8] 97 95 97 88 (30-37,Mec.)
[9 ] 114 113 114 113 ( 129f.,Mec.)
[10] 79 84 87 51 (41,94-6,Med.)
[11] 78 75 86 52 (15,20,116,
Med.)
[ 12] 77 77 85 53 (1,2,3 ,7 ,Med.)
[ 13 ] 89 90 84 96
[14] 80 76 (38-42,Med.) 50 (38-42,Med.) 72 (33f.Med.)
[ 15] 62 57 48 54
[16] 88 7 3 (43 f.,111- 125 , 83 (111-25,Med.) 70 (126-8,Med.)
Med.)
[ 17 ] 87 67 82 50(28,34,35,58,
75-82,Med.)
[18] 69 69 81 69(27,83-101,
Med.)
[ 19 ] 68 58 78 44 ( 59 ,72 ,Med.)
[20] 75 55 74 45 ( 13of.,Med.)
[ 21] 86 65 77 73
[22] 85 107 (1-24,43-56, 49 (25-42,76-8, 103
60-65,67-75,Mec.) Med.)
[ 23 ] 84 64 75 74
[24] 103 105 98 102
[25] 74 66 73 42 (68-70,Med.)
[26] 61 56 71 47(197,224 -8,
Med.)
[2 7 ] 70 68 70 48
[28] 83 79 69 49 (52-5,Med.,85
on journey)

207
TABLEOFSURAS
Verses Lines Initials
[29] Al-'ankabūt TheSpider 69 129 ALM
[30] A r-Rūm TheGreeks 60 99 ALM
[31] s-qsm
L u ān Luqmān 34 62 ALM
[32] A ajda TheProstration 30 46 ALM
[33] A l-aḥɀāb TheConfederates 73 11058
[34] A
Sabā ' Sheba 54 2
[35] Yl-ām alā'ika TheAngels 45 9 980 YS
[36] Aṣ-'ṣā Sīn Yā’Sīn 8 3
[37] Ṣādffāt Ṣā 88 90 ā
TheRangers 182 118
[38] Aɀ-ɀum d
[39] Al-mu'm ar TheTroops 75 140 ḤM
[40] Fuṣṣilatin M TheBeliever 85 145
[41] Ash-shūrā Coau deDistinct 54 940 hm'ḤsqM
[42] Aɀ-ɀukhruf Ornanm sel 53 110 4 ḤM
[43] Ad-dukhān Sm ents 89 0 ḤM
[44] Al-jāthiya Hobbling oke 597/6 4 6
ḤM
[45] 3 59 ḤM
[46] A l-aḥqāf TheSand-Dunes 350 75
[47] A
M uḥam m ad M uḥam mad 4 67
[48] Al-l-ḥu
fat'ḥ TheVictory 29
18 42
69
[49] jurāt T heCham bers
[50] A
Qdāfh-dhāriyāt T Qāf 4560 4 6 Q
[51] Aṭ-ṭūr Th eScatterers 46
[52] h eM ount 49
62 44
40
[53] An-najm TheStar
[54] Al-qam ar TheM oon 55 44
[55] Al-wḥqi'a TheEveM
Ar -R aḥm ān The All- erciful 78 50
[56] Al-ḥadīd Iron nt 96 54
[57] Al-mujādila TheDisputer 292 70
[58] Al-ḥashr TheM 2 57
[59] ustering 24 54
[60] Al-m um taḥanaTheW omanTested 13 43
[61] Aṣ-ṣaff TheRanks
[62] Al-jumu'a TheCongregation 114 28
1 22
[63] A
Al-m unāfiqūnTheHypocrites 11 23
[64] ghāun M
t- ta utualFraud 18 31
208
 T A B L E OF SU R A S

M uir N öldeke Grimme Egyptian

[29] 90 81 ( 1- 1o,Med.,45? 68 (1-12,45-6,69, 85 ( 1- 1o,Med.)
69?) Med.)
[30] 60 74 67 84 (16,Med.)
[31] 50 82 ( 13f.,11- 18?) 65 57 (26-8,Med.)
[32] 44 70 64 75 (12-20,Med.)
[33] 110 103 108 90
[34] 49 85 63 58 (6,Med.)
[35] 66 86 62 43
[36] 67 60 61 41 (45,Med.)
[37] 59 50 60 56
[38] 73 59 59 38
[39] 45 80 58 59 ( 53.5,Med.)
[40] 72 78 57 6o(58f.,-Med.)
[4 1 ] 53 71 55 61
[42] 71 83 80 62 (22-4,26,Med.)
[4 3 ] 76 61 76 63 (54,Med.)
[4 4 ] 58 53 54 64
[ 45 ] 57 72 53 65 (13,Med.)
[46] 64 88 51 66(9,14,34,Med.)
[4 7 ] 95 96 96 9 5 ( 14 ,Mec.)
[ 48 ] 105 108 112 111
[4 9 ] 113 112 110 106
[50] 56 54 47 34 (37,Med.)
[ 51 ] 63 39 (24ff., later) 46 67
[ 52 ] 55 40 (21,29ff., later) 45 76
[ 53 ] 43 28 (23,26-33 later) 44(21-3,27-33 23
later)
[54 ] 48 49 43 37 (44-6,Med.)
[ 55 ] 40 43 (7,8 later) 42 97
[ 56 ] 41 41 (74ff.?) 41 46 (70,71,Med.)
[ 57 ] 96 99 102 94
[ 58 ] 98 106 106 105
[ 59 ] 102 102 99 101
[60] 111 110 105 91
[61 ] 106 98 104 109
[62] 101 94 94 110
[63] 104 104 109 104
[64 ] 82 93 103 108
209
T A B L E OF SUR AS

Initials
N
Verses Lines

[6 5 ] A ṭ-ṭalāq Divorce 12 35
[66] At-taḥ rīm The Prohibition 12 31
[6 7 ] Al-mulk The Kingdom 30 40
[68] Al-qalam The Pen 52 40

[69] A l-ḥ āqqa The Indubitable 52 35

[70] A l-m a'ārij The Stairways 44 30
[7 1 ] Nū ḥ Noah 28/9 28
[72] Al-jinn The Jinn 28 34
[7 3 ] Al-muɀ ɀ ammil The Enwrapped One 20 25
[7 4 ] Al-muddaththirThe Shrouded One 5 6 /5 33
[7 5 ] Al-qiyāmā The Resurrection 40 22
[76] Al-insān Man 31 32
[7 7 ] Al-mursalāt Those That Are Sent 50 27
[7 8 ] An-naba' The Announcement 40/1 24
[7 9 ] An-nāɀ i'ā t Those Who Draw Out 46 25
[8o] 'Abasa He Frowned 42 19
[81] At-takwīr The Veiling 29 15
[82] Al-infiṭ ār The Splitting 19 11
[83] Al-muṭaffifīn The Stinters 36 25
[ 84 ] Al-inshiqāq The Rending 25 15
[85] Al-burūj The Constellations 22 15
[86] A ṭ -ṭ āriq The Night-Star 17 9
[ 87 ] A l-a 'lā The Most High 19 10
[88] Al-ghāshiya The Enveloping 26 13
[89] A l-fajr The Dawn 30 18
[ 90 ] Al-balad The Land 20 11
[91] Ash-shams The Sun 15 8
[ 92 ] Al-layl The Night 21 11
[9 3 ] A ḍ -ḍ uḥ ā The Morning 11 6
[9 4 ] Al-inshirāḥ The Expanding 8 4
[95] At-tīn The Fig 8 6
[9 6 ] Al-' alaq The Blood-Clot 19 10
[9 7 ] Al-qadr Power (or The Measuring-
Out) 5 4
[9 8 ] Al-bayyina The Evidence 8 12
[9 9 ] Aɀ -ɀ alɀ ala The Earthquake 8 6
[100] Al-'ā diyāt The Runners 11 6

210
 T A B L E OF S U R A S

Muir Nöldeke Grimme Egyptian

[65] 99 101 107 99

[66] 112 109 113 107
[67] 42 63 66 77
[68] 52 18 ( 17ff., later) 38 2 ( 17-33,48 - 50 ,
Med.)
[69] 51 38 37 78
[70] 37 42 36 79
[7 1 ] 54 51 72 71
[72] 65 62 52 40
[7 3 ] 46 23 (20,Med.) 35 (20,Med.) 3 (10,11,20,Med.)
[7 4 ] 21 2 (31-4 later) 34 (55 later) 4
[7 5 ] 36 36 (16-19?) 33 31
[7 6 ] 35 52 32 (30f. later) 98
[7 7 ] 34 32 31 33 (48Med.)
[7 8 ] 33 33 30 (37f. later) 80
[7 9 ] 47 31 (27-46 later) 29 81
[80] 26 17 28 24
[81] 27 27 2 7 (29 later) 7
[82] 11 26 26 82
[83] 32 37 25 85
[ 84 ] 28 29 (25 later) 24 (25 later) 83
[ 85 ] 31 22 (8-11 later) 23 (8-11 later) 27
[86] 29 15 22 36
[ 87 ] 23 19 21 (7,Med.) 8
[88] 25 34 20 68
[89] 14 35 19 10
[9 0 ] 15 11 18 35
[9 1 ] 4 16 17 26
[92] 12 10 16 9
[93]
[9 4 ]
16
17
13
12
15
14 12
11

2 8
[9 5 ]
[9 6 ]
[9 7 ]
8
19
24
20
1 (9f. later)
14
13
12
56
1 25
[ 9 8 ] 100
[ 99 ] 3
92
25
90?
10
10
930
[100] 2 30 9
211 14
T A B L E OF SURAS

Verses Lines Initials

[ 101] Al-qāri' a The Striking 11/8 6
[102] At-takāthur Rivalry 8 5
[103] A l - 'aṣ r The Afternoon 3 3
[104] Al-humaɀ a The Backbiter 9 5
[ 105 ] Al-fīl The Elephant 5 4
[106] Quraysh Quraysh 4 3
[ 107 ] Al-mā'ūn Charity 7 4
[108] Al-kwathar Abundance 3 2
[109] Al-kāfirūn The Unbelievers 6 4
[ 110] An-nasr Help 3 3
[ 111] Tabbat Perislf 5 3
[112] Al-ikhlāṣ The Purifying 4 2
[113] Al-falaq The Daybreak 5 3
[ 114 ] An-nās The People 6 3

All arrangements place sura 2 as the first of the Medinan suras.

Muir has therefore 93 Meccan and 21 Medinan
Nöldeke „ 90 „ 24 „
Grimme „ 92 „ 22 „
Egyptian „ 86 „ 28 „
With regard to the Medinan suras, there is a fair amount of unani­
mity as to their order, though all the Western scholars recognize
that they contain passages of different date. The doubtful suras are
98 and 22.
The Westerns divide the Meccan suras into groups, within
which they do not profess that their order is strictly chronological.
Muir places 18 suras before the Call, thus like Nöldeke agreeing
with Tradition in regarding 96 as the sura marking the Call. His
other groups are 19-22, 23-41, 42-63, 64-91, 92, 93 (113, 114 un­
datable).
Nöldeke’s groups are 1-48,49-69, 70-90. Grimme’s are 1-30 ( 113,
114 doubtfully along with these) 41-50, 51-89 (98,112, 109 doubt­
fully with this group).

212
 T A B L E OF SURAS

Muir Nöldeke Grimme Egyptian

[ 101] 7 24 8 30
[102] 9 8 7 16
[103] 1 21 (3 later) 6 (3 later) 13
[104] 10 6 5 32
[ 105] 13 9 4 19
[106] 5 4 3 29
[107] 39 7 2 17
[108] 18 5 11 15
[109] 38 45 92? 18
[ 110] 30 111 111 114
[ 111] 22 3 1 6
20 44 91? 22
[112]
[ 11 3 ] 92 46 39? 20
[ 11 4 ] 47 47 40 21

213
 INDEX TO THE QUR’Ā N

Containing all instances of proper names and a selection o f other topics;

' Muḥ ammad' is abbreviated to 'M '.

Aaron (Ar. Hārūn): brother and helper of Moses, 7.142/38;

10.75/6, (87); 20.29/30-32/3,71/3,90/2-92/4 (ca lf); 2.1.48/9;
23.45/7; 25.35/7 ( waɀ īr) ; 26.13/12,48/7;28.34f.; 37.114,120
a prophet, 4.163 /1; 6.84; 19.53/4 Mary called his sister,
19.28/9 also, 2.248/9;7.122/19
Abel, see Adam (two sons of)
ablutions (Ar. wuḍ ū'): as preparation for prayer, 5.6/8f.
Abraham ( Ar. Ibrāhīm): abandons idolatry, 6.74-83; 21.51/2-72;
26.69- 102;29.16/15-25/4; 37.83/1-101/99; 43.26/5-28/7;
60.4 leaves father, 9.114/ 5; 19.41/2-49/50 promise o f son
and warning about Sodom, 11.69/72-76/8; 15.51/8;29.31/0 f.;
51.24-34 sacrifice of son, 37.102/0-113 his religion as ḥ anīf
and muslim, 2.130/24-135/29; 3.95/89;4.125/4;6.161/2;
16.120/1-123/4; 22.78/7 (your father) at Mecca with
Ishmael, 2.125/19-129/3; 3.97/1; 14.35/8; 22.26/7-31/2
not a Jew or Christian, 2.140/34; 3.65/58-68/1 God took him
as friend, 4.125/4 also, 2.124/18 (imām), 136/0, 258/60
(? Nimrod); 3.33/0,84/78;4.54/7,163/1; 9.70/1; 12.6,38;
19.58/9;22.43; 33.7; 38.45;42.13/11; 53.37/8; 57.26; 87.19
( ‘scrolls’ )
abrogation (Ar. naskh) : cancellations, deletions or substitutions
by God, 2.106/0; 13.39; 16.101/3 God removes verses
intruded by Satan, 22.52/I f. see also pp. 86-9 here
Abū-Bakr: mentioned as ‘ second of tw o’ ( sc. M.’s companion
on Hijra), 9.40 possibly referred to, 24.22
Abū-Lahab 111.1
'Ā d:tribe to which Hūd sent, disobeyed, 7.65 /3-72/0;
11.50/2-60/3; 26.123-40; 46.21/0-26/5; 54.18-20; 69.4-8
also, 7.74/2;9.70/1;14.9;22.42/3; 29.38/7; 38.12/11;40.30/2;
41.13/12,15/14f.; 50.13;5 1.41f.; 53.52/1; 89.6/5

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IN D E X TO THE Q U R ’ ĀN

Adam ( Ar. Ā dam):is God’s deputy and gives names, 2.30/28-33 /1

is worshipped by angels except Iblīs, 2.34/2;7.11/1 of.;
15.28-31 (not named); 17.61/3f.; 18.50/48; 20.116/5 his fall,
2.35/3-39/7;7.19/18-25/4;20.115/-122/o his progeny
brought from his loins, 7.172/1f. the two sons of (not named),
5.27/30-31/4 children of Adam, 7.26/5,27/6, 31/29,35/3;
17.70/2;36.6o also, 3.33/0,59/2; 19.58/9 creation o f first
man (name not mentioned), 6.98;7.189-193/2; 15.28f. ; 39.6/8
adultery, see unchastity
Ahl al-kitāb, see Book (People of the)
A ḥ mad:equivalent of Muḥ ammad, 61.6
' Ā ’isha (M.’s favourite w ife): strictures on those who slandered
her, 24.11-20
Alexander the Great: usually identified with Dhū-l-Qarnayn (q.v.)
Allāh, see God
Allāt ( ‘the goddess’ ) :an idol, 53.19
All-merciful, the, see Merciful
alms (Ar.ɀ akāt, a kind of tithe;cf. p.163) :contrasted with usury,
2.276/7; 30.39/8 almsgiving and worship mentioned together
and commended, 2.43/0, 83/77 (Israelites), 110/04,177/2;
4 -77 /9 ,162 /0; 5.12 / 15 (Israelites), 55/60;9.5,11,18,71/2;
19.31/2 (Jesus), 55/6 (Ishmael); 21.73; 22.41/2, 78; 24.37,55;
31.4/3; 33.33; 58.13/14;73.20;98.5/4 early references by
itself, 7.156/5; 23.4;41.7/6 see also contributions
angels (Ar. malā'ika) : ‘ those with God’ praise him, 7.206/5;
21.19f.;37.166; 40.7 winged messengers of God, 35.1
mount to God, 70.3 intercede for believers, 40.7-9 not
gods, but servants, 21.26-29/30;37.149f.; 43.19/18f. record­
ing angels, 6.61; 50.17/1 6f.; 82.10-12 wrongly given feminine
names, 53.27/8f. receive soul at death, 7.37/5; 32.11;96.18(?)
summon to Judgement, 54.6-8; cf. 32.11 present at Judgement,
bear throne, 37.164f ; 69.17;cf. 40.7; 83.21 descend on ‘ Night
o f Power’, 97.4;cf. 19.64/5 do obeisance to Adam except
Iblīs, 2.34/2; 7.11/10; 15.28-31; 17.61/3; 18.50/48;20.116/5;
38.71-4 unbelievers want revelation from angel, 15.6-9 help
Muslims in battle, 8.9-12 guardians o f Hell, 74.31;96.18(?)
see also Gabriel, Harut, Marut, Spirit
animals : pagan taboos not valid, 5.103/2 in communities (as
also birds), 6.38 in their uses is a sign, 33.71-3
Ansār (‘helpers’): Muslims o f Medina (contrasted with Emigrants),
9.100/1,117/8 Jesus’ Apostles, 3.52/45;61.14 all believers
to be Helpers of God, 61.14
ant (Ar. naml):valley of ants, 27.18, also title

