Chapter 4

Holy Qur'an, Scriptures and Their History

Muslim Perspective

Belief in God's successive revelations to humanity throughout history is the fourth essential belief of Islamic faith. For Muslims, the Holy Qur'an is the literal Word of God revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad. In the following discussion, we will highlight the following:

  • How revelation is described in the Qur'an and other scriptures that Muslims recognise as authoritative.
  • The content of the Qur'an.
  • The historical journey of the Qur'an down to the present day.
  • The sayings and narratives (hadith) from the Holy Prophet Muhammad which though separate from the Qur'an, are an authoritative source and guide for Muslims; and
  • The interpretation of religious sources.

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God Speaks To Us All

And who believe in the Revelation sent to you (Muhammad), and sent down before you, and they believe with certainty in the resurrection.
(Qur'an, 2:4)

The broadest definition of revelation (vahy) in Islam encompasses the communication of God to His creation in the universe. According to the Qur'an, there are essentially four forms of revelation which are listed below in an ascending order of significance for human life.

  1. Natural Laws: these are considered as "verses of creation", which are commands of God revealed to matter. For example, gravitation: "Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke: He said to it and to the earth: 'Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly.' They said: 'We do come (together), in willing obedience.'" (Qur'an, 41:11)
  2. Animal instincts: All animal instincts are considered to be revelation from God to those animals. Take the example of the instinct of making honey for a honeybee: "And your Lord inspired the bee, saying: 'take your habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they erect. Then eat of all fruits and follow the ways of your Lord made easy (for you).' There comes forth from their bellies, a drink of varying colour wherein is healing for men. Verily in this is indeed a sign for people who think." (Qur'an, 16:68-69)
  3. Inspiration to all human beings through human conscience, "It is not fitting for a man that God should speak to him except by inspiration..." (Qur'an, 42:51)
  4. Formal revelation to an appointed Prophet. This is the highest form of revelation. The above verse continues "...or from behind a veil, or by the sending of a messenger to reveal, with God's permission, what God wills: for He is Most High, Most Wise" (Qur'an, 42:51)

The fundamental difference between inspiration to any human being and the formal revelation to a prophet can be explained by the following analogy. Imagine that a king has a personal matter that is only between him and one of his subjects. The king might give this subject a phone call, discuss the matter and deal with it without informing anyone else. However, if the king had an important message to relay that concerned all of his subjects in his kingdom, he would appoint a competent officer and convey his message to his officer, who would, in turn, broadcast it to everyone in the kingdom. Similarly, while the former way of communication is inspiration, the latter is the holy revelation to a prophet.

According to Islam, God has spoken to humanity through divine revelation compiled in holy books of various depth and detail throughout human history: "Verily, We have inspired you as We have inspired Noah and the Prophets after Him..." (Qur'an, 4:163). While ancient prophets received smaller revelations that were less than a book such as the approximately 10 pages revealed to Abraham. As humanity matured larger books were revealed. The Qur'an mentions and recognises four revealed books which are:

  1. The Torah to Moses, "...It is He Who has sent down the Book (Qur'an) to you (Muhammad) with truth, confirming what came before it. And he sent down the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)." (Qur'an, 3:3)
  2. The Psalms to David. "...and to David We gave Zabur (the Psalms)." " (Qur'an, 4:163)
  3. The Gospel to Jesus (Qur'an, 3:3)
  4. The Qur'an to Muhammad (Qur'an, 3:3)

Revelation can take place directly between God and His Prophet as well as through the Archangel Gabriel: "Say: Whoever is an enemy to Jibra'il, for indeed he has brought it (this Qur'an) down to your heart by God's permission, confirming what came before it..." (Qur'an, 2:97). When revelation came to Prophet Muhammad, he would appear to go in a trance. His body would be heavier then it actually was. According to reports, if he were riding a camel, the camel would have to sit under the weight of the revelation.

