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PART I: THE SOURCES OF ISLAM

1. The Holy Quran

How and when the Quran was revealed

The original source from which all principles and ordinances of Islam are drawn is the Holy Book called al-Qur’ān.1 Generally the sources are said to be four: the Quran, the Sunnah or Hadith (Doings and Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad as preserved in various recognized collections), Ijmā‘ or unanimous agreement of the Muslim community and Qiyās or reasoning. But as ijmā‘ and qiyās are based on the Quran and the Hadith, and the latter is itself only an explanation of the Quran, as will be shown later on, the Quran is actually the real foun­dation on which the whole superstructure of Islam rests, and the only, absolute and final authority in every discussion relating to the principles and laws of Islam.

The name Qur’ān is frequently mentioned in the book itself 2 which also states to whom, how, why, when, and in what language, it was delivered. It was revealed to Muhammad:

“And those who believe and do good and believe in that which has been revealed to Muhammad — and it is the Truth from their Lord.” — 47:2

Its rev­elation commenced in the month of Ramadan on a certain night which, from then on, received the name of the Night of Majesty (Lailat al-Qadr):

“The month of Ramadan is that in which the Quran was re­vealed…” — 2:185

“We revealed it on a blessed night…” — 44:3

“Surely We revealed it on the Night of Majesty.” — 97:1

It was revealed in the Arabic language:

“So We have made it easy in your tongue [O Prophet] that they may be mindful.” — 44:58

“Sur­ely We have made it an Arabic Quran that you [O peo­ple] may understand.” — 43:3

It was revealed in portions, every portion being written and commit­ted to memory as soon as it was revealed, and the revelation was spread over twenty-three years of the Holy Prophet’s life, during which time he was occupied solely with the reformation of a benighted world:

“And it is a Quran which We have made distinct, so that you may read it to the people by slow degrees, and We have revealed it in portions.” — 17:106

It was not the Prophet who spoke under influence of the Holy Spirit; it was a Divine Message brought by the angel Gabriel, and delivered in words to the Holy Prophet who communicated it to man­kind. He is told in the Quran:

“And surely this is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. The Faithful Spirit has brought it on your heart that you may be a warner, in plain Arabic language.” — 26:192–195

“Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel — for surely he revealed it to your heart by Allah’s command…” — 2:97

“The Holy Spirit has re­vealed it from your Lord with the truth…” — 16:102

The Quran uses the words Holy Spirit and Gabriel interchange­ably. Both the Quran and Hadith make it clear that Divine revelation was brought to the Holy Prophet, and to the prophets before him, by the angel Gabriel who is also called the Holy Spirit or the Faithful Spirit. The Jewish concept was also that the Holy Spirit brought inspiration to the prophets, and Jesus and his disciples used the word in exactly the same sense.3 The orthodox Chris­tian conception of the Holy Spirit was unknown to the Jewish mind and the Holy Ghost is peculiar to the New Testament writers.

It is the highest form of revelation

Though the Holy Quran was revealed piecemeal through Gabriel, yet the en­tire revelation is one whole, delivered in one and the same manner. Reve­lation, we are told in the Quran, is granted to man in three forms:

“And it is not granted to a mortal that Allah should speak to him, except by revelation (waḥy) or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger and revealing by His permission what He pleases.” — 42:51

The first of these three modes is called waḥy, which is generally translated as mean­ing revelation. Since the different kinds of revelation are spoken of here, the word waḥy is obviously used in its literal sense, its primary significance being a hasty suggestion. Hence the inspired word, which enters the hearts of the prophets and of the righteous, is called waḥy because it is like a sudden suggestion made directly to the heart of the inspired one. It is not a message in words but simply an idea which comes like a flash and clears up a doubt or difficulty, and it is not the result of the thought process. The second mode is described as speaking from behind a veil — a scene, carrying a deeper significance, is shown as in a vision or in a dream or words are heard by the person spoken to, as if coming from behind a veil. The third mode is that in which the angel bearing the message is sent to the recipient of the Divine revelation, and the message is delivered in words, and this is the highest form of revelation.

As already stated, the angel en­trusted with the Divine message in words is Gabriel or the Holy Spirit, and this third mode of revelation is limited to the prophets of God only — to men entrusted with important Divine messages to humanity — while the first two lower forms of revelation are common to prophets as well as those who are not prophets. For the delivery of the higher message which relates to the welfare of mankind, a higher form of revelation is chosen, a form in which the message is not simply an idea but is clothed in actual words. The prophet’s faculty of being spoken to by God is so highly developed that he receives the messages, not only as ideas instilled into the mind or in the form of words uttered or heard under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but actually as Divine messages in words delivered through the latter. In the terminology of Islam this is called “revelation that is recited” (waḥy matluww), and the Holy Quran was, from beginning to end, delivered in this form to the Holy Prophet, as the quotations earlier given from the Book itself make it abundantly clear. It does not contain any other form of revelation. It is in its entirety waḥy matluww or revelation recited to the Holy Prophet distinctly in words, and is thus wholly the highest form of Divine revelation.

Other forms of Divine revelation to human beings

As stated above, prophets also received the two lower forms of Divine reve­lation. For example, we are told in Hadith reports that before the higher message came to the Prophet Muhammad — i.e., before he received the first Quranic revelation — he used to have clear and true visions:

“The first of revela­tions that came to the Messenger of Allah were good visions so that he did not see a vision but it came out true as the dawn of the day.” 4

This is the second mode of revelation mentioned earlier. The details of laws as later expounded by Holy Prophet, and as met with in his practice, belong to the first form of revela­tion, an idea instilled into the mind, which is called “inner revelation” (waḥy khafiyy).