216
 INDEX TO TH E QUR’ĀN

apostasy: warning against, 5.54/9 to be punished except where

compulsion, 16.1o6/8;88.23f.
Apostle ( rasūl ) of God, see Messenger of God
Apostles of Jesus (Ar. ḥ awāriyyūn) : his helpers and followers,
3.52/45f.; 61.14 are muslims, desire a table from heaven,
5.111-3
Arabic (language):‘ an Arabic Qur’ān ’, 12.2;20.113/2;39.28/9;
41.3/2,44;42.7/5;43.3/2 Qur’ān in clear Arabic, 16.103/5;
26.195;46.12/11 also, 13.37
Arabs: pagans ( ‘ those who have no knowledge’ ), 2.113/07,
118/2 of the desert, see Bedouin
A'rāf ( ‘ battlements’ ?): men on a' rāf , 7.46/4-49/7 see
Purgatory
'Arafāt: hill near Mecca, 2.198/4
ark: of Noah (Ar. fulk), 11.37/9;23.27f. of Israelites (Ar.
Tābūt), 2.248/9 of Moses, 20.39
augury (birds as omens): 7.131/28; 17.13/14;27.47/8
(Thamūd ) ; 36.18/1 7f.
avarice: 70.19-21
Aws ibn-aṣ -Ṣ āmit: wife’s appeal against divorce granted (without
name), 58.1
Ayesha, see 'Ā ’isha
Ayka, see Grove
A yyūb, see Job
Azar: Abraham’s father, 6.74 (not named elsewhere); see also
Abraham

Baal (Ar. Ba'l): idol, 37.125

Babel, Tower of:apparent references, 16.26/8;28.38(?)
Babylon (Ar. Bābil): 2.102/96
Badr (battle): God’s help at Badr (name mentioned), 3.123/19
other probable references, 3.13/11 (victory a sign from God);
8.7 (God’s promise), 9 (help of angels), 11-15, 17 (God
acted), 42/3-44/6, 67/8 (prisoners)
Bakka: alternative form of Mecca, 3.96/0
balance (Ar. mīɀ ān) : men to use justly, 6.152/3;7.85/3 (Midian);
11.84/5 (do.);55.8/7f.;57.25 on day of Judgement, 21.47/8;
55.7/6(?); 101.6/5,8/6
baptism (Ar. ṣ ibgha):God’s is best, 2.138/2 (but translation
doubtful)
be (Ar. kun) : word of creation, 2.117/1; 3.47/2 (to Mary),
59/2 (o f Jesus);6.73/2; 16.40/2; 19.35/6 (o f Jesus);36.82;
40.68/70

217
I N D E X TO THE Q U R ’ ĀN

Bedouin (Ar. a'rāb): unsatisfactory attitudes, 9,90/1,97/8-99/100

relations with M. after avoiding expedition to al-Ḥ udaybiya,
48.11-17 not true believers, 49.14-18 also, 33.20
bee ( Ar. naḥ l ) :inspired by God,makes honey, 16.68/7of. (also title)
believers (Ar. mu'minūn): content of belief (God, revelation, etc),
2.3/2f., 285; 4.136/5;7.158 duties and character of believers,
4.135/4;5.8/11,35/9;9.71/2,123/4 (fighting); 22.77/6-78;
23.1-9,57/9-61/3;27.2f.;32.15f.;33.41f.;48.29;59.18f.
rewards of believers, 2.25/3; 3.163/57 (degrees of reward?);
6.48;8. i -4 (degrees);9.72/3,111/2; 13.28f.; 22.23f.;57.12,
19/18-21;65.11;98.7/6f. warnings against unbelief, 3.100/95f.
(Jewish influence), 102/97-106/2; 5.57/62-61/6; 57.16/15;
63.9-11;64.14-17; 66.6,8 belief by God’s permission, guidance,
10.100 believers to be tried, 29.2/1-7/6
Benjamin:Joseph’sbrother(notnamed), 12.58-90
Bible,se Gospel, Psalms, Torah
birds:formcommunities(asanimals), 6.38 theirworship(with
David) a sign, 16.79/81; 21.79;24.41; 34.10; 38.19/18 have
language known to Solomon, 27.16,20 Abraham’s sacrifice,
2.260/ 2 clay birds made alive, 3.48/3; 5.110/09 their
flight a sign, 67.19 sent by God against Men of Elephant,
105.3 see also augury
blood (Ar. dam) : forbidden as food, 2.173/68; 5.3/4; 6.145/6;
16.115/6 plague in Egypt, 7.133/o
book (1) (Ar. kitāb) (selected references):the Qur’ān, 2.2/I;
3.3/2-7/5;6.92,155/6;11.1;18.1;19.16,41/2,51/2,54/5,56/7;
31.1 revelation to other prophets, 6.154/5 (Moses); 13.36;
19.12/13 (John), 30/1 (Jesus);23.49/51 (Moses); 29.27/6
(Abraham’s posterity); 37.117 (Moses and Aaron) ' mother
o f the Book’ with God, 13.39;43.4/3;56.78/7(?) record of
man’s deeds, 18.49/7(?); 23.62/4;69.19,25;84.7,10 see also
Qur’ān, Gospel, Psalms, Torah, and pp.141-4 here
book (2) (Ar. ṣ uḥ uf, sheets, pages?): books o f former prophets,
20.133(?);53.36/7f. (Moses, Abraham); 80.13; 87.18f.
(Abraham, Moses) record of a man’s deeds, 74.52; 81.10
heavenly original o f revelation (?), 98.2 see also p.33 here
Book, People o f the (Ar. Ahl al-kitāb): God’s covenant with,
3.187/4 some believe in M., 3.199/8; 28.52f. appealed to,
3.64/57f.; 4.47/50,131/0,171/9; 5.15/18,77/81 those given a
part of the Book, 4.51 /4 to pay tribute, 9.29 also,
2.105/99,109/3; 3.69/2-72/65,75/68,98/3f.,113/09;
4.123/2,153/2,159/7,171/69; 5.19/22,59/64,65/70,68/72;
29.46/5; 33.26; 57.29; 59.2,11; 98.1,5

218
 IND EX TO TH E Q U R’ĀN

booty (Ar. anfāl ;mā ghanimtum): belongs to God and M., 8.1
a ‘ fifth' to be given to God, 8.41/2 destination o f ‘ fifth',
etc., 59.6-10 booty (from Khaybar?) promised, 48.15,19-21
burial: taught to Adam’s son by raven, 5.31/4
Byzantines (Ar. Rūm), see Greeks

Cain, see Adam, two sons of

calendar, see months
calf:worshipped by Israelites, 2.51/48,92/86;4.153/2;7.148/6;
20.87/90-98
caliph, see khalīf a
camels (Ar. ibl , etc): wonder of their creation, 88.17 passing
through eye o f needle, 7.40/38 may be eaten, 6.144/5
cattle (Ar. an'ām) : include sheep, goats, camels, oxen, 6.143/4f.;
cf. 39.6/8 ( ‘eight in pairs’ ) are beasts of burden and for food,
6.142/3 pagan taboos rejected, 5.103/2;6.138/9 God’s
provision for men and cattle 79.33; 80.32
Cave, Men of (Ar. Ahl al-kahf ): their story (identified with Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus), 18.10/9-26/5
children: suckling, 2.233; 31.14/13; 46.15/14 rules for
inheritance, 4.11/12 wealth and ch. a temptation, 8.28;64.14f.
pagans dislike daughters, 16.58/60f.; 43.17/16 children not to
be killed out o f fear o f want, 17.31/3;cf.1 6.59/61;81.8f.
attitudes to parents, 31.14/13f.;6.137/8,140/1.
Christ, see Messiah, Jesus
Christians (Ar. Naṣ ārā): worshippers of God, 2.62/59;4.46/5of.;
5.69/73 friends of Muslims, 5.82/5-85 /8 are kind and
monastic, 57.27 their errors, 2.111/05-113/07,120/14,135/29,
140/34; 3.67/0;4.171/69; 5.14/17-18/21,51/6 (not to be
taken as friends), 72/6-75/9;9.30-2; 23.50/2-56/8;98.4/3
challenged to mutual cursing, 3.61/54 among religions
between which God distinguishes, 22.17 their churches, etc.,
22.40/1 see also Jesus, Messiah, Book (People of the)
clothing (Ar. libās, ɀ īna) : given by God for concealment, 7.26/5f.
to be worn in mosques, 7.31/29f.
commerce: seaborne by ships, 16.14; 17.66/8 measures to be
just, 17.35/7 permissible during pilgrimage, 2.198/4
concubines: marriage with those whom your right hands possess,
4.3,24/8f.;23.6;70.30
Confession of Faith, see Shahāda
contributions (Ar. mā yunfiqū, etc.): required for God’s cause,
2.195/1,215/1,254/5,261/3-265/7,267/9,270/3-274/5;
3.92/86,180/75; 4.37/41f.; 34.39/8 from nominal Muslims

219
I N D E X T O T HE Q U R ’ Ā N

contributions (contd.) from nominal Muslims

rejected, 9.53f. ‘ voluntary’ contributions or alms (ṣ adaqāt),
2.196/2 (in place of pilgrimage), 263/5f.,271/3,276/7; 4.114;
9.58-60 (how to be divided), 79/80,103/4f. (as purification);
58.12/13f. (before interview with M.) gifts to women
(ṣ aduqāt), 4.4/3
corruption of scriptures (Ar. taḥ rīf , etc.): Jews ‘ alter words
from their sets’, 4.46/8f.; 5.13/16,41/5 Jews ‘ alter the word
of God’, 2.75/0,(79/3) Jews substitute another word,
2.58/5;7.161 Jews twist tongues in the book, 3.78/2
concealing of scriptures, 2.42/39,76/1,140/34,146/1,
159/4,174 /69 ; 3.7 1 /64; 5.15/18
covenant (Ar. 'ahd, mīthāq): with Adam, 20.115 /4 with posterity
of Adam, 7.172/1 with prophets, 3.81/75; 33.7 violation of
covenants with M., 8.55/7-58/60 with Israelites at Sinai,
2.83/77,93/87;3-i 87/4(?); 5.12/15f. with Christians, 5.14/17
with M. and people of Medina, 2.84/78
coveting ( tamannā): forbidden, 4.32/6
creation (Ar. khalq, etc.): God says ‘ Be’ to a thing, 2.117/1;
3.47/2 (Mary’s child), 59/2 (Jesus);6.73/2; 16.40/2; 19.35/6
(Jesus); 36.82; 40.68/70 creation of heavens and earth,
7.54/2;41.9/8-12/11;65.12 creation is for a purpose,
21.16f.;(30.8/7) see also Adam, man
crucifixion of Jesus denied, 4.157/6

daughters : ascribed to God, 16.59; 53.21 see children

David (Ar. D āwūd): killed Goliath, 2.251/2 a prophet, given
psalms, 4.163/1; 17.55/7 given wisdom and skill, and
mountains and birds join him in praising God, 21.78/80;
27.15f.;34.10; 38.17/16-20/19 story of ewe and his repen­
tance, 38.21/0-26/5 cursed disbelieving Israelites, 5.79/82
also 6.84; 34.13/12; 38.30/29
Day of Judgement (A r. yawm ad-dīn, etc.): comes suddenly,
6.31;7.187/6; 12.107; 22.55/4; 43.66; 47.18/20 portents of
the Day, 20.105-108/7; 22.1f.;36.53;39.68; 50.20/19; 54.1;
56.1-7; 69.13-16;73.14,17f.;74.8;75.7-10; 77.8-13;78.18-20;
79.6; 80.33; 81.1-14; 82.1-5; 84.1-6 descriptions, 7.6/5-9/8;
11.103/5-105/7; 21.47/8; 28.62-7,74f.;34.31/0-33/2; 37.20-32;
41.19/18-23/2;43.67-73;45.27/6-35/4; 50.21/0-29/8;69.13-37;
75.12-15; 77.28-50;78.38-40; 79.6-14; 80.33-42; 84.7-15;
89.21/2-30 dateknownonlytoGod,7.187/6f.;79.92-4
sG
taon
ddis
saslo
up
nree,m
3e1.3
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3d
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.49/3;22.5se6a
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220
 IND EX TO TH E Q U R’ĀN

dead, the: alive if killed fighting in way of God, 2.154/49; 3.169/3f.

prayer for them only if believers, (9.84/5)
death (Ar. mawt) : takes place at a fixed term ( ajal), 16.61/3;
39.42/3 (by God’s summons);cf. 3.145/39 angels summon
at death, 7.37/5;32.11 (one) is the Certainty ( al-yaqīn), 15.99
unbelievers fear at death, 75.26-30 references to M.’s death,
3.144/38; 15.99 a short time between death and resurrection,
20.103f.; 23.112/4-114/6;46.35
debts: rules for recording, 2.282
demons (Ar. shayātīn) : taught men magic, 2.102/96 lead men
to unbelief 6.71/0,121;7.27/6; 19.83/6 (sent by God);22-3;
26.221 (liars) associated with Solomon (2.102/96); 21.82;
38.37/6 overhear celestial secrets, are stoned, 15.17,18;
37.7,8; 67.5 believers take refuge with God, 23.97/9 evil
men (?), 2.14/13;6.112 (also jinn) false deities, 4.117; 7.29/8
Qur’ān not brought by them, 26.210; 81.25 one accompanies
obstinate unbeliever, 43.36/5 also, 17.27/9; 19.68/9; 27.65/3
see also Iblīs, Satan, jinn
Devil, the, see Iblīs, Satan
Dhū-1-Kifl ( ‘ him of the portion’ ? ): a prophet, 21.85; 38.48
Dhū-1-Qarnayn ( ‘ him of the two horns’, sc. Alexander the Great)
general account, 18.83/2-98/7
Dhū-n-Nūn ( ‘ him of the fish'; sc. Jonah), 21.87; cf. 68.48
divorce: various regulations, 2.228-32,236/7f.,241 /2; 33.49/8
(before consummation); 65.1-7 use of pagan formula for­
bidden, 58.1-4/5;cf.33.4 M.’s wives threatened, 66.5

earthquake (Ar. ɀ alɀ ala): sign of Last Day, 99.1 f.

Eden, gardens of (Ar. 'Adn), 9.72/3; 13.23; 16.33; 18.31/0;
19.61/2; 20.76/8; 35.33/0; 38.50;40.8;61.12;98.8/7 see also
Paradise
Egypt (Ar. Miṣ r), 2.61/58; 10.87; 12.21,99/100;43.51/0
Elephant (A r. fīl), men of the: Abyssinian expedition against
Mecca, 105.1
Elias, Elijah (Ar. Ilyās, Ilyāsīn): opposes worship of Baal,
37.123-32 of posterity of Abraham, 6.85 perhaps to be
identified with Dhū-1-Kifl ( q.v.)
Elisha (Ar. Alyasa'), 6.86; 38.48
Emigrants ( Meccan Muslims at Medina- Ar. muhājirūn) : encourage­
ment to emigrate, 4.100/1 mentioned with Anṣ ār, 9.100/1,
117/8;cf. 33.6 will be rewarded, 16.41/3,110/1;22.58/7
(when killed fighting) if poor to be helped, 24.22 to receive
part o f spoil, 59.8 treatment of women, 60.10

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Enoch, sometimes identified with Idrīs (q.v.)