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Subject Matters of the Qur'an

...this (Qur'an) is a grand news
(Qur'an, 38:67)

The Qur'an is a book of 604 pages, 114 chapters and 6238 verses. The Qur'an's chapters and verses vary in length. The chapters are not like the ones we would normally come across in books. In fact, the Qur'an is not organised like a conventional book that is usually divided into sections or specific subject matters. Rather, it is an integral book where all minor subject matters and meanings centre around a profound meaning and an axis that runs through every chapter and verse. This axis is the calling of all humans to the belief and worship of one God using their reason and free will. Although God has created all people as servants to God without asking them first, He is inviting humanity to accept this honourable role of servanthood willingly while at the same time informing them of the transience of worldly life together with its happiness and tribulations and of the permanence of life after death. The Qur'an is composed in a way that constantly reverberates with this message throughout the entire book, irrespective of what the immediate subject matter might be.

While the Qur'an touches on many topics both briefly and in detail, essentially its context could be grouped into four main subject matters blended in a mix of independent chapters.

  1. Monotheism—The Qur'an describes God, His existence and unity. It brings evidence from the universe for the existence of God and His unity. The concept of God and His titles or names are mentioned in many places in the Qur'an.
  2. Prophethood—The Qur'an describes the need for prophets, their responsibilities and struggles in the way of God. It does not tell stories of prophets in great length; rather, it highlights the essential aspects of their stories that illustrate the essential principles of life and humanity. Sometimes a particular story is examined from more than one angle to indicate different aspects and principles.
  3. Resurrection—The Qur'an proves the existence of resurrection by directing our attention to the continued resurrection that happens around us in nature. It also describes details of life after death.
  4. Justice—The Qur'an describes the justice seen in the universe in the form of balance and equilibrium. Every commandment of God contained in the Qur'an directs humanity to find the Sirat-al Mustaqeem (the straight and balanced path) in one's personal and social life. Islam also encourages us to endeavour to reach a wholesome balance in one's emotions, thoughts, beliefs and conduct.

The Qur'an contains the stories of past prophets. One of the unique aspects of the Qur'an in this respect is that the Qur'an does not tell a story as a mere historical account. Instead, the narratives recount scenes in history that demonstrate the timeless social laws and principles of God that govern human life. The real players of the stories are not the prophets but the principles that are in line with faith and the correct behaviour of model individuals faced with familiar human conditions. For example, in the story of Abraham, the real players are monotheism and polytheism and their conflicting history. Similarly the players in the story of Joseph and the lady of his master's household are the chastity and trustworthiness of Joseph and the illicit lust and treachery of the woman of the household. In the story of Moses, Asiya, the wife of the Pharaoh, represents a helping hand in the heart of the oppressive opposition to truth.

One of the most significant aspects of the Qur'an is its extremely high literary value. At the time when Qur'an was revealed, poetry in Arabia was of exceptionally high standards. People would use poetry in their conversations, debates and fights. Poetry competitions would be organised every year. Acclaimed poems were written in gold and hung on the Ka'bah wall for every one to see. Competent poets would be considered as tribal and national heroes. Although Muhammad grew up amongst them, he never worked on poetry or prose. Once the revelation of the Qur'an had commenced, everyone was dazzled by its originality and eloquence, because it neither fell into poetry nor into prose, yet it appeared to have a literary value above all of these. The verse, "You did not read any book before, nor did you write one with your right hand, for then those who say untrue things would have doubted" (Qur'an, 29:48) points to this observation.

Another important aspect of the Qur'an that modern Muslims relate is the surprising accuracy of verses that have scientific significance. The Qur'an gives explicit observations from nature and the universe to prove its propositions of belief. In doing so, it reveals scientific facts that could not have been known at the time of the Holy Prophet. For example, verses that say: "Do not those who disbelieve see that the heavens and the earth were together, but We have split them apart, and We made every living thing out of water, will they not then believe." (Qur'an, 21:30) And also: "And the heaven, We raised it high with power, and most surely, We are expanding it." (Qur'an, 51:47) This verse clearly talk about the Big Bang, theory dealing with the expanding universe and living bodies that are made up largely of water, all concepts unheard of in the 7th century. The verse, "Glory be to Him Who created pairs of all things, of what the earth grows, and of their kind and what they do not know" (Qur'an, 36:36) explicitly describes the Law of Parity that is prevalent throughout the universe. The roundness of the earth, the earth going around the sun, the precise description of embryonic development, the germination of plants and many more scientific facts are openly mentioned in the Qur'an. Many scholars who saw these verses centuries ago were bewildered, as they contradicted the accepted, but false, scientific notions of the times. Having full trust in the Qur'an, they concluded that the earth was round about five centuries before Galileo.