Eve (referred to without being named), 2.35/3f.;7.19/18-23/2;
20.117/5-121/19; 39.6/8
expiation:an expiation or ‘ covering’ ( kaffāra), 5.89/91 (for
broken oath), 95/6 (for hunting in state o f sanctity)
remitting strict retaliation is expiation (for unspecified offence),
5.45/9 redemption or compensation (fidya), 2.184/0 (for
omitting fast), 196/2 (for omitting shaving head at pilgrimage);
57.15/14 (none for Hypocrites) after unintentional homicide,
4.92/4 see also fasting
Ezra ( ' Uzayr): regarded by Jews as son of God, 9.30

faith ( Ar. īmān): content of faith or belief, 2.3/2f., 285;4.136/5;

7.158 see believers
fall of man, see Adam
fasting (Ar. ṣ awm) : prescribed for Muslims in Ramadān,
2.183/79-185/1,187/3 vowed by Mary, 19.26/7 a s expia­
tion, 4.92/4 (for unintentional homicide); 5.89/91 (for broken
oath), 95/6 (for hunting in state of sanctity); 58.4/5 (for
using pagan formula of divorce)
fathers (Ar. abā ): pagans follow fathers’ errors, 2.170/65;
5.104/3;7.28/7,173/2; 11.109/11; 21.53/4; 26.74; 31.21/0;
34.43/2;37.69/7f.;43-23/2 pagans want fathers made alive,
45.25/4 pagans, even fathers, to be treated as enemies,
9.23f.; 58.22 see also parents
fate (or time, Ar. dahr): pagan belief in fate, 45.24/3
Fātiḥ a: name of sura 1
fifth (Ar. khums), see booty
fire (Ar. nār) : compared with resurrection, 36.80 made by
friction, 56.70-2 see also Hell
food regulations: most foods lawful, 2.168/3-172/67; 3.93/87
(except what Jacob forbade himself); 5.1,4/6 (including game
caught by dogs), 5/7 (also food of People of the Book),
87/9f.;6.118f.,142/3; 16.114/5 forbidden is carrion, blood,
pork, slaughtered without God’s name, 2.173/68; 5.3/4 (with
additions);6.121, 145/6; 16.115/6 special rules for Jews
(3.93/87);4.160/58;6.i 46/7;16.118/9 other lawful foods,
5.96/7 (fish) food offences venial, 5.93/4;6.115/6 pagan
taboos not to be observed, 6.119,143/4f.; 10.59/60; 16.116/7
see also wine
forgiveness: of Muslim offenders, 24.22;42.37/5 of unbelievers(?),
45.14/13 better than retaliation, 42.38/6-43/1
fornication, see unchastity

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Friday (A y.yawn al-jumu'a ):worship specially commended,

62.9f.
Furqān (salvation), 2.53/0,185/1 ;3.3/2;8.29,41 /2;21.48/9;
25.title, 1 see pp. 145-7 here

Gabriel (Ar. Jibril):mentioned by name, 2.97/1 (has brought

revelation to M.), 98/2 (unbelievers hostile);66.4 (supports
M.) said to be referred to, 53.4-16 (in visions); 81.19-21
(noble messenger) also identified with the Spirit (q.v.),
esp. 2.87/1,253/455.110/09; 16.102/4; 19.17; 26.193; 78.38
gambling:‘ consuming property in vanity’ (? gambling) forbidden,
2.188/4;4.29/ 33 gambling for camel with arrows (maysir)
forbidden, 2.219/6;5.9o/2f.;cf. 5.3/4
garden(s) (Ar. janna, jannāt), i.e. Paradise (q.v.):parables about
terrestrial gardens, 18.32/1-44/2;68. 17-33
Gehenna (Ar. Jahannam):a name of Hell (q.v.)
Genie(s), see Jinn
God (Ar. Allāh):his bounty and goodness, 2.268/71f.;
10.58/9-60/1 ; 14.32/7-34/7;22.63/2-66/ 5;35.3;55.1-28;
80.24-32 his omniscience 6.59; 10.61/2; 11.5-5/7;
1 3·8/9-10/ 1 1 ;22.70/69;27.65/6;58.7/8 his power, 22.5-7;
28.68; 29.19/18f.; 35.43; 37.6-1 1 ; 42.49/8f.; 56.57-73; 79.27-33;
88.17-20; the only deity, 16.51 /3;23.116 /7-117;
27.59/60-64/ 5; 37.4f. ; 38.65f.; 39.2-3/4,64-6; 1 12.1-4 the
beautiful names, 17.110 hasnooffspring, 10.68/9;
19.88/91-95;37.149-57;43.16/15
,81f.sep
roecd
eatetiro
minesm
an’s
fat
e, 45.26/5; 5
7 .
2
gods,false,seeidols 2
;c
f.3.1
4 5/39 a
l
s r
e n
Gog and Magog (Ar. Y ājūj, Mājūj ) : barbarous tribes (or evil
spirits) confined behind a wall by Dh-l-Qarnayn,
18.93/ 2-97/6 their release ( shortly before the Day of
Judgement), 21.96
Goliath (Ar. J ālūt):terrified Saul’s army but killed by David,
2.249/50-251 /2
Gospel (Injīl):the book revealed to Jesus, 3.3/2,48/3,65/58;
5.46/ 5of.,66/ 70,68 /72,1 10/ 09; 9.1 1 1 / 2; 48.29; 57.27 M.
mentioned in it as ummī, 7.157/6;cf. 61.6
Greeks (Ar. R ūm), 30.title, 2 / 1f.
Grove (or Thicket) (Ar. ayka):the men of the Grove disobeyed,
1 5.78f.;26.176-89 (Shu'ayb sent);38.1 3 / 1 2;50.13
guidance (Ar. hudā), often mentioned, e.g.:true guidance from
God, 2.120/14; etc. the Qur’ān as guidance, 2.2/1 ;etc.

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I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Ḥ afṣ a: one of M.’s wives, referred to (without name), 66.4

ḥ ajj, see pilgrimage
Hāmān :an associate of Pharaoh, 28.6/5,8/7,38; 40.24/5,36/8
ḥ anīf, pure monotheist, see pp.1 5f. here
Hārūn, see Aaron
Hārūt: angel in Babylon, 2.102/96
Ḥ awāriyyūn, see Apostles of Jesus
Heaven, see Paradise
heavens:seven heavens created, 41.12 / 1 1 ; 65.12
Hell (Ar. an-nār), etc.: descriptions, 38.55-8; 70.15-18;73.12f.;
74.27-30; 104.5-9 punishment in it eternal, 2.81/75; 20.74/6;
43.74-8 has seven gates, 15.44 guarded by angels, 40.49/ 52;
74.3of. to be filled with many jinn and men, 7.179 / 8;
1 1 .1 19/20; 32.13; 38.85 ;cf. 50.30/29 ( ‘ Art thou full?’ )
Helpers, see Anṣ ār
Ḥ ijr (Al-) :a place whose people disobeyed, 15.80-4
Holy Spirit (Ar. rūḥ al-qudus), see Spirit
honey: produced from bees, 16.69/71
horses ( Ar. khayl ) :used as cavalry by Muslims, 8.60/2; 59.6
by cavalry of Iblīs, 17.64/6 also, 3.14 /12; 16.8
houris (Ar. ḥ ūr, dark-eyed ones):consorts in Paradise, 44.54;
52.20; 55.72; 56.22 cf. also 2.25/3; 4.57/60 ( ‘ pure spouses’ )
Ḥ ū d:the prophet sent to 'Ā d, 7.65/3-72/0; 1 1.title,
50/2-60/3,89/91 ; 26.1 23-40
Ḥ unaynra battle, 9.25
hunting: forbidden in state of sanctity, 5.1,2/3,(94/5) use of
dogs, 5.4/6
Ḥ uṭama (Al-), ( ‘ Crusher’ ): name of Hell, 104.4f.
Hypocrites (Ar. munāfiqūn):disaffected nominal Muslims in
Medina, 4.61 /4,88/90,138/7-145 /4; 8.49 / 5 1; 9.64/ 5-68/9,73/45
29 .11/10 ; 33.1,12,24,48/7,60,73; 48.6; 57.13; 63,title,1-8; 66.9
among Bedouin, 9.101 / 2 ‘ those in whose hearts is
disease ’ (fīqulūbi-him maraḍ ), (2.10/9);5 .5 2 / 7 ; 8.49 / 5 1;
9.125/6; 22.53/2; (24.50/49); 33.12,(32),60; 47.20/2,29/31;
74.31/3

Iblīs, the Devil:an angel (?) who refused to worship Adam,

2.34/257.11/10-18/17; 15.28-44; 17.61/3-65/7; 20.116/5;
38.71-84/5 ‘ one of the jinn’, 18.50/48 also, 26.95 (his
hosts); 34.20/ 19f. see also Satan
Ibrāhīm, iee Abraham
idols, false gods:various deities named, 53.19f.; 71.23/2-23 their
powerlessness, 7.191-198/7; 16.20-2; 25.3f.; 35.40/38 unable to

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idols, false gods (contd.) unable to

intercede, 6.94; 10.18/19;30.1 3/ 12 ;39.3/4,8 /9 turn against
worshippers at Judgement, 10.28/9f.; 19.82/ 5 ;etc. regarded
as females, 16.57/9 (see also daughters) are angels or jinn,
34.40/39f.;cf. 6.100 are mere names, 53.23 see also Ṭ āghūt
idolatry : unforgivable sin is shirk, ‘ associating’ (others with God),
4.48/ 51 , 1 16 idolaters (mushrikūn) to be excluded from Mecca,
9.28 idolaters not to be prayed for, 9.113/ 4f. idolaters like
a spider, 29.41/o apparent belief in a ‘ high god’ and lesser
deities, 6.136/ 7;23.84 / 6-89/91;29.61,63,65;43.8-15/14
Idrī s:a prophet (sometimes identified with Enoch), 19.56/7f.;
21.85
' Ifrī t:type of jinnī, 27.39
'Illiyyūn, 83.18-21
Ilyās, Ilyāsīn, see Elias
imām:leader or model, 2.124 /18 (of Abraham); 11.18/20 (of
the book of Moses); 17.71 /3;25.74;46.1 2 /11 (of the book of
Moses) model-book (?), 1 5.79;36.1 2 /11 leaders, 9.12;
21.73; 28.5/4,41; 32.24
'Imrān: father of Mary, 3.33/0-35 / 1; 66.12
infidels (Ar. kāfir ūn ), see unbelievers
injīl (Evangel), see Gospel
inheritance: basic principle, 4.7/ 8f.,32/ 6f. detailed rules,
4.11/12-14/18,19/23 (wives?), 176/5 making of wills,
2.180/76-182/77; 5.106/5-108/7 see also orphans
intercession (Ar. shafā'a):none (for sinners) on Last Day,
2.48/5,123/17,254/5;26.1oo;40.19;74.48/9 only by God’s
permission, 2.255 /6;6.51,70/69; 10.3; 19.87/90; 20.109/ 8;
21 .28/9;32.4/3;34.23/2;39.43/4f. that of deities unavailing,
10.18/19;3ο.13 / 12;36·33/2;43.86;53.26 (of angels)
Iram:a place, 89.7/6
' Isā,se Jesus
Isaac (Ar. I s 'ḥ aq) :given to Abraham, a prophet, 6.84; 11.71 /4;
14.39/41; 19.49/5o;21.72;29.27/6;37.1 1 2f. also,
2.133/27,136/0,140/4;3.84/78;4.163/1;12.6,38;38.45
unnamed son of Abraham as sacrifice, 37.102/0-11 1
Ishmael (Ar. Ismā'īl ) :a prophet, 2.133/27,136/0,140/34;
3.84/78; 4-163 / 1 ;6.86; 14.39/41; 19. 54/ 5f .;21.85 ;38.48 with
Abraham at Mecca, 2.125/19-127/1 unnamed son of Abraham
as sacrifice, 37.102/0-111
Islam (Ar. islām): as name of the religion, 3.19/17,85/ 79; 5.3 / 5;
6.125;39.22/3;61.7 a s ‘ submission’ (to God), 9.74/5;49.17
isrā’ (night journey): 17.1 (and title)

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I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Israel (Ar. Isrā’il): 3.93/87; 19.58/9 see also Jacob

Israelites, Children of Israel (Ar. Banū Isrā'īl): occurrence of
name (usually connected with Moses or Jesus), 2.40/38,
47/4,83/77,122/ 16,211/07,246/7; 3.49/3,93/87; 5.12/15,32/5,
70/ 4,72/ 6,79/82,110; 7·105/ 3,134/ i ,1 37/3f .;10.90,93;
17.2,4,10 1/3,104/6;20.47/9,80/2,94/5; 26.17/16,22/1,59,197;
27·76/ 8 ; 32·23; 40· 53/6; 43· 59; 44·30 /29; 45.16 / 1 5; 46.10/ 9 ;
61.6, 14 perversity of, 2.54/1-66/2,83 / 77-87 / 1 ; 4.153/2-162/0;
5.20/3-26/9,70 / 4F.;23.49/ 51-56/8 (and Christians) see also
Jews

Jacob (Ar. Ya'qūb).‘ given to Abraham, 6.84; 11.71/4 ; 19.49/50;

21.72;29·27/6 a Muslim, 2.132/26-140/34 a prophet (in
lists), 3.84/78; 4.163 / 1 ; 19.6; 38.45 father of Joseph,
12.6,38,68
Jahannam (‘ Gehenna’ ):a name of Hell (q.v.)
J ālūt, see Goliath
Jesus (Ar. 'Ῑ sā):a prophet, 2.87/1,253/4;3.48/3-51/44;
5·46/50,110 /ο9;43.63-6;57.27;61 .6 messenger of God,
4.171/69 in lists of prophets, 2.136/o;3-84/78; 4.162/1 ;6.85;
33·7;42.1 3/1 1 his annunciation and birth, 3.45/0-47/2;
19.16-33/4(not named) supported by his apostles, 3.52/45f.;
5. 1 1 1 ;6 1 .14 is God’s word, a spirit from him, 4.171/69 to be
raised to God, 3.55/48;(4.158/6) a created being, 3.59/2
not killed by Jews, 4.157/6-159/7 not son of God or a god,
4.171 /69;9·30; 19.34/ 5-36/7;43.58/7 (not named) cursed
unbelievers, 5.78 / 82 sending down of table, 5.112-15
announces Ahmad, 61.6 see also Mary (son of), Messiah
Jethro:sometimes identified with Shu'ayb (q.v.)
Jews: occurrence of name (Yahūd, Hūd, alladhīna hādū),
2.62/59,111/05,113/07,120/14,135/29,140/34; 3.67/0;
4.46/8,160/58; 5.18/21,41/5,44/8,51/6,64/9,69/73,82/5;
6.146/7;9·3ο;1 6.1 1 8/9;22.17;62.6 appeals to Jews of
Medina, 2.40/38-44/31,47/4-53/0,122/16-129/3; 3.64/ 57;
5.15/18 criticisms of Jews, 2.75/0-82/76,88/2-96/0,111/05-
11 7 / 1 (also Christians);3.72/65-85/79;4.44/7-7o/2,1 5o/49-
153/2; 5.64/9f.,78/82-81/4; 62.6-8 creed of Abraham
superior, 2.130/24-141/35;3.65/ 58-71/64; 5.44/8-50/5
Je
5 9 w .is-5h(?s)eb
2 e ealie
lsoveIsrrsain
e M
lit
es.,3.199/8 expulsionofJewishclan,
Jib
rt:il,dem
Jib oseG
asb
n (rie
? ) ,l4.51/4
jihād('effort’,‘holywar’),see warfare
226
 I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Jinn (or genies; singular jinnī) :created of fire, 1 5.27; 55.15/14

made to serve God, 51.56 Hell will be filled with jinn and
men, 6.128; 11.119 /20 ; 32.13; 41.25/4 jinn, like men, lead
people astray, 41.29 jinn subject to Solomon, 27.17,39-42
'ifrī t, a type of jinnī, 27.39 listen to Qur’ān from Muḥ ammad
and some are converted, 72.1-19; 46.29/8-32/1 messengers
sent to them, 6.130 pagans make them partners to God,
6.100 Iblīs was one, 18.50/48 see also, 55.31
izy a :tribute to be paid by non-muslims, 9.29 (later more
especially ‘ poll-tax’ )
Job (Ar. Ayyūb):his sufferings, 21.83f .;38.41/0-44 a prophet
(in lists), 4.162/1; 6.84
John (the Baptist), (Ar. Yaḥ yā):his miraculous birth, 3.38/3-
41/36; 19 .2/1-15; 21.89f. also, 6.85.
Jonah (Ar. Y ūnus): his story, 37.139-48; 68.48f. ( ‘ him of the
fish’, ṣ āḥ ib al-hūt) his success, 10.98 a prophet (in lists),
4.163 / 1; 6.86 see also Dhū-n-Nūn.
Joseph (Ar. Y ūsuf):his story, 12 also, 6.84; 40.34/6
Judaism, see Jews
J ūdi (A l-):a mountain, 11.44/6

Ka'ba: sanctuary of Mecca, 5.95 / 6,97/8 ‘ the House’ founded

by Abraham, 2.125/19-127/1 ; 22.26/7 ‘ this house’, 106.3
see also Mosque, Holy
Kāfūr ( ‘ camphor’ ):said to be fountain in Paradise, 76.5
khalīf a : deputy, vicegerent, 2.30/28 (Adam); 38.26/5 (David);
6.165 (in pl. of some Muslims)
Khaybar (a Jewish oasis):reference to the expedition, 48.15
Khidr (A l-):‘ one of our servants’ usually identified as,
18.65/4-82/1
Korah (Ar. Qārūn): Moses sent to him along with Pharaoh,
29.39/8; 40.23/4-25 /6 swallowed by the earth, 28.76-82
Koran, see Qur’ān
Koreish, see Quraysh

Lāt, see Allāt

‘ light verse’ (Ar. āyat an-nūr), 24.35
Lot (Ar. Lūṭ ):sent as prophet, 7.80/78-84/2;21.74f. the
people to whom he was sent punished, 11.77/9-83/4; 15.57-74;
26.160-73; 27.54/5-58/9; 29. 26/5,28/7-35/4; 37.133-8;
54.33-40 also, 6.86; 11.70/3,74/7,89/91; 2 1.7 1; 22.43;
38 .13/12; 50.13; 66.10 (his wife)

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Luqmān (an Arabian sage):is given wisdom by God and

admonishes his son, 3 1.12 /11-19 /18

Madyan, see Midian

Magians (Ar. Majūs), 22.17
magic ( Ar. siḥ r): taught by Hā rū t at Babel, 2.102/ 96 Moses
accused of magic, 7.109/6f.;10.76/7f.;26.34/3f.,49/8;27.1 3
Pharaoh’s magicians, 7.112/09-122/19; 10.79/80-81;26.36/5-51
Jesus accused of magic, 61.6 (?) Muḥ ammad accused of
magic, 37.1 5;etc.
Mājūj (Magog), see Gog
Majūs, see Magians
M ālik : said to be name o f angel, 43.77
man (Ar. insān) : his creation (as embryo, etc.), 22.5;23.12-14;
40.67/9;75.37/9;76.2;86.5-7;96.1f. creation of mankind,
6.98; 7.189-193 / 2; 15.26,28f.;39.6/8 God’s covenant with
mankind, 7.172 /1f. men are subject to death, 21.34/ 5f. men
are created weak, 4.28/ 32 creatures subjected to man,
14.32/7-34/7;etc. called to God at night, 6.6ο;39.42/3 see
also Adam
Manāt:name of idol, 53.20
marriage (Ar. nikāḥ ) :no intermarriage with idolaters, 2.221/0
marriage with Jewish and Christian women, 5.5/7 marital
intercourse, 2.223 marriage of widows, 2.234f. four wives
permitted, 4.3 rules of incest, 4.22/ 6f.; 33.4 ( fictive relation­
ships) various rules, 4.4/3 (dowry), 24/8-28/32,127/6-
129/30; 24.26,32f.; 60.11 slaves (as concubines), 4.25/9;
23.5-7;70.29-31 general, 30.21 /o M.’s special privileges
33.50/49-52 M.’s wives, 33.6 ( ‘ mothers’ of believers),
28-34,53-5,59; 66.3-5 temporary marriage (mut'a ), 4.24/8
(rejected interpretation) see also divorce, women
Mārūt:angel in Babylon, 2.102/96
Marwa:hill near Mecca, 2.158/3
Mary (Ar. Maryam):birth and upbringing, 3.35/1-44/39
annunciation and birth of Jesus, 3.45 /0-47/2; 19.16-33/4
her chastity and faith, 66.12 slandered by Jews, 4.156/5
Mary, son o f:‘ son of Mary' (alone), 23.50/2; 43.58/7 ‘ Jesus son
of Mary’, 2.87/1,253/4;3.45/ο;4.1 57/6,171 /69;5·46/5ο,
78/ 82,110 /o9,1 1 2,114; 19.34/ 5 ; 33·7 ; 57·27 ; 61·6,1 4 ‘ the
Messiah, son of Mary’, 5.17/19,72/6,75/9;9.31
Mary the Copt .‘ referred to as ‘ one of his (M.’s) wives’, 66.3
Masīḥ , see Messiah
maysir, see gambling

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Mecca (Ar. Makka): named, 48.24 ‘ mother of towns' (umm

al-qurā ), (or perhaps Medina), 6.92;42.7/5 see also Bakka,
Ka'ba, Mosque (Holy)
Medina (Ar. al-madina, ‘ the city' ):as a proper name (probably),
9.1o1 / 2,120 / 1; 33.60; 63.8 see also Yathrib, Anṣ ār, Mecca
Merciful, the (Ar. ar-Raḥ mān): apparently as a proper name of
God, 19.18,26/7,45/6, etc.; 5 5.1;etc. (in all about 50 times)
Messenger of God ( Ar. rasūl Allāh ):designation of M., 7.158/7,
etc. see also Muḥ ammad
Messengers of God (Ar. rusul, mursalān) :M. similar to previous
messengers, 4.163 /1-165 / 3; cf. 40.78 no distinctions to be
made between messengers, 2.136/0; 4.150/49-152/1
messengers differ in rank, 2.253/4 are human beings, 7.35/3;
16.43/ 5;cf. 22.75 /4 (or angels) use speech of own people,
14.4 always meet opposition, 1 5.1of.;23.44/6;46.35/4;
51.52 aspects of the message, 6.48; 16.36/8; 18.56/4 stories
revealed to confirm M., 11.120 /1 always attacked by Satan,

b , 4 .157 / 6
Messiah (Ar. al-masīḥ , i.e
o n ly.Jea suesss)e:ann
m g n
eu
r,nectica.t,in
22.5 2 / 1 ; cf.27.1 1 may produce ‘signs' ( miracles ), 40.78

y Je w s on
o,t3d.iv
45in
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not1/k6
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Midian (Ar. Madyan):the people to whom Shu'ayb was sent,
ary(sonof)
7.85/3-93/1; 11.84/5-95/8;29.36/5 Moses among them,
20.40/2; 28.22/1-28 also, 9.70/1 ; 22.44/ 3; 28.45
money:a talent, a large sum (qinṭ ār), 3.14/ 1 2,75/68;4.20/4
a dīnār (small gold coin, denarius), 3.75 /68 a dirham (silver
coin, drachma), 12.20
monks (Ar. ruhbān ):found among Christians, so friendly to
Muslims, 5.82/5 taken for lords (gods) by Christians, 9.31
many consume people’s wealth, 9.34 monasticism ( rahhāniyya)
invented by Christians, not prescribed by God, 57.27
month ( Ar. shahr): of twelve four are sacred, 9.36 no inter­
calary month, 9.37 the sacred month, 2.194/0,217/4 (fight­
ing ) ; 5.2,97/8 (appointed by God);9.5 see Ramaḍ ān
moon (Ar. qamar):appointed for reckoning time, 6.96; 10.5
Abraham rejects worship, 6.77 in Joseph’s dream, 12.4
subject to God’s command for man’s sake, 7.54/2; 13.2;
14.32/7;16.1 2;29.61 ;3 1 .29/8;35.13 /14 ; 39.5/7 gives light,
10.5;25.61 /2 ;7 1.16/15 the crescent, 36.39 rites at new
moons (ahilla), 2.189/5 not to be worshipped, 41.37 split
(on Last Day), 54.1 ;cf. 75.8,9 in oaths, 74.32/5;84.18;
91.2 also,21.33/4;22.18;36.40;55.5/4

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I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Moses ( Ar. Mūsā) : his childhood, 20.34-40/1; 28.3/2-21 /o

in Midian, 28.22/1-28 called to be a prophet and deliver
Israelites, 14.5-14/17; 19-51 / 2-53/4; 20.9/8-23/4; 25.35 / 7f.;
26.10/9-17/16;27.7-14;28.30-5;79.15-19 sent to Pharaoh
with signs, etc., 7.103/1-136/2; 10.75/6-89;20.24/ 5-76/8;
23.45 / 7-48/ 50; 26.1 8/17-51 ; 28.36-43; 40.23 / 4-50/ 3 ;
43·46 /5- 56 ; 51·38-40 ; 79· 20-5 the exodus, 7.137/3-141/37;
( 1ο.90);20.77/9-82/4;26·52-68 on Sinai, 7.142/38-147/5,
1 54/3-157/6 receives the Book (the Torah or Old Testa­
ment), 2.53/0 (and Furqān);6.91,1 54/5;46.12 / 1 1 ; 53.36/7
(ṣ uḥ uf); 87.19 (ṣ uḥ uf) story of calf, 2.51/48-56/3;
7.148/6-153/2;20.83/ 5-98 predicts a prophet ( sc.
Muḥ ammad), 7.157/6 miracles, etc., 2.60/57 f.;7.160 calls
Israelites to enter the land, 5.20/ 3-26/ 9 sacrifice of a cow,
2.67/ 3-71 /66 story of Moses and ‘ the servant’,
18.60/59-82/1 also, 2.87/1,92/86,108/2,136/0,246/7;
3.84/78;4.153/2 ;6.84;7.1559; 1 1 .17/20,96/9,1 10/2;
17.2,101 / 3; 21.48/ 9; 22.44/ 3; 23.49/ 51; 28.48,76; 29.39/ 8;
32.23; 33.7,69; 40.53/6; 41.45; 46.30/29; 61 .5
Mosque, the Further (Ar. al-masjidal-aqṣ ā): 17.1 (traditionally

M
oM
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jidita,q
identified with the chief mosque in Jerusalem)

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19a,2'b8aproposedvisit(inM arch628),48.25,27
mother(s) (Ar. umm):to be respected for bearing and suckling,

āahlle
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3 1.14/13 ;46-15 /14
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8.29;61.6(asAhm ad?)
(2) his function', as a warner (nadhir), 1 9.97;33.45/4;74.2;
78.40; 92.14 as reminding (mudhakkir), 88.21 as an
announcer (bashīr) of good or bad, 19.97; 33.45/4;48.8;
45.8/7; 84.24 not a guardian or overseer, 17.54/6;42.48/7;
88.22 as a witness (shāhid), 33.45/4;48.8 as a messenger
of God (rasūl Allāh), 7.158/7;46.9/8 as a prophet (nabī ),
7.158 (ummī) ; 8.64/5f.; 9.61,73/4,113/4,117/8; 66.1,3,9 ‘ seal
of the prophets’, 33.40 ‘ a mercy to the worlds’, 21.107
universality of the mission, 25.1; 34.28/7

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 I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Muḥ ammad: (3) events in his life: had been an orphan, erring, poor,
93.6-8 despised a blind man and preferred wealthy, 80.1-10
Meccan plots against him, 8.30 told to ‘ emigrate’, 1 5.94(?);
29.56(?);73.10(?) for his wives see marriage)
(4) aspects o f his mission:his, visions, 53.4- 18;81.19-25 is
given encouragement, 15.94-9;43.40/39-45 /4;93.3-5 is
preserved from error, 4.113; 22.52/1 does not know future,
6.50; 11.31/3 his ‘ night-journey’, 17.1 accusations of
sorcery or madness, 7.184/3;15.6; 51.52; 74.24 (see also poets,
soothsayer) accusation of forgery, 21.5; 35.4,25/3; 52.33
an example to the believers, 33.21 to be saluted and respected,
33.56;49.2f. to pray for forgiveness, 4.106;47.19/21
mu'min, mu'minūn, see believers
munāfi q ūn, see Hypocrites
Muslim(s) (Ar. muslim-ūn)\meaning ‘ surrendered’ (to God),
2.1 33/27;3.52/45,102/97;6.162/3; 12 .10 1/2; 48.16;etc.
meaning ‘ Muslim’, 1 5.2;27.31,38;29.46/5;33.35;39.11/14;
68.35;etc. see also believers, Islam
Naḍ ir (An-), Jewish clan:referred to (without name), 69.2-5
Naṣ ārā, see Christians
Nasr: an idol, 71.23
New Testament, see Gospel
Night Journey (Ar. isrā' ): Muḥ ammad’s experience of this, 17.1
Night of Power, or of Decision ( Ar. laylat al-qadr) :in it the
Qur’ān sent down, 97.1-5 ;cf. 44.3/2 ( ‘ in a blessed night’ )
Nimrod:said to be man who disputed with Abraham, 2.258/60;
and who advised burning him, 21.68-70 sometimes identified
with builder of the tower (of Babel), 16.26/8
Noah ( Ar. Nūh) :as prophet and preacher, 7.59/7-64/ 2;
10.71 / 2-73/4; 1 1.25/7-34/6; 23.23-30/1 ; 26.105-20;
37.75/3-82/0; 71.1-28/9 those who rejected message destroyed
by flood, 11.36/8-48/50; 25.37/9; 29.14/ 13f.; 54.9-17 his
wife an unbeliever, 66.10 also, 3.33/0; 4.163/1; 6.84; 7.69/7;
9.70/1; 11.89/91; 14.9; 17.3,17/18 ; 19.58/9; 21.76f ; 22.42/3;
33-7;40-5,31 /2;42.1 3 / 11;5 0 .12 ; 51.46; 53.52/3;57.26;
(6 9 .11,12); 72.1
nudity, sacral: of Satan, 7.27/6 forbidden, 7.31 / 29f.

oaths: warning about hasty oaths, 2.224f. penalty for breaking

oaths of alliance with the Islamic community, 3.77/1 expia­
tion of broken oaths, 5.89/91;cf. 62.2 oaths to be observed,
16.92/4 oaths (in text of Q.), 36.1f.; 51.1-9; 52.1-8; 77.1-7;
89.1-5; 9 1.1-10 ; 93.1-3; 95.1 -5; 1oo.1-6;etc.