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Collection of the Qur'an into a Book Form

Surely, We have revealed the Qur'an and we will most surely be its guardian.
(Qur'an, 15:9)

The Qur'an was revealed over a period of 23 years beginning in 610 CE. The vast majority of the Qur'an was revealed in response to questions, incidents and important events. For example, the whole chapter of Joseph was revealed in response to the questions posed by group of Jews. The revelation process was not unlike the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle put together over a long period of time. Yet the reader of the Qur'an gets the impression that it is as if it were revealed in one single session.

There are a number of benefits deriving from this gradual process of revelation. The association of revelation with real events greatly simplified the memorisation of the Qur'an. It would also have been too much for the Muslims, at the time, to absorb the whole Qur'an if it was revealed all at the same time. Moreover, the complete transformation of a society could only have been achieved progressively over time.

There is absolute consensus in the Muslim world that the Qur'an we know today is the authentic one that Muhammad passed on to his immediate followers during his lifetime. This is because of the meticulous attention the Prophet himself gave to its preservation. The Qur'an was preserved through the use of three complementary methods in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad.

  • Written records
  • Systematic memorisation
  • A control mechanism of public checking

Prophet Muhammad had up to 40 official scribes. Since the Qur'an was revealed gradually over 23 years and the Prophet did not know when he would next receive new revelation, he would always have a scribe ready by his side. When a new revelation was received, he would recite it to the scribe, who would write it on a parchment or whatever material they could find suitable for writing1. He would then ask the scribe to read it back to him in order to check and correct possible mistakes in the transcription. Later, the written and checked passage of the Qur'an would be taken to the mosque for others to memorise or copy from it. Muhammad himself would also convey the revelation to the public on most occasions. In this way, the entire unbound copy of the Qur'an was in written form in the lifetime of the Prophet.

From the very beginning of his prophethood, he asked his companions to memorise passages of the Qur'an revealed to date. As a result, hundreds of people new the whole Qur'an by heart and thousands more memorised large chunks of it. The learning and memorisation of the Qur'an was accelerated by an educational campaign throughout the whole community and through the establishment of a schools next to mosques.

Still, there was the possibility that people could have made mistakes in the memorisation and copying process. This possibility was eliminated by the control mechanism of the public checking of the Qur'an. Every year in the month of Ramadan, Prophet Muhammad would recite the whole Qur'an in the audience of all Muslims who in turn would check their written copies and what they knew by heart. In the last Ramadan before his death, this control recitation was done twice.

Within the first year of the demise of the Prophet, an official committee was established under the chairmanship of the Prophet's chief scribe, Zayd bin Sabit, to collect the Qur'an into a single bound volume. Although many people knew the whole Qur'an by heart, including Zayd, objective criteria were applied. These criteria were that for every verse at least two witnesses possessing a written copy of the verse had to be found and each witness had to publicly testify and prove that the written passages had been checked by the Prophet. This process took place transparently in public within the compound of the main mosque in Medina. In this way, the complete Qur'an was collected into a book form in this early critical period. Later, during the time of the third Caliph, Othman, about 20 years after the Prophet, seven copies of the Qur'an were produced from this original volume and sent to major Muslim capitals. This copying was done by a committee again led by Zayd bin Sabit. The text of the Qur'an was also written more strictly to allow only the Meccan dialect, so as to standardise its pronunciation and dialect in order to prevent difficulties and misunderstandings faced by non-Arabic speaking Muslims. Two of the seven copies survive to our time.

The tradition of reciting the whole Qur'an in Ramadan as well as its complete memorisation continues to date with hundreds of thousands of Muslims knowing the whole Qur'an by heart.