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I N D E X TO T HE Q U R ' Ā N

Old Testament, see Torah, Psalms

orphans (Ar. yatāmā): to be treated fairly, 2.220/ 1 8f.;4.8/9;
89.17/18;93.9 property to be respected, 4.2,6/5f.,1o /1 1 ;
17.34/6 M. an orphan, 93.6 marriage of female orphans,
4.3,127/6

parables: the fire at night, 2 .17 /16f. the downpour, 2.19 /18f.
good and corrupt trees, 14.24/9-27/32 slave, dumb man,
16.75 / 7f. man with two gardens, 18.32/1 -44/ 2 water
and vegetation, 18.45 / 3 God’s light, 24.35 master and
slaves, 30.28/ 7 an unbelieving town, 36.13 /12-29/ 8
slave with several masters, 39.29/ 30 a blighted garden,
68.17-33
Paradise (Ar.janna, ‘ garden', etc):those who enter Paradise,
3.133/27-136/0 (those who seek forgiveness), 195/3-195
(sufferers for God);9.1 1 1 /2f. (believers, etc.);43.69f.
(Muslims and wives);47.4/ 5-6/7 (fighters for God);
50.32/1-34/3 (the pious);68.34 (do.);79.4of. (God-fearing);
85.11 (believers, upright) delights of Paradise, 2.25 / 3;
4.57/60;11.108/10 (eternal); 43.68-73 ;47.1 5/ 16f.; 56.10-26/5
(see also houris) the blessed praise God, 1o.1of. the vision
of God (54.55?);75.23 the blessed see the damned, 7.44/2,
47/ 5- 51/ 49 ; 37· 55/ 3-6 1/ 59; ( 79·36 )
parents: to be shown kindness and respect, 17.23/ 4f.; 3 1.14 /13;
46.15/14, (17 /16 ) not to be obeyed if urge to idolatry,
29.8/7;31.15/14 abandoned on Last Day, 80.34f.
patriarchs : descendants of Jacob, see Tribes
People of the Book, see Book (People of the)
Pharaoh (Ar. Fir'awn): rejects message of Moses, 7.103/1-137/3;
10.75/6-92;ι 7.10 1/3-103/5;20.24/5-36,42/4-79/81;
23.45/7-48/50;26.10/9-66;28.3/2-6/5,32-42;40.23/4-13/3;
43.46/5-57/6; 51.38-40;79.1 5-25 orders Haman to build a
tower, 28.38;40.36/8-38/40 ‘ family of Pharaoh', ‘ people
of Pharaoh’, 2.49/6f.;3.11/9;7.141/7;8.52/4,54/6;14.6;
40.45/8f.;44.17 / 16-29/8, ( 3 1 /o);54.41 f. ‘ him of the stakes'
(awtād), 38.12/11;89.10/9 also, 11.96/9;27.12;29.39/8;
38 .12 /11;50 .13;66.11 (wife);69.9;73.1 5/16;85.1 8;89.9
pilgrimage, greater (Ar. ḥ ajj) :general regulations, 2.196/2-
203/199;22.27/8-32/3 at time of new moon, 2.189/5 Ṣ afa
and Marwa included, 2.158/3 a duty to God, 3.97/1
hunting forbidden, 5.1-2 / 3,94 / 5-96 / 7 fishing permitted,
5.96/7 sacrifices, 22.33/4-36/7;(37.107) proclamation
excluding pagans, 9.3,( 1 8?),28

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 I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

pilgrimage, lesser (Ar. 'umra): mentioned with greater,

2.158/3,196/2 probably referred to, 9.17f.
plagues of Egypt: 7.133/o-13 5/ 1; 17.1o1 / 3f. see also Pharaoh
pledge (Ar. bay'a):of the women, 60.12 under the tree, 48.18
see covenant
poet(s) (Ar. shā'ir):M . is not a poet, as pagans say, 21.5;
36.69;37.36/ 5; 52.29f.;69.40-2 poets, inspired by demons,
fall in love in every wadi, 26.221-6
polygamy, see marriage
polytheism, see idolatry, idols
prayer
( 1) formal worship (Ar. ṣ alāt ):enjoined on prophets, 20.11/14
(Moses);73.20 (M. and Muslims) times of prayers, 2.238/9;
11.114 /6 ;1 7·78/8ο;20.13ο;30.17/ 16;32.16 (night);
50.39/8f.;73.2-4 (night), 20 (abrogated);4.103/4 (general)
to be made facing Mecca, 2.144 /39 shortening of prayers
on expeditions or in danger, 2.239/40;4.101/2-103/4 bowing
(rukū') as part of worship, 2.125/19; 22.26/7,77/6; 48.29; etc.
prostration (sujūd) as part of worship, 2.125/19; 4.102/3;
25.64/ 5;48.29; 50.40/ 39;76.26;96.19(? ) ;etc. marks of
prostration on believers, 48.29 Friday prayer, cessation of
work, 62.9f. no funeral prayer for pagans, 9.84/5 various
rules, 4.43/6;6.52; 17.1 10; 107.4-7 (see also ablutions)
opponents prevent worship, 96.9f.
(2) informal supplication (Ar. du'ā', isrighfār) :God is hearer
of prayer, 3.38/3; 14.39/41 ; 19.4;etc. prayer only to God,
13.14/15 false gods do not answer, 13.14/15;35.14 /15 no
supplication for pagan kinsmen, 9 .113/4f.;cf. 71.28/9 (Noah)
supplication for hypocrites unavailing, 9.80 / 1; 63.5,6 see
also intercession
Preserved Tablet (Ar. lawḥ maḥf ūz): Qur’ān written on it, 85.21 f.
priests (Ar qisī sīn ) :found among Christians, so friendly to
Muslims, 5.82/5
prophets ( Ar. nabī) : God raised up prophets, 2.213/09; 5.20/3;
43.6/ 5f.;45.16/1 5 covenant with prophets to acknowledge
others, 3.81/75 Jews kill and oppose prophets, 2.61/58,91/85;
3.21 /o,1 1 2/o8,1 81 /77;4.1 55/4 lists of prophets, 4.163/1;
6.83-9; 1 9.58/9;29.27/6;33.6; 57.26 M. the ‘ seal of the
prophets', 33.40 each has an enemy, 6.112;25.31 /3 see also
Messengers
Psalms (Ar. zabūr ) :a book given to David, 4.163 / 1; 17.55/7;
cf.21.105 representing Ar. zubur ( perhaps ‘ scriptures' ),
3.184/1 ; 16.44/6; 23.53/5; 26.196;35.25/3; 54.43,52.

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I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Purgatory:possible references, 3.24/3 (limited period in Hell);

7.46/4-49/7 (men of the a 'rāf ) ;9.113/4 (asking pardon for
idolaters); 23.99/101f. (request for second chance, mention
of barzakh)

Qārūn, see Korah

qibla (direction of prayer): change from Jerusalem as qibla,
2.142/36,143/38 Muslims to face Sacred Mosque,
2.144/39-150/45 houses in Egypt a qibla for Moses,
10.87
Qur’ān: ‘ a qur’ān’, 10.15/16,61/2; 13.31/0; 15 .1; 17.106/7;
36.69; 41.44 (‘ foreign’ ); 56.77/6; 72.1; 85.21 an Arabic
Qur’ān, 1 2.2;2o.1 1 3/2;39.28/9;41.3/2;42.7/5; 43.3/2 the
Qur’ān (Koran), 2.185/ 1 ; 4.82/4;5.101; 7.204/3;9.111/2;
15.87,91; 16.98/100; 17.45/7,46/9,60/2, (78/80), 82/4;
20.2/1 ; 25.32/4; 27.1,6,91/3;36.1; 38.1; 46.29/8; 47.24/6;
50.1,45; 54.17,22,32,40; 55.2/1; 73.4,20; 76.23; 84.21 this
Qur’ån, 6.19; 10.37/8; 12 .3 ;1 7.9,41 /3,88/9of.; 18.54/2;
25.30/2; 27.76/8; 30.58; 34.31/0; 39.27/8; 41.26/5; 43.31/0;
59.21. ‘ the reciting (of it)’, 75.17f.
Quraysh: tribe inhabiting Mecca, 106.1

Raḥ mān, see Merciful

rain:as God’s mercy, 7.57 / 5f.
Ramaḍ ān: month of fasting, 2.185/1
Raqīm (A r-); mentioned with Men of the Cave, 18.9/8
Rass (Ar-):the people of it unbelievers, 25.38/40; 50.12
rasūl, see Messenger of God
refrains:found in Suras 26,37 (81/79, etc.), 54,55,77 see also
p. 72 here
religion ( Ar. dīn) : to fight till religion is God’s, 2.193/ 89 n o
compulsion in religion, 2.256/7 religion before God is
Islam, 3.19/17 God only object of religion, 7.29/8; 98.5/4
religious instruction on campaign, 9.122/3 Muslims as
brothers in religion, 9 .11; 33.5 religion of Muslims that of
A
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10 9t.6
ance(AseA
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a):nature9.5of repentance, 4.16/20-18/22
from corrupt religion, 19.60/1
the importance of repentance, 25.70f.; 39.54/ 5; 42.47/6;
85.10;etc.

234
 I N D E X TO T H E QUR' A N

responsibility: each accountable for his good and evil deeds,

17.15/16;35.18/19;41.46;74.38/41;99.6-8; etc. 2.48/5;
16.93 / 5 none responsible for another, 10.41 / 2 degrees of
reward, 6.132 none burdened beyond capacity, 2.286
responsibility for attitude to revelation, 10.108
resurrection (Ar. b a 'th, etc.): historical examples, 2.243/4,259/61
unbelief in resurrection, 13.5; 19.66/7 ; 27.67/9f.; 32.10/9;
34.7; 36.78; 37.1 6f.; 44.35 / 4f.; 45.24/ 3f.; 75. 3f.; 79.1 of. period
between death and resurrection, 2.259/61;20.103f.;23.112/4-
1 1 5/7; 30.55 /4 prefigured by rain and springtime, 7.57/5;
22.5; 30.19/18,50/49;33.9 / 10; 50.9-11 parallel to creation,
29.19/18; 36.79; 46.33/2; 50.15/14; 56 /62; 75.36-40 (creation
of man); 80.22 fire a symbol of resurrection, 36.80
ransacking of graves, 82.4; 84.4; 100.9 ‘ day of resurrection'
(yawm al-qiyām a), passim
retaliation (Ar. qiṣ āṣ ):rules prescribed, 2.178/3f., 194/0; 42.40/38f.
in Mosaic law, 5.45/9 not to exceed injury, 16.126/7 also
22.39/40,60/59
rites (Ar. mansak, pl. manāsik):at Mecca, 2.128/2 (Abraham),
200/196 (pilgrimage) a rite for each community, 22.34/ 5,67/6
Romans: inhabitants of eastern Roman empire, see Greeks
rūḥ (ar-), rūh al-qudus, see Spirit, Gabriel
Rūm, see Greeks

Sabā, see Sheba

Sabaeans (Ar. Sābi'ūn):a people of believers (along with
Jews and Christians), 2.62/59; 5.69/73; 22.17 (also with
Magians)
Sabbath (Ar. sabt): Jewish day of rest, 4.154/3; 16.124/5
punishments for those who break it, 2.65/1; 4.47/ 50;7.163
sacrifice: sacrifice (naḥ r) commanded along with prayer, 108.2
sacrifice ( dhabḥ ) of cows by Moses, 2.67/3-71 / 66 sacrificial
animals as an offering (hady) at the Ka'ba, 2.196/2;
5.2,95 /6,97/8 the name of God to be pronounced over such
animals, 22.34/5,36/ 7 (budn, camels ) the value of sacrifice
is in piety, 22.37/8 the offering (qurbān) of the sons of
Adam, 5.27/30 an offering (qurbān) consumed by fire as a
sign, 3.183/79 Abraham’s sacrifice (dhabḥ ) of his son,
37.102/1,107
Ṣ afā:hill near Mecca, 2.158/3
sakīna (assurance, or the Hebrew Shechina):2.248/9; 9.26,4ο;
48.4,18,26
ṣ alāt, see prayer ( 1)

235
I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Ṣ āliḥ : prophet sent to Thamūd, 7.73 /1-79/7; 11.61 /4-68 / 7 1;

26.141-58; 27.45/6-53/4 people of Ṣ āliḥ , 11.89/91
Salsabīl : a spring in Paradise, 76.18
salutation, see social behaviour
Sāmiri (As-) (the Samaritan?):made golden calf, 20.85/7-96
Samuel:mentioned but not named, 2.246/7
Saqar:name of Hell(?), 54.48; 74.26f.,42/3
Satan (Ar. ash-Shayṭ ān):the Devil (as a proper name),
2.36/4,168/3,208/4,268/71,175/6;3.36/1,155/49,175/69;
4.38/42,60 / 3,76/ 8, 83/ 5,1 1 9 / 8f .; 5.90 / 2f.; 6.43,68/ 7,1 42/ 3 ;
7.20/19,22/1,27/6,175/4,200/ 199f.; 8.11,48/ 50; 12.5,42,100/1 ;
14.22/6; 16.63/5,98/100; 17.27/9,53/ 5,64/6; 18.63/2; 19.44/ 5f.;
20.120/18; 22.52/1f.; 24.21; 25.29/31; 27.24; 28.15/14; 29.38/7;

19/20;59.16 satans(pl.shayāṭīn), seedem

31.21/0; 35.6 ; 36.6ο ; 38.41/ο ; 41.36; 43.62; 47· 25/ 7 ; 58.10/ 1 1 ,
ons
Saul(Ar.Ṭālūt):kingofIsrael,2.247/8-249/50
ssecar2iptur.reb
(A s,aḥr):sseB
o
o
h k,ocnorth
ip ru
psteio
e an
isasignofGod’s.31bo/ο;42.32/1
.164/59;14.32/7;16.14; 17.66/8;22.65/4;31 unty, ;
4 5 .12 /11; 55.24 God guides in darkness of land and sea,
6.63,97 (by stars); 27.63/4 God brings safely to land after
storm, 10.22/3; 17.67/9 Israelites delivered at (Red) Sea,
2.50/47; 7.138/4; 10.90; 20.77/9; 26.63; 44.24/3 boiling of sea
on Last Day, 81.6; 82.3; the two seas (fresh and salt),
25.53/5; 27.61/2; 35.12/1 3;cf. 18.60/59; 55.19 sea as ink for
God’s words, 18.109; 31.27/6(?)
Seal of the Prophets (Ar. khā ṭ am an-nabiyyīn): title applied to
Muḥ ammad, 33.40
Seven Sleepers, see Cave, Men of
shafā 'a , see intercession
Shahāda (confession of faith):‘ no deity but God’, 37.35/4;
47.19/ 2 1; etc. ‘ Muḥ ammad is the Messenger of God' , 48.29
Sheba (Ar. Sabā’ ): a land ruled by a queen, 27.22-44/ 5 a people
punished, 34.15 /14-19/18 (and title)
Shechina,se sakīna
ship(s) (Ar . fu lk), see sea, ark
Shu'ayb:prophet sent to Midian, 7.85/3-93 / 1 ; 11.84/5-95/8;
29.36/ 5f. prophet sent to men of Grove, 26.176-89
Sijjīn:a book(?), 83.7f.
Sinai (Ar. Sīnā’, Sīnīn):the mount of S., 23.20; 95.2 referred to
as ‘ the Mount’ (Ar. Ṭ ū r), 2.63/0,93/87; 4.154/3; 19.52/3;
20.80/2; 28.29; 52.title, 1
Sirius (Ar. ash-Shi‘rā):the star, 53.49/50

236
 I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

sleep (Ar. nawm, manām): God has appointed sleep as rest,

25.47/9; 78.9 human souls return to God in sleep, 39.42/3
God does not sleep, 2.255 /6
social behaviour:gait in walking, 17.37/9;25.63/4 salutation
o f ‘ Peace’, 4.86/8;6.54;25.63/4;cf.24.61 domestic privacy
to be observed, 24.27f., 58/7f. modesty in men and women,
24.30f., 6o/59;33.55 (M.’s wives) eating in other houses,
24.61 /o respect for M.’s houses, 33.53;49.4f. voices not
raised when M. present, 49.2f. avoidance of private conclaves,
58.7/8-10/11
Solomon (Ar. Sulaymān):the demons in S.’s reign, 2.102/96
wind and demons or jinn subjected to S., 21.78-82; 34.12/11-
14/13;38.36/5-40/39 repents and is forgiven, 38.30/29-40/39
controls birds, 27.15-21 meets Queen of Sheba, 27.22-45
also, 4·163/1 ;6.84
soothsayer (Ar. kāhin):M. is not one, 52.29; 69.42
spider (Ar. 'ankabūt): parable of spider, 29.41/o
Spirit, the (ar-rūḥ ):is sent down (from God), 16.2 (to warners,
with angels);40.1 5 (to warners); 19.17 (to M ary);26.193
( Faithful Spirit, with revelation);97.4 (with angels on Night
of Power) inspires M., 42.52 is of God’s ‘ affair’, 17.85/7;
cf. 40.15; 42.52; 94.4(?) along with angels, 70.4 (mounting
to God), 78.38 (in ranks);also 40.15; 97.4 Jesus a spirit
from God, 4.171/69 God’s spirit breathed into man, 15.29;
32·9/8;38.72;21 .91 (into Mary);66.12 (into Mary?) the
Holy Spirit ( rūḥ a l qudus) aided Jesus, 2.87/1,253/4; 5.110/09
the Holy Spirit revealed Qur’ān, 16.102/4 a spirit from God
supports believers, 58.22 see also Gabriel
spoils, see booty
star(s) (Ar. najm):stars created by God to guide men by land
and sea, 6.97; 7.54/2; 16.12,16 do obeisance to God, 22.18
Abraham turned from worshipping a star, 6.76; 37.88/6 stars
blotted out on Last Day, 77.8; 81.2 shooting stars as stones
thrown at demons, see demons constellations (burūj) , 85.1
see also Sirius
ṣ uḥ u f (sheets?):see book ( 2 ) ;also p. 33 here
Sulaymān, see Solomon
sun (Ar. shams):created by God to serve men, 7.54/2; 14.33/7;
16.12; 29.61; 31.29/8 not to be worshipped, 41.37
worshipped by Queen of Sheba, 27.24 Abraham turned
from worshipping, 6.78 sun and its brightness in oath, 91.1
on Last Day, 75.9; 81.1

237
I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

sūra:opponents challenged to bring one or ten, 2.23/1; 10.38/9;

11.13 /16
Suwā ': an idol, 71.23/2
swearing, see oaths

Tabūk (long expedition led by Muḥ ammad in 630):referred to

(not by name), 9.29-35,42-8,81 /2-83/4(?)
T ābūt, see ark
Ṭ āghūt ( o r ‘ idols’ ), 2.256/7,257/9; 4.51/4,60/3,76/8; 5.60/5;
16.36/8; 39.17/19
Ṭ ā lūt, see Saul
T asnim:a fountain in Paradise, 83.27
Tawrāt, see Torah
Thamūd: tribe to which Ṣ āliḥ sent, 7.73/1-79/7; 11.61/4-68/71;
26.141-58; 27.45/6-53/4; 51.43-5; 54.23-31; 91.11-15 also,
9.70/ 1 ; 1 1.95/8; 14.9; 17.59/61; 22.42/3; 25.38/40; 29.38/7;
38.13/12; 40.31/2; 4 1.13/12,17/16; 53.51/2; 69.4f.; 85.18;
89.9/8
theft: punishment of, 5.38/42f.
Thicket, Men of the, see Grove
Torah (Ar. tawrāt) :the Pentateuch or the Old Testament
generally, 3.3/2,48/3,50/44,65/ 58,93/87; 5.43/7,44/8,46/ 50,
66/70,68/72,110 ;7 . 1 57/6 (refers to Μ .);9. 1 1 1 /2;48.29;
6 1 .6 ; 6 2 . 5
T rench(Ar.khandaq):dayofTrench(siegeofM edinain627),
3
Trib3 .9 -2 7
‘Peastr(A
iarr.ch
ts)',2.13:6
ā
sb
a de/s0c,14
end
0a/n
3t4s;3o.8
fJa
4/c7o8b;4
,a.16
lso3interp.16
re0
tedas
/1;7
tr
usts:thingsentrusted to be repaid, 4.58/61
Tubba': ruler of Himyarites of South Arabia, 44.37/6; 50.13
Ṭ ū r ( ' mount ' ), see Sinai
Ṭ uwā: valley of Moses' experience, 20.12;79.16

Uḥ ud (hill north of Medina): revelations about time of battle,

3.102/97-179/4
'umra, see pilgrimage (lesser)
unbelievers ( Ar. kāfirūn): have a seal on their hearts, veil over
sight, etc., 2.6/ 5f.; 17.45 /7 f.;36.8/7 f. ascribe equals to God,
6.1 reject revelations, 6.25 ridicule Muḥ ammad, 21.36/7;
41 .26/5;44.14 /13;50.2f. their obstinacy, 26.3/2-8/7;
36.10/9 their pride, 38.1 the seriousness of unbelief,
41.52 Muslims to fight them, 47.4 symbolized by wives of
Noah and Lot, 66.10 among People of Book, 98.1

238
 I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

unbelievers (contd.)
their punishment, 3.10/8;7.41/39; 14.29/34;22.19/20-22,72/1;
2 5 .11/ 1 2-14/15 ;27.5; 33.64/5 ;36.63f.;40.71 /3;64.5f.
(of former unbelievers);67.6-9
unchastity (Ar. zinā):forbidden, 4.16/20; 17.32/4;25.68
punished by scourging, 24.2 restrictions on marriage, 24.3,26
four witnesses needed against women, 4.15 /19; 24.4f.
accusations by husband, 24.6-9 accusation against 'Ā ’isha
24.11-25
usury (Ar. ribā, gain): forbidden to Muslims, 2.275/6-281;
3.130/25; 30.39/8 forbidden to Jews, 4.161/59;5.62/7(?)
'Uzayr, see Ezra
'Uzzā (Al-):an idol ( ‘ the strong one’ ), 53.19

visions: of Muḥ ammad, 17.1 ( ‘ night-journey’ ), 60/2;53.1-18;

8 1.19 -2 4 of Joseph, 1 2 . 4 f . of Pharaoh, 1 2 . 4 3 - 9 of Abraham,
37.102/0-7

Wadd:an idol, 71.23/2

warfare: meritorious to ‘ expend effort’ (jihād) ‘ in the way of
God’, 2.218/5; 3.142/36; 4.95/7; 5.35/9,54/9;8.72/3,74/5f.;
9.19f.,24;49.1 5;etc. command to ‘ expend effort’ (jihād),
9.41,73/4;22.78/7;66.9 command to fight, 2.190/86,244/5;
4·71/3,95/7;8·39/40; 9.13f., 29,36,123/4;22.39/40;47.4,34/7;
61.1of. fighting in the sacred months, 2.217/4; 9.36
reluctance to fight, 2.246/7;4.77/9f.;9.38,42-8,86/7f.; 47.20/2
merits of death ‘ in the way of God’, 2.154/49; 3.157/1,
169/3,195/4; 47.4/5-6/7 superiority of believers, 8.65/6f.
seealso Badr, booty, Uḥ ud, etc.
wine (Ar. khamr):forbidden, 2.219/6 (but also uses);5.90/2
wine supplied in Paradise, 47.15 /16 from grapes an
intoxicating drink (sakar) 16.67/9
women: rules for fair treatment, 4.127/ 6-130/ 29 good men and
women rewarded, 33.35 rules for widows, 2.234f. provision
for widows, 2.240/1 suckling of children, 2.233 avoidance
of defamation, 24.4-9,23f. modest behaviour, veiling, 24.31
precautions to avoid insult( ? ), 33.59 reception of believing
women, 60.10-12 women inferior to men, 2.228; 4.34/8

Yaghūth:an idol, 71.23

Yaḥ yā, see John
Y ājūj, see Gog
Ya'qūb, see Jacob

239
I N D E X TO T H E Q U R ' Ā N

Yathrib:old name of Medina, 33.13

Ya'ūq:an idol, 71.23
Y ūnus, see Jonah
Y ūsuf, see Joseph

zabūr, see Psalms

Zacharias, Zechariah (Ar. Zakariyyā’ ): father of John the
Baptist, 3.38/3-41/36; 19.2/ 1- 1 1 / 1 2 ;2 1 .89f. guardian of
Mary, 3.37/2 also, 6.85
Zaqqūm (az-):tree in Hell, 37.62/o-68/6;44.43- 5o;56.51-6
Zayd (ibn-Hāritha) : M.’s ‘ adopted’ son, 33.37
Zaynab (bint-Jaḥ sh): reference (without naming her) to her
divorce from Zayd and marriage to M., 33.37;cf. 33.4f.

240
 IN D E X

The Arabic article al-, with its variants, an-, ash-, etc.,
is neglected in the alphabetical arrangement

Aaron, 1 3 2 , 145, 146 Abū-Bakr— contd.

abbreviations, 187 letters, 63
‘abd, 19 caliphate of, 32
‘Abd-Allāh, 35 collection o f Qur’ān under,
‘Abd-Allāh ibn-az-Zubayr, 42 38, 40-2,50
‘Abd-al-Malik, 47 Tradition about Muḥ ammad’s
‘ Abd-al-Muṭṭalib, 10 death, 51
‘Abd-ar-Raḥ mān ibn-al-Ḥ ā rith, Abū-Ja'far, 50
42 Abū-Lahab, 11
‘Abd-ar-Raḥ mān ath- Abū-l-Aswad ad-Du' alī, 48
Tha'ālibī, 84 Abū-l-Ḥ ā rith, 49
Abraham Abū-Ṭ ā lib, 1 0 , 11
as a ḥ anīf , 99, 119 , 129, 157 Abyssinia(n)
as a prophet, 1 1 9 , 1 2 9 , 156 Christianity of, 3, 8
attack on idol-worship, occupation o f Yemen, 3, 8
129-30 trade with, 4, 8
connection with Mecca, 1 1 8 words in Qur’ān, 85
millat Ibrāhīm , 119 Acts, 165
not Jew nor Christian, 118 , 157 'Ā d, 2 6 , 12 7 -8 , 1 3 1 , 1 3 2 , 133
pure religion of, 9 , 12, 99, Adam, 1 4 3 , 156
1 1 9 , 129 -30 , 1 5 7 , 163 additions, 39, 45-6, 51, 95-6,
revelation to, 33 10 2 , 1 0 3 , 123
story of, 73, 9 6 , 12 9 -30 , 13 1, address, forms of, 65-8, 111, 194
1 3 2 , 1 3 3 , 141 admonition, 2 7 , 12 1, 144-5
‘ suggestion' Muḥ ammad adultery, 166
should follow, 2 0 , 99 agriculture, 3, 5 , 7-8
abrogation, 56, 86-9, 114 A ḥ madiyya, 50
Abū-'Am r, 49 aḥ ruf, 48
Abū-Bakr 'Ā ’isha, 24
association with mysterious ajzā', ju z', 57

241
INDEX

'A lī, 35, 51 Arabic— contd.

'A lī ibn-Abī-Ṭ ā lib, 49 tongue, Qur’ān in, 7
Alladhīnakafarū, 120 Arabs
Alladhīnazalamū)120 descent from Ishmael, 1 1 8
Allāh Qur’ān addressed to 7th c., 1
ashighgod, 116-17 theory o f descent, 7
‘thegod’ oftheKa'ba, 116 Arberry, Arthur J., 178
useof, 152 Armenia, 42
alliances, 13 asbāb an-nuzūl (occasions o f
alms,legal, 163 revelation), 7 4 , 108-9,
alternative continuations, 96-8, 123, 167
10 7 ,1 13 Ash'arite school, 170
Amari, Michele, 175 'Ā shūrā, 98, 163
al-A 'mash, 50 'Āṣ im, 49
an' ām, 5 aslama, 119
andād, 103 asseverative passages, 79-80
Andrae, Tor, 1 8 , 19, 115 assonance, 60, 61, 69-71, 79,
angel(s) 90, 92, 96, 97, 154
angelic beings, 78 autocratic bloc, 1 7 1 , 172
as lesser deities, 1 1 7 , 149 awḥ ā, waḥ y , 20-22, 24, 125
as messengers of God, 19, 23, āy a, āy āt
2 5 , 12 6 , 14 6 , 155-6 as sign, 121-6
assistance of, 100 as verse, 12 1, 126-7
at Last Judgement, 118 , 154 derivation of, 60
Qur'ānic conception of, Azerbaijan, 42
154-5
recording deeds of men, 32,
155 Badr, battle of, 1 2 , 1 3 , 15, 32
speaking, 6 6-7, 170 35, 99 , 114 , 119 , 125, 138,
telling Muḥ ammad to recite, 35 139, 14 3, 14 5 -6 , 147, 150,
vision of, 19 163
see also Gabriel Balaam, 77
announcers, 26-7 barzakh, 160
anṣ ār, 120 bashīr, 27
anzala, 24, 144, 146 Basra, 42, 4 9 , 50
Arabia, life in, 3-9 al-Baṣ rī, al-Ḥ asan, 50, 168
Arabic al-Bayḍ āwī, 169, 174
' Arabiyya as, 84 bayyana, 127
as a common language, 7 bayyina, 125
Classical, 31 al-Bazzī, 49
Qur’ān, an, 7 , 13 6 -7 , 14 0 , 185 Becker, C., 83-4
script, 31 bee, 20
structure of, 70 Bee, The, 59

242
 INDEX

Bell, Richard buildings

dating o f suras, 28, 29, 113 - o f ‘Ā d, 1 2 7 , 128
1 1 4, 1 1 5 o f Pharaoh, 13 1
hypothesis of Qur’ān and o f Thamūd, 128
Book periods, 137-41 Byzantine Empire
hypothesis o f written influence in Arabia, 8
documents, 101-7 struggle with Persia, 1-2
on sign passages, 123 trade with, 8
on use o f al-qur'ān, 121
on waḥ y , 22, 24
Qur’ānic studies, 176-7, camels, 5
179-80 caravan(s)
Translation, 94, 10 1, 105, attack on, 99
1 13 protection of, 4, 5
view o f Muḥ ammad as routes, 4
prophet, 18 Sabaean, 129
Bergsträsser, Gotthelf, 175-6 Carlyle, Thomas, 17
Bible Casanova, Paul, 53
Muḥ ammad not having cattle, 5
read, 36 charisma, 171
story of creation, 148 Children of Israel, 65, 131
Bibliander, 173 Christian(s), Christianity
Biblical stories, 36, 13 1, 138 abrogation of laws, 89
bird of clay, miracle of, 125 corruption o f scriptures, 12,
bishāra, 27 157
bismillāh, 60, 64, 90, 1 1 1 criticism of Muḥ ammad,
Blachère, Régis, 84, 1 12-13, 1 7 - 1 8 , 156
177 early Arab contact with, 8
blind man, 108 ideas, influence of, 8, 23,
book, sent down to 53, 153
Muḥ ammad, 33 implications o f the word
Book, The ḥ anīf , 9
and other religions, 156-8 Islamic criticism of, 12,
as al-kitāb, 12 1, 139-44 156-7
by Muḥ ammad, 43 Judaeo-Christian tradition,
people of, 15 6 , 165 29
period, 1 3 7 , 140-1 Muslim knowledge of, 1 1 8,
Qur’ānic conception of, 38, 153
141-4 Nestorian, 8
use o f term, 112 , 119 , 121 of Byzantine Empire, 8
books and articles, 179-81 of Abyssinian Empire, 3, 8
Brockelmann, C., 169 religion o f Abraham and,
Buhl, Frants, 18 99, 157

243
INDEX

Christian(s)— contd. Confession of Faith, 149-50,

view of Last Judgement, 53 162
words from, languages, 85 consonantal text, 44, 45, 47
written scriptures of, 142, consonants
145, 153, 156-7 doubling of, 48
chronology outline of, 49
European theories of, 109- rhyme, 69
shape of, 48
114
of collection, 100, 108-20 Constantinople, 1, 2
order o f suras, 205-13 constitutionalist bloc, 17 1, 172
sequence of ideas as guide to, contributions, 76
114-20 corruption, theory of, 9, 12,
traditional Islamic view, 157
108-9 creation
civil servants, 1 7 1 , 172 and restoration, 124, 159-60
client, 6 the, 65, 122, 148-9
codices, 42-3, 44-7, 83 createdness and uncreatedness
collection o f Qur’ān o f Qur’ān, 171-2, 185
by Zayd, 32, 37, 40-4, 50, creed, 149-50, 162
56, 6 3 , 1 0 3 , 10 6 , 107
chronology of, 100, 108-20 ḍ alla, 82
command to collect, 22 Damascus, 42, 49
date of, 38, 90 dates, 5, 8
God’s, 107 David, 132
into suras, 88 Dawood, N. J., 178
jam ' as, 88, 90 debts, recording of, 32, 104,
Muḥ ammad’s part in, 38, 166
58, 64-5, 89-90, 106-7, decisions, Muḥ ammad making,
1 1 3 , 1 43 21, 23-4
revision during, 88, 89-90 deeds
under Abū-Bakr, 38, 40-2 pledge for commission of, 4
under ‘ Uthmān, 37, 42-4, recording of, 4, 32, 33, 141,
50-1 159, 160
commentaries, 44, 168-70 weighing of, 4, 160
commerce, 3-4, 8 deities
community angels as lesser, 1 1 7 , 149
association o f ummī with, 34 idols as lesser, 8 6 , 116 -17,
experience through life in, 148
182-3 names o f old Semitic, 8-9
regulations for life of, 162-6 pagan as intercessors, 2 3 , 56,
system of ideas in, 183-4 1 17, 149
Companions, 37, 38, 42 deletion of passages, 87
confederate, 6 demons, 155