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The Sunnah of the Holy Prophet

Even as We have sent unto you a messenger from among
you, who recites unto you Our revelations and causes you
to grow, and teaches you the Scripture and wisdom, and
teaches you that which you knew not.
(Qur'an, 2:151)

The second most important source next to the Qur'an is the Sunnah (practice) of the Prophet that is captured in the collection of books known as hadith. The Arabic word "hadith" means a "spoken word" or a "saying". In an Islamic context, it refers to the sayings narrated by the Holy Prophet Muhammad through the companions who are the first generation of Muslims who had personally seen and spoken to the Prophet in his lifetime.

Narrations include what the Holy Prophet Muhammad did, what he said and the actions of others that the Prophet condoned and acknowledged. The hadith collection are extremely detailed, and covers every aspect of the Prophet's life. It supplements the Qur'an illustrating how Islam is to be practically implemented. For example, the Qur'an asks Muslims to pray but does not go into the details of how this is done. The Prophet Muhammad said, "Pray as I do". There are many narratives from the companions that describe how they saw the Prophet pray in person or in congregation.

There is much evidence that some companions wrote the hadith in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad and even got them checked by him. These include Abu Hurayra, Ali bin Abu Talib and Abdullah ibn-ul Abbas and more. For example Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As narrates: "I used to write everything which I heard from the Apostle of Allah. I intended to memorise them. The Quraysh prohibited me saying, 'Do you write everything that you hear from him while the Apostle of Allah is a human being; he speaks in anger and pleasure?' So I stopped writing, and mentioned it to the Apostle of Allah. He pointed with his finger to his mouth and said, 'Write, by Him in Whose hand is my soul, only truth comes out from it." (Sunan of Abu Dawud: Book 25, Number 3639). Abu Hurayra in particular dedicated his time to capturing what the Prophet said and did in a systematic manner, and as a result, narrated the largest number of hadith.

Narrations from the Prophet are captured in hadith books. There are six popular collections of authentic hadith. These are Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Davud, Nisai, Tirmidhi and Ibn Maja. Among these Bukhari and Muslim collections have a special place amongst Muslims because of the extremely stringent criteria that they have applied in their collections to objectively prove a narrative authentic. For example, for Bukhari to accept a hadith as authentic there had to reliable proof that consecutive people in the chain of a narration had lived at the same time period and that they had actually seen one another. This was one among the ten criteria that he applied which included among them many character tests for the narrator. The number of hadith in these collections amount to 10,490 hadiths when all six collections are combined. This does not include the overlap between the collections. Considering that this selection is done from a pool of more than 100,000 narrations, Muslims have extremely high levels of trust in their authenticity. Women were also involved in narrating hadith. The scholarly wife of the Prophet Muhammad, Aisha, with credited with 2210 narrations and is among the top hadith narrators.

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Interpretation of the Sources of Islam

We have made it a Qur'an in Arabic, that you may be able to understand (and learn wisdom).
(Qur'an, 43:3)

Anyone who reads the Qur'an in a language that they comprehend will undoubtedly understand it and receive some insight into its meaning and wisdom. This is one of the miraculous aspects of the Qur'an—that it is understandable to people irrespective of their educational background. Levels of meaning unfold according to the levels of one's development.

The main means of interpretation in Islam is through ijtihad (deductive reasoning) by qualified scholars. Islam has given a prominent place to ijtihad, especially in law. Ijtihad is used to understand and interpret revelation; to clarify unexplained subjects through the use of analogy to like cases; to identify what is harmful or not harmful according to objective criteria and the fundamental spirit of Islam so that revelation can be applied according to its purpose through the effort of the human mind. Therefore, ijtihad is a human activity where reason and revelation co-exist.