244
 INDEX

desert experience
nomadic life and, 5, 82 and life o f the community,
relation o f Islam to, 3 182-3
relation of Meccans to, 4 language and, 181-2
sandy ( nafū d ), 5 o f life as a whole, 183
dhakara, 27,144-5 explanations, 9 4 -5, 167-8
dhikr, 2 7 , 1 21, 144-5 Ezra, 28
diacritical marks, 48
disobedience, 30, 125 Fadak, oasis of, 8
divorce, 66, 74, 164 fa ḍ l, 15 1
doctrine f a 'il, 70, 92
o f God, 148-53 Fakhr-ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī, 169-70
of the Last Judgement, 158- fa sād, 120
162 f aṣ ṣ ala, 127
o f the Qur’ān, 112 , 120, fasting, 98, 105, 139, 163
148-66 Fātiha, 46, 58, 134
dramatic fighting
form, 65-8, 170 in sacred months, 99-100
scenes, 80-1 mention of, 120
ad-Dū rī , 49 fire, Hell as, 26, 161
fitna, 120
earthquakes, 128 Five Pillars o f Religion, 162-4
Egypt, 2 Fleischer, H. L., 169
Egyptian edition of the flogging, 55
Qur’ān, 49, 59, 108, 207- F lügel
213 Gustav, 174
elephant, expedition of the, text, 58, 61
13 1 food
Elias, 132 laws, 165
Emigrants taboos, 93, 165
military successes of, 12 foreign words, 84-5
Muḥ ammad as leader of, forget, forgetting
1 1-12, 29 causing to, 5 4 , 56, 87, 105,
muhājir ūn, 120 107
Enoch, 28 an āya , 126
epilepsy, 17, 18 fornication, 55, 166
Evangel, 1 4 2 , 14 5 , 1 5 6 , 157 Fridays, prayer on, 163
events, God’s control over, Fuck, Johann, 84
1 50-1 al-furqān, 12 1, 125, 139, 145-7
exegesis, 168-72 future life, 80, 112
exhortation, 27
Exodus, 6, 58 Gabriel
expeditions, 35-6, 42 as the Spirit, 155

245
INDEX

G ab rie l— contd. G o d — contd.

m ention b y nam e, 19, 154 suprem e, 152
message to Muḥ am m ad, 19, taking refuge w ith, 46
20, 23, 67 tru st in, 76
gam bling, 166 w ord of, 170
G arden w orship of, 10-11, 26, 103,
Blighted, 81 122.150
o f E den, 161 G oldziher, Ignaz, 167, 176
T h e, 97, 161 G om orrah, 130
T w o O w ners of, 81 G oossens, E duard, 63
gardens o f Sabā’, 129 gospel, 27
G ehenna, 97, 161 G reek w ords, 85
G eiger, A braham , 184 G rim m e, H u b ert, 112, 115, 153,
generosity, 116 176, 207-13
Genesis, 148 G rove, Men o f the, 128-9
G entiles as ummī, 34 guidance, 22-3, 24, 89, 139, 145,
G eyer, R u dolph, 72 146, 151
G hassanids, 3
glosses, 93-5 Ḥ afṣ, 49
goats, 5 Ḥ afṣa
G od association w ith m ysterious
and the Messenger, 120 letters, 63
as one G od, 20 leaves of, 40, 41-2, 43-4, 50,
control over events, 150-1 106
daughters of, 56, 149 ḥ ajj, 163
doctrine of, 148-53 al-Ḥ ajjāj, 48
goodness of, 10-11, 93, 115, H am an, 131
116, 121, 122, 124, 127, Hamlet, 184-5
148, 150 hamza, 84
gratitude to, 10-11, 26, 116, ḥ amza, 49, 50
122.150 ḥ anīf
Jesus as G o d 's w o rd , 171 A braham as, 99, 119
nam es of, 152-3 A rabic use o f w ord, 9
pow er of, 116, 121, 122, 124, Muslims as, 99
127, 148, 150 no te on, 15-16
Q u r'ān as speech of, 23, 24, use of, in Islam , 9, 55, 119,
65-8, 1 7 0 , 171-2, 185 157
references to first person, Ḥ anīfiyya, 55
65-6, 67 ḥ arf, 48
references to third person, H āshim , clan of, 6
66, 67 ḥ attā idhā, 97
rhym e-form s and statem ents ḥ awāmīm, 62
about, 71-2, 74-5 h āwiya, 94-5

246
 INDEX

heavens, seven, 20 Ibn-Dhakwān, 49

Hell Ibn-Ḥ anbal, A ḥ mad, 172
as fire, 26, 161 Ibn-Hishām, 64, 114
assignation to, 158 Ibn-Kathīr, 49
description of, 161 Ibn-Mas'ūd, 'Abd-Allāh, 45,
names of, 94-5, 161 46, 48, 49, 55
terrors of, 115 , 118 Ibn-Miqsam, 49
unbelievers in, 153, 160 Ibn-Muḥ ayṣ in, 50
Heraclius, 2 Ibn-Mujāhid, 48, 49
‘high god ’, 9, 1 1 6 - 1 7 , 149 Ibn-Shannabūdh, 49
al-Ḥ ijr, 128 'idda, 164
Hijra ideas, religious
circumstances of, 11- 12 cerebral knowledge of, 182
date of, 1 1 , 15 experiential knowledge of,
influence of, 118 182- 4
Ḥ ikma, 29 Qur’ānic system of, 184
Hirschfeld, H., 53, 63, 112 , 176 the community and 182,
Hishām, 49 183-4
historical context, 1-14 idol(s)
ḥ izb, aḥ zāb, 57 Qur’ānic attack on, 11, 149
Holy Rood, 2 worship of, i l , 86, 116 , 130
homiletics, 80, 81 idhā, 79-80
honour, 9 iḍ lāl, 15 1
Horowitz, J., 130, 135, 176 Idrī s, 28, 141, 19 1
houris, 161-2 'ifrīt, 154
Ḥ ū d, 26, 28, 128 ihtādā, 15 1
al-Ḥ udaybiya, treaty of, 13, 15, ijāra, 185
1 9 , 35, 53, 73, 1 0 0 , 1 1 1 , iliā, 95, 104
125, 164 Ily āsīn, 71
Ḥ udhayfa, 42 imagery, 110
ḥ ukm, 29 īmān, 150
human responsibility, 151-2 'Imrān, 156
Ḥ unayn, battle of, 13, 15 inheritance, 164-5
ḥ ūr, 161-2 Inquisition, 17 1, 172
Hurgronje, C. Snouck, 115 inscriptions, 31
international situation, 1-3
interpretation, 167-8
Iblīs, 15 4 , 155 iqra, 35, 141
Ibn-'Abbās, 168 Iram of the Pillars, 127
Ibn-Abī-D āwūd, 44 Iraq, 2, 42
Ibn-Abī-Sarḥ , 'Abd-Allāh, 37- irrigation, 7
38 Isaac, 96
Ibn-'Ā mir, 49 Ishmael, 1 1 8 , 1 1 9 , 141

247
INDEX

Islam, islām Jew s— contd.

meaning of, 1 19, 157 ummiyyūn, use of, 34
use of, 55, 1 19, 15 1 use of papyrus, 33
jinn
jaharmam, 161 as inferior, 117 , 149
al-janna, 161 in Qur’ān, 153-4
Jeffery, Arthur, 44-5, 84-5, 176 suggesting specious ideas, 20
Jerusalem view that Muhammad was
night journey to, 52 inspired by, 18, 77-8, 154
prayer towards, 1 2 , 163 Job, 132
sack of, 2 Jonah, 132
Jesus Jones, Alan, 64
as God’s Word, 171 Joseph
as Messiah, 158 story of, 21, 157
as patriarch, 99 sura of, 46, 73, 81, 138
death of, 1 5 8 , 184 Judaism
revelation to, 119 , 157 Islamic knowledge of, 118,
sign accompanying, 125 119
story of, 96 relation between Islam and, 9
Jews, Jewish see also Jews
abrogation o f laws of, 89 judge, Muhammad as, 29
break with, 1 2 , 119 -2 0 , 143, Judgement
163 angels and, 118 , 154
controversy with, 142, 156- approaching, 53-4, 112 , 115 ,
157, 165 123, 137-8
criticism of Muḥ ammad, 17 effect on conscience, 79-80,
engaged in agriculture, 8 1 12, 123
expulsion from Medina, 12 eschatological, 158-9
ideas, influence of, 8, 23, resurrection and, 126, 133
28, 29, 118 , 130, 1 3 1, 156 scene, 97
Islamic criticism of, 156-7 temporal, 158, 159
Muḥ ammad as judge between, see also Last Judgement
29 jurisdiction, 29
Muḥ ammad seeking support jurisprudence, 89
of, 12, 98, 1 1 8 , 135, 163 jurists
oral law of, 135 creation of Islamic law, 162
rejection o f Torah, 29, 81 discussion o f abrogation, 89
religion o f Abraham and, Justinian, 1
9 9 , 130
scriptures of, 142, 156-7 Ka'ba, 55, 82, 1 1 6 , 164
taking of usury, 165 kafara, 120
threats against, 120 kaffāra, 118
tribe of an-Naḍ ir, 100 kāfir , kāfir ūn, 120, 150

248
 INDEX

kāhin, ι8, 21, 77-9, 154 Last Judgement— contd,

Kahle, Paul, 83 doctrine of, 1 1 2 , 115 , 116 ,
kalam A llāh, 170-1 117 -18 , 126, 1 3 3 , 151-2,
kalimat A llāh, 171 158-62
Khadīja, 8, 10, 15, 26, 36 gathering o f mankind, 159-
Khalaf, 49, 50 160
Khallād, 49 human responsibility and,
Khārijites, 46 1 51-2
Khaybar, oasis of, 8 preparation for, 146
khidhlān, 151 punishment stories and, 133,
Khosrau 1 1 , 1-2 158
kinship groups, 5-6 results of, 160-1
al-Kisā’ī, 49 variety of names for, 159
al-kitāb, 12 1, 139-44 al-Lāt, 55
koinē, the poetical, 83-4 law, Islamic, 162, 164-6
Korah, 13 1 legal deliverances, 106, 1 1 1 ,
Kufa, 42, 45, 49, 50 112
kuffār, 120 legislation, 162
lesser divine beings, 14 9 , 153-6
Lakhmids, 3 letters, the mysterious, 61-5,
land, revival of dead, 122, 123, 138, 140, 143, 14 4 , 205-10
124 lex talionis, 6
language Liḥ yānic alphabet, 31
divine thought and, 185-6 liturgical usage, 137, 14 0 , 143,
experience and, 181-2 162-4
ideas and, 183 Lot, 1 3 0 , 13 1, 1 3 2 , 133, 150,
‘ neutral' , 184 156
o f Qur’ān: as literary, 43,
83; description of, 82-5; mā aqra'u, 3 5
use in dating, n o madmen, 77-8, 153-4
Last Day maghfira, 118
description of, 68, 73-4, 79- al-Maḥ alli, Jalāl-ad-Dīn, 170
80, 81, 10 1, 10 2 , 1 1 5, 14 1, majnūn, 78, 153-4
159-60 mal' ak, malā 'ika, 154
earth to give up its burdens, Mālik ibn-Anas, 48
20 Mālikite legal rite, 48
God to judge on, 116 al-Ma’mūn, 170, 1 7 1 , 172
Messenger bearing witness Al-M anār, 170
on, 30 Manāt, 55
terrors of, 115 , 123, 159 manāzil, 57
Last Judgement Margoliouth, D. S., 17
as reckoning, 4, 32, 81-2, Ma’rib, dam of, 7 , 129
1 4 1 , 15 4 , 160 Marracci, Ludovici, 174

249
INDEX

marriage laws, 98, 164 messenger(s)

Marwān, 43 allusions to previous, 11
Mary, 92, 96, 132, 141 angels as, 19, 23, 2 5 , 126,
mathānī 146, 155-6
as punishment stories, 12 1, as warners and announcers,
135 26-7
seven, 134-5 bearing witness on Last
mathal, 81 Day, 30
Maurice, 1-2 break in line of, 26
mawlā, 6 criticisms of Muḥ ammad’s
Mawlana Abul-Kalam Azad, claim to be, 17-18
170 God and the Messenger, 120
maxims, 75-7 Messenger o f God, 35, 53
Maymūniyya, 46 line of, 25-6
maysir, 166 Muḥ ammad as messenger of
Mecca, Meccans God ( rasū l , 25-6, 29-30,
dialect of, 83-4 137, 156
malaise in, 4, 10 obedience to, 29-30
merchants of, 3-4, 8, 1 1 , 12- signs associated with, 122,
13,31-2,55 125-6
Muḥ ammad’s capture of, 13, speaking, 67-8
15, 114 metaphors, 82
Muslim war with, 12-13 Michael, 154-5
Qibla changed towards, 12, Midian, people of, 128, 13 1, 132
163 mishnā, 134-5
reading o f Qur’ān from, 49, Monophysite Christianity, 8
50 monotheism
relation to desert, 4 Qur’ánic insistence on, 1 1 ,
teaching Medinans to write, 1 12, 149, 152
32 religion of Abraham as, 119
use o f writing in, 31 use o f word hanīf , 9
Medina months, sacred, 99-100
commerce of, 3 moons, new, 76
constitution of, 52 Moses
Meccan invasion of, 12-13 as patriarch, 99
Medinans taught to write, 32 command to mention, 141
oasis of, 3, 7-8 given the Furqān, 145, 146
readings of Qur’ān from, 42, God speaking direct to, 24
49 , 50 incident of the calf, 146
mercantile language of the revelation to, 33, 119
Qur’ān, 4, 31-2, 82, 141, signs accompanying, 124-5
160 story of, 73, 8 1 , 10 4 , 13 1,
Merciful, see ar-Raḥ mān 1 3 2 , 133

250
 INDEX

Moses— contd. al-mushrikūn 120

‘ suggestions’ to, 20 muslim
Torah given to, 157 meaning of, 119 , 150
Mu'āwiya, 37 use of, 1 19, 157
Mu'awwidhatān, 46 Muslim scholarship and the
muhashshirīn, 26 Qur’ān, 167-72
mudhakkir, 27, 28, 144 al-M u' tafikāt, 130, 132, 133
al-Mugī ra, 63 Mu'tazilites, 16 9 , 171
Muḥ ammad al-Mutawakkil, 17 1, 172
as a cultured person, 36-7 al-Muzzammil, sura of, 108
as a human being, 28, 52
as false prophet, 17-18
as messenger, 3 5 , 53 Nabataean alphabet, 31
as prophet, 25, 26, 28, 34, nabī, 28-9, 1 19 156,
1 19, 156-8 an-Naḍ īr, tribe of, 100
as Seal of the Prophets, 28 an-Naḍ r, 135
attempted assassination of, Nāfi', 49
133-4 Najrān, 1 3 1
birth of, 1 5 Nakhla, expedition to, 35-6
career of, 9-14 names
chronology o f career of, 15 o f God, 152-3
death of, 1 3 , 15 o f revealed message, 128-47
mortality of, 51-2 narrative passages, 81, 185
name of, 53 Naṣ r ibn-'Āṣ im, 48
orphanhood of, 10 natural phenomena, 1 2 4 , 148
part in collection o f Qur’ān, nazzala, anzala 24, 144, 146
3 8 , 58, 64-5, 89-90, 106- Nejd, 83
10 7 , 1 13, 143 Nestorian Christianity, 8
poverty of, 10, 32 Noah
prophetic experience of, Ark of, 20, 125, 129
17-39 as prophet, 129
question o f illiteracy of, 30, God choosing, 156
33-7 sign accompanying, 125
reported death at Uḥ ud, 52 ‘ suggestion' to, 20
Muir, Sir William, 17, 112 , story of, 129, 13 1, 132, 133,
174-5, 207-13 1 3 4 , 138
al-mujrimūn, 120 Nöldeke, Theodor, 17-18, 28,
Müller, D. H., 73 43, 64, 83, 10 9 -12 , 1 14,
Mu' min, 150 1 1 5, 153, 175-6, 207-13
munāfiq ūn, 82, 120 nomadism, 4-5
mundhirīn, 26 nomads
muṣ 'haf, 44 connection with Medina and
mushrik, 150 Mecca, 3, 4

251
INDEX

nomads— contd. Paret, Rudi, 177

hostile to Muḥ ammad, 13 passages
Persian and Byzantine in­ collected to form suras, 38,
fluence on, 3 89-90, 1 1 1 -12, 1 3 8 , 140
protection of caravans, 4 dating by, in - 1 2 , 113
notes, 189-201 deletion of, 87
Numbers, 77 narrative, 81, 185
private, 104-5
oases, 5, 7-8 revised, 113
oaths, 78, 79, n o , 154 Pearson, J. D., 179
obedience, 29-30 pen(s)
old-world fables, 17, 126 trees as, 36
opposition to Muḥ ammad use of the, 31
effects of, 1 1 5 - 1 6 , 117 -18 , pergament, 32-3
1 2 7 , 133-4 Persia, Persian
oral conquest o f the Yemen, 3
laws o f the Jews, 135 influence in Arabia, 2-3, 4
tradition, 30, 45 Islam in, 172
transmission, 4 7 , 107 Sassanid Empire, 1-2
orphanhood, 10 words, 85
Orthodox Christianity, 8 Peter the Venerable, 173
orthography, 83, 84 Pfannmüller, G., 179
Pharaoh, 1 3 0 - 1 , 1 3 2 , 133
pagan, paganism philology, 47
cleansing from impurities Phocas, 1-2
of, 29 phraseology, use in dating, 115
deities as intercessors, 23, Pickthall, Marmaduke, 178
1 17 , 149 pilgrimage, 99,163-4
food taboos, 9 3 , 165 Pliny, 128
Meccan, criticism o f poetry, pre-Islamic
Muḥ ammad, 1 7 , 159 desert life in, 82
o f Arabs, 9 , 149 honour in, 9
separation from, 146-7 language of, 8 3 , 168
Palmer, E. H., 178 mention o f tribes in, 1 2 7 , 128
papyrus, 32-3, 3 7 , 106 oral tradition in, 30
parables, 81, 82 poetical koinē, 83-4
Paradise rhyme in, 69
assignation to, 158, 160 use of allāh, 152
delights of, 8 2 , 117 -18 use of ṣ uḥ u f in, 33
demons observing in­ poets, 77-8, 153-4
habitants of, 1 55 Poets, The, 59
description of, 160-1 political aspects, 28
parchment, 32-3, 37 polyandry, 5 5 , 164

252
 INDEX

polytheism, 9, 81, 9 9 , 10 0 , 117 , psychological aspects, 18, 24

14 9 , 150 Ptolemy, 128
poverty o f Muḥ ammad, 10, 32 punctuation, 45
prayer punishment
in Qur’ān, 75 -6 , 162-3 bashshara as, 27
spending part o f night in, eschatological, 14 0 - 1, 159-60
88, 9 6 , 163 o f unbelievers, 1 1 2 , 117
suras as, 46, 58 prophets and, 156
worship and, 162-3 protection and, 6
predestination, 95 temporal, 1 3 3 , 140-1
Pretzl, Otto, 176 warnings of, 1 1 , 26, 96, 115
private passages, 104-5 punishment-stories
proclamation of revelations, adaptation of, 133-4
10, 1 1 , 1 5 , 2 1 , 66, 87, 99, Arabian, 13 1, 133
1 0 5 , 10 7 , 134 Christian, 13 1, 133
prophet(s) dating of, 117 -18 , 12 1, 140-
Judaeo-Christian, 29 141
Muḥ ammad as: 25, 26, 28, form of, 135
3 4 , 1 1 9 , 156-8; false, 17- grouping of, 132-3
18; native, 34; Seal o f the, inclusion in Qur’ān, 143-4
28 judgement and, 112 , 159
previous, 26, 9 9 , 156 list of, 127-31
stories of, 72, 110 , 112 mathān ī as, 135
use o f word nabī, 28-9, 156 sign-passages as, 12 6 ,12 7
prophethood use of, 131-2
and other religions, 156-8
criticisms of claim to, 17-18 Qālūn, 49
Qur’ānic descriptions of, Qibla, 12, 98-9, 10 7 , 163
18-25 qirā'a, 49
prophetic qirṭ ās, 33
experience, Muḥ ammad’s, qul, 46, 68, 75-6, 110
17-39 Qunbul, 49
function, conception o f the, Qurayẓ a, clan of, 73
25-30 al-qur'ān
protected neighbour, 6 ‘ an Arabic’, 7 , 13 6 -7 , 140, 185
protection ‘ glorious’, 57, 138
Muḥ ammad’s benefit from, meanings of, 135-6
6-7 names of, 57
neighbourly, 7,18 5 ‘ Qur’ān period’, 137-41
origin of, 5-6 ‘ this qur’ān ’, 136
system of, 6 use of, 121
withdrawal of, from Qur'ān
Muḥ ammad, 11 authenticity of, 50-4

253
INDEX

Qur'ān— contd. raids, 5-6

codices of, 42-3, 44-7, 83 raḥ ma, 112 , 1 18, 124, 15 1, 153
completeness of, 54-6 ar-Raḥ mān, 53, 1 1 0 , 1 1 1 , 112 ,
didactic forms, 75-82 118 , 152-3
disjointedness of, 22, 52, 56, rainfall, 5, 122, 123, 124
73, 75 Ramaḍ ān, 57, 98, 139, 140,
doctrines of, 148-66 146, 163
external form of, 57-68 ransom o f prisoners, 94
features o f style, 69-85, ar-Rass, men of, 129, 132
1OO-1 rasūl, 25-6, 28, 53, 156
history o f the text, 40-56 rāwī, 49-50
length of, 57 razzias, 166
liturgical use of, 57, 137, readers, Qur’ān, 47
140, 143, 162-4 readings, 44, 48-50, 6 1, 83
miraculous character of, 30- reciting
31, 33, 35, 36, 37 command to recite, 66, 68,
Muslim scholarship and, 109, 136, 137, 140
167-72 iq ra ', 35
occidental scholarship and, o f Qur’ān, 22, 47
173-86 of signs, 12 1, 126
reflection of changing needs Qur’ān reciters, 47, 107
in, 25, 30, 54 talā, 34
shaping of, 86-107 Redslob, Gustav, 174
state of, at Muḥ ammad’s refrains, 72
death, 37-9 reminding, 27
translations and studies of, repentance, 30, 118
173-81 resurrection, 96, 1 1 2 , 122, 123,
unevenness and roughness 124, 126, 133, 141-2
of, 93-4, 100-1, 107 restoration to life, 124, 159-60
uniformity of, 47, 48, 51 retaliation, 6, 7
writing down of, 30-9, 136, revelation
141 as inspiration, 21
writing of, 47-50 as suggestion, 20, 22, 23-4
see also, additions, collec­ continuous process of, 89, 90
tion, etc. contrary to Muḥ ammad’s
Quraysh desires, 24, 25
dialect of, 42, 43, 83 first, 10, 15
pagan, 82 names of revealed message,
Surat, 116 128-47
tribe of, 53 occasions of, 74, 108-9, 12 3,
qurrā ', 47 167
Qur’ānic descriptions of,
Rabin, Chaim, 84 18-25

254
 INDEX

revelation— contd. ṣ alāt, 137, 162, 163

revised form of, 56, 87, 89, Sale, George, 34, 174
107 Sālih, 28, 125, 128, 133-4
revision and alteration salvation, 145, 146
by adaptation, 90-2 Sargon, 128
by additions, 95-6, 102, 103, Sassanid Empire, 1-2
123 Satan
by alternative continuations, in Qur’ān, 155-6
96-8, 107 leading astray, 15 1
by collection, 88, 89-90 prompting by, 23, 56, 88,
evidence of, 89-101, 106-7, 155
124 satanic verses, 55-6, 88, 117
possibility of, 86-9 satans, 155
types of, 93 say, 46, 68, 75-6, 99
rhyme(s) ṣ ayḥ a, 159
consonants, 69 scholarship and the Qur’ān
changes in, 92, 93, 97, 102 Muslim, 167-72
hidden, 90-1, 93 occidental, 173-86
in middle of verses, 72-3 problems facing non-Muslim
insertion o f different, 95 scholars, 181-6
marking verses, 60, 6 1, 70-1 Schwally, Friedrich, 43-4, 46,
of soothsayer utterances, 79 52, 83, 109-10, 175
o f suras, 76 scriptio defectiva, scriptio plena,
phrases, 7 1, 9 1, 92, 93, 96, 47-8
97, 123, 127 secretaries
ridda, 40 employed by Muḥ ammad,
riḍ wān, 118 35, 36 , 37- 8, 40, 45,
riwāy a , 49 105
Robert of Ketton, 173 in autocratic bloc, 171
Robertus Retenensis, 173 Semitic religion, 8-9
Rodwell, J. M., 178 Sezgin, Fuat, 168, 169
Ross, Alexander, 173-4 ash-Shāf i 'ī, 89
rub' al-ḥ iɀ b, 57 Shahāda, 25, 149-50, 162
ar-rūḥ , 155 shā 'ir, 77-8, 153-4
R ūm, 3 Sharī'a, 162, 172
Sheba, 129, 132
Sabā’, 129 sheep, 5

ao
c nn im
sacrifice

c e ap
l,ti9o9n odf,e,15581
Shī'a, 51
Shī'ites, 171

Sac y,
Sa'īd,sa S i lv e s t re shiqāq, 120

ji7b7,'n7-9a,l-1‘Ā
54ṣ,42
shirk, 150
shout, 128, 159
Shu'ba, 49

255
INDEX

Shu'ayb, 128, 129 ṣ uḥ uf, ṣ aḥ īfa , 33, 37, 40, 41-42,

sign(s) 43, 106
as events, 12 1, 124-6 sulāla, 91
as natural phenomena, 122-4 Sunna, 89, 166
as part of the Qur’ān, 12 1, Sunnites, 169, 170, 172
126-7 supernatural, 77
associated with messengers, sura(s)
122, 125-6 adaptation in, 90-2
āy āt as, 121-6 addition of, 45-6
confirming truth, 125 additions in middle of, 96
demand for a sign, 125 bismillāh, 60
God’s, 122, 124, 125 challenges to produce, 30,
o f God’s goodness, 12 1, 148, 38, 58, 90
150 collection o f revelations to
o f God’s power, 110 , 12 1, form, 88
148, 150 dating of, 133-4
passages, 122-3, 125-6, 127, defined, 57-8
137, 143-4 derivation o f word, 58, 138
recited by messenger, 12 1, forming of, 89-90
126 grouping of, 62-3, 90
usages o f word, 121-2 headings of, 59
similes, 81-2 length of, 58, 62-3, n o ,
S īnīn, 71 205-12
slavery, 166 Meccan, 108, 1 1 o, 112 - 13 , 212
slogans, 75-7 Medinan, 79, 108, 1 1 0 - 1 1 , 212
social prescriptions, 162, 165-6 Muḥ ammad’s part in
Sodom, 130 arranging, 58, 64-5, 89-90,
Solomon, 60, 129, 132 113, 14 3
soothsayer(s) names of, 45, 58-9, 205-13
inspired by jinn, 18, 2 1, 154 number of, 44, 58
utterances, 77-9 omission of, 45-6
sources, question of, 184-6 order of, 44, 45, 46, 205-13
Spirit, the, 155 revelations arranged as, 38
spoils, 166 seven long, 134-5
Sprenger, Aloys, 17 , 174, 175 table of, 205-13
stoning, verse of, 4 1, 54-5 as-Sūsī, 49
strophes, 73 as-Suyūṭ ī, Jalāl-ad-Dīn, 84, 85,
style 89, 167, 170
changes of, n o Syria, 2, 10, 14, 42, 45
features o f Qur’ānic, 69-85,
100-1 aṭ-Ṭ abarī, Muḥ ammad ibn-
use in dating, 109, 1 1 1 , 114 Jarīr, 44, 168-9
subha, 152 Tabūk, expedition to, 14, 15

256
 INDEX

tadhkira, 27, 144 Uḥ ud— contd.

talā, 34 Muslim defeat at, 12 -13 , 15,
tanɀ īl, 12 1, 144 29, 52, 82, 100, 114 , 120,
Taymā , oasis of, 8 147, 164
text ulema, 1 7 1, 172
collection o f the, 40-4 'Umar ibn-al-Khaṭ ṭ āb, 40, 41
early studies of, 47-50 umma, 34
history o f the, 40-56 ummī, ummiyyūn,, 33-4, 36
Thamūd unbelievers
buildings of, 128 punishment of, 1 12 , 117
story of, 95, 128, 1 3 1 , 132, separation from, 146-7
133 see also pagan
tribe of, 7, 125, 128 unbelieving town, 81
Thamūdic alphabet, 31 unity, 7
theft, 166 usury, 104, 165-6
theologians, 170-2 'Uthmān
theophany, 80 association with mysterious
thunderclaps, 159 letters, 63
Torah, 29, 32, 8 1, 142, 145, collection o f Qur’ān under,
156, 157 37, 42-4
Torrey, C. C ., 4 unpopularity of, 42, 51
towns, 3 'Uthmān ibn-al-Ḥ uwayrith, 3
Toynbee, Arnold, 5 al-' Uzzā, 55
Traditions
grounds for accepting, 18 vegetation, 5, 122
references to, 26, 32, 35, 38, vengeance, 6-7
40-2, 52-3, 54-5, 56, 64, verse(s)
98, 105, 108, 135, 137, assonance or rhyme in, 60,
139, 164 61
transmitters, 168 āy āt as, 12 1 , 126-7
trees, 36 insertions in, 92-3
Trench, Day of the, 73 lengths of, 6 1, 93, 110 , 111,
tribal humanism, 9, 149 205-12
Trinity, the, 158 number of, in each sura,
trumpet blast, 159 205-12
truth, question of, 181-4 numbering of, 60-1, 70-1
Tubba', people of, 129 prose form of, 61
table for converting num­
Ubayy ibn-Ka'b, 37, 45, 46, bers, 202-3
49, 55 visions, 19-20, 21
Uḥ ud vocabulary, 109
address before, 73, 100 Vollers, K ., 83
Mount, 13 vowels, 45, 48-9, 69-70

257
INDEX

W ādi 1-Qurā, oasis of, 8 writing— contd.

al-Wāḥ idī, 108, 167 suspicion of, 45
waḥ y , 20-22, 24, 25 use of, by Meccan merchants,
Waraqa ibn-Nawfal, 8, 26 31-2
warners, 26-7, 28, 30, 158
warnings, 1 1 , 26, 109, 137
Y aḥ yā ibn-Ya'mur, 48
wars o f the apostasy, 40
Yamāma, battle of, 40, 41
Warsh, 49
yansakhuj 88
Weil, Gustav, 17, 5 1, 52, 174
Y a'q ūb al-Ḥ aḍ ramī, 50
wells, 5
yawma, 79-80
‘ when’ passages, 79-80
al-Yazīdī, 56
wills, making of, 164
year, Islamic, 1 1 , 190
windfalls, 76
Yemen
wine-drinking, 165
Abyssinian capture of, 3, 8
wisdom, 29
Christianity in, 3
women, position of, 164
irrigation system, 7
worship
Persian conquest of, 8
o f God, 10 - 11, 26, 103, 122,
150
practice of, 162-3 Zacharias, 20, 132
writing ɀ akāt, 163
down o f the Qur’ān, 30-9 az-Zamakhsharī , 44, 169
early Arabic, 31 ɀ aqqūm, 16 1
materials, 32-3 Zayd ibn-Thābit, 32, 37, 40, 4 1,
o f the Qur’ān, 47-50 42, 43, 44, 50, 56, 63, 103,
question of Muḥ ammad’s 106, 107
ability to write, 33-7 Zechariah 20, 92

258