The tradition of writing a commentary on the Qur'an is one of the oldest classical Islamic sciences. It stretches back to the time of the companions where a number of them, such as Aisha (wife of the Prophet), Abdullah ibn-al Abbas, Ibn Masud, were expert commentators. There is, of course, more than one way of explaining the Qur'an. The following exegetical devises are recognised in Islam:

  1. The Qur'an explains itself. Sometimes other verses of the Qur'an further explain a particular verse.
  2. The events surrounding the revelation as the reasons behind revelation at the time of the Prophet Muhammad give a practical context to the revelation and hence help to explain it.
  3. The Holy Prophet Muhammad, as the most qualified commentator, explained verses of the Qur'an which have been captured in hadith narratives.
  4. Scholars "who are firmly grounded in knowledge" (Qur'an, 3:7) and piety. These people have good knowledge of the first three sources of elucidation above, which further enables them to reflect the spirit of Islam in their interpretation.
  5. Time is another form of commentator as sometimes, in time, certain meanings unfold. The scientific verses of the Qur'an were not understood for a long time.

The great majority of the Qur'an is clear in meaning and application—especially when it deals with the essentials of faith and aspects of personal practice of Islam. Yet a small portion of the Qur'an contains verses that use figurative (mutashabih) language. This is indicated in the following verse: "It is He Who has sent down to you the Book. In it are Verses that are entirely clear (muhkem), they are the foundations of the Book and others are figurative verses (mutashabihatun). So as for those in whose hearts there is a deviation, they follow that which is figurative thereof seeking mischief (fitnah) and seeking for its hidden meanings, but none knows its hidden meanings save God and those who are firmly grounded in knowledge. They say, "We believe in it; the whole of it is from our Lord." And none receive warning except men of understanding." (Qur'an, 3:7). It is interesting to note that the Qur'an recognises the existence of figurative verses. It is in the nature of figurative language that more than one meaning can be attributed to it. The Qur'an notes that in unqualified hands such verses can be a source of deviation while in the hands of astute scholars who have the right mixture of broad knowledge, practice and wisdom, their hidden meanings are unfolded.

So why would God use figurative language in a revelation? Since the divine message addresses humans, who have limited intellectual capacities, it is inevitable that the divine message contains such figurative verses. Through figurative verses, God informs humanity of realities which cannot be fully grasped in their entirety. These realities are expressed in a manner that allows different meanings to manifest to people of varying levels of knowledge. This relative stance does not damage the unchanging truths of religion because those matters of faith, worship, morality and law, in which we take full responsibility, have been revealed in clear verses. God has revealed "relative realities" and we are not accountable for the meanings gained using figurative verses.

In life, there are more relative realities than absolute truths. Consider a crystal chandelier. Even though the strength and number of light bulbs in the centre do not change, the amount of light received by people sitting in a room changes by the slightest of movements. This is because of the fact that light passes through crystals, which have many faces cut at various angles. In figurative verses, words act like the crystals. God has revealed many figurative verses to convey limitless meanings so that diverse readers of the Qur'an ponder over the limitless meanings of His Book. An example of a figurative verse is: "And the mountains as pegs" (Qur'an, 78:7). Another example is the verse "God is the light (noor) of the heavens and the earth..." (Qur'an, 24:35). It is very hard to translate the figurative verses of the Qur'an. This is because a translation freezes it in a single meaning. This is why the preservation of Holy Scriptures in its original language of revelation is of paramount importance.

It is the figurative verses that add richness to the Qur'an and allow it to have limitless meanings that commentators have tried to unravel for fourteen centuries. It is said that more than 10,000 commentaries of the Qur'an have been written throughout history.

The belief that God has spoken to humanity throughout human history and that a Muslim is required to accept all prophets without exception is the third essential tenet of Islam. The Holy Qur'an is the last of major revelations given to humanity through the Holy Prophet Muhammad. There is consensus in the Muslim world that the Holy Qur'an has survived till this day without any change to its content. In addition to the Holy Qur'an, Muslims also have a corpus of collections that include narrations (hadith) about what the Holy Prophet said, did and approved of. The hadith collections were also subjected to a critical methodology and filtered to include only authentic narratives from the Holy Prophet. All religious material is available to all Muslims to study, understand and interpret.

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Footnotes

  1. Paper was not available in the 7th century. However, the need to produce copies of the Qur'an and a wealth of other books quickly necessitated the innovation of paper and its numerous applications in the Muslim world. Paper was to pass on to Europe through Muslim civilisation.