In the lower forms, revelation is still granted to the righteous from among the followers of the Holy Prophet and even to others, for, as will be shown later, revelation in the lowest form is the universal experience of humanity. There is also a difference as to the method in which the differ­ent kinds of revelation are received. While the two lower forms of revela­tion involve but little change in the normal condition of a person, whether awake or asleep, and he is only occasionally transported to a state of trance, the highest form, which is that peculiar to the prophets, brings with it a violent change; it does, in fact, require a real passing from one world to the other, while the recipient is in a state of perfect wakefulness, and the burden of revelation is not only felt by him but is also visible to those who see him.

The Holy Prophet’s experience of revelation

The Holy Prophet first experienced the higher revelation while he was alone in the cave of Hira. Before this, he had from time to time seen visions, but when the angel came with the higher message, he found himself quite exhausted:

“He [Gabriel] seized me and squeezed me to such an extent that I was quite exhausted”,

and this was repeated three times.5 And even after he reached home, the effect of exhaustion was still upon him and he had to lie down, covered over, before he could relate what had be­fallen. It was an equally hard experience when the second message came to him after an interval of some months. And even afterwards, the effect of the Spirit upon him was so great that on the coldest of days perspira­tion would run down his forehead: “I saw”, says Aishah, his wife, “revelation coming down upon him in the severest cold, and when that condition was over, perspiration ran down his forehead”.6 Zaid ibn Thabit relates that he was sitting with his leg under that of the Holy Prophet when revelation came down upon him, and he felt as if his leg would be crushed under the weight.7

Nature of the Holy Prophet’s revelation

When it was once enquired of the Holy Prophet how revelation came to him, he replied:

“It comes to me sometimes as the ringing of a bell and this is hardest on me, then he [the angel] leaves me and I remem­ber from him what he says; and sometimes the angel comes in the shape of a man and he talks to me and I remember what he says.” 8

These are the only two forms in which the Quranic revelation came to the Holy Prophet. In both cases, the angel came to him and was seen by him; in both cases, a certain message was delivered in words which he at once committed to memory. That is the essence of the whole question. The only difference between the two cases was that in one case the angel appeared in the shape of a human being and uttered the words in a soft tone as a man talks to another; in the other case, it is not stated in what form he came, but we are told that the words were uttered like the ringing of a bell, that is to say, in a harsh, hard tone, which made it a heavier task for the Prophet to receive them. But still it was the angel who brought the message, as is shown by the use of the personal pronoun he in the first part of the report. In both cases the Prophet was transported, as it were, to another world, and this transportation caused him to go through a severe experience which made him perspire even on a cold day, but this experience was harder still when the deliverer of the message did not ap­pear in human shape and there remained no affinity between the deliverer and the recipient. But whether the angel appeared in human shape or not, whether the message was delivered in a hard or soft tone, the one thing certain is that it was a message delivered in words; and therefore the Quranic reve­lation is entirely one message delivered in one form.

It should be noted that the Holy Prophet often received the message while sitting with his Companions, but the latter never saw the angel nor ever heard the words of revelation. It was, therefore, with other than the normal human senses that the Prophet saw the angel and heard his words, and it was really the granting of these other senses that is called transportation to another world.

Arrangement of the Quran

Though the Holy Quran was revealed in portions, it did not remain long in that fragmentary condition. As its name im­plies, it was a book from the first, and though it could not be complete until the last verse was revealed, it was never without some form of ar­range­ment. There is the clearest testimony, internal as well as ex­ternal, that every single verse or part of a verse and every chapter that was rev­ealed had its own definite place in the Book. The Quran is itself clear on this point:

“And those who disbelieve say: Why has not the Quran been revealed to him all at once? Thus [it is] that We may strengthen your heart by it, and We have arranged it well in arranging.” — 25:32

The arrangement of the Quran was thus a part of the Divine scheme. Another verse showing that the collection of the Book was a part of the Divine scheme runs thus:

“Surely on Us rests the collecting of it and the reciting of it.” — 75:17

It appears from this that just as the Quran was recited by Gabriel to the Holy Prophet, in like manner, the collecting of its various parts was effected by the Prophet under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. History also bears testimony to the truth of this statement, for not only are there numerous anecdotes showing that this or that portion of the Quran was put to writing under the orders of the Holy Pro­phet, but we are clearly told by Uthman, the third Caliph, that every portion of the Book was written, and given its specified place, at the bidding of the Prophet:

“It was customary with the Messenger of Allah (may peace and the bless­ings of Allah be upon him) that when portions of different chapters were revealed to him, and when any verse was revealed, he called one of those persons who used to write the Quran and said to him: Write this verse in the chapter where such and such verses occur.” 9

Arrangement in oral recitation

In fact, if we bear in mind the use that was made of the Holy Quran, we cannot for an instant entertain the idea that the Book existed without any arrangement of its verses and chapters in the lifetime of the Holy Prophet. It was not only recited in prayers but committed to memory and regularly recited to keep it fresh in the mind. Now if an arrangement of verses and chapters had not existed, it would have been impossible either to recite it in public prayers or to commit it to memory. The slightest change in the place of a verse by the man leading the prayers would at once call forth a correction from the audience, as it does at the present day. Since no one could take the liberty of changing a word or the place of a word in a verse, no one could change a verse or the place of a verse in a chapter; and so the committing of the Quran to memory by so many of the Companions of the Holy Prophet, and their constant recitation of it, would have been impossible unless a known order was followed. The Holy Prophet could not teach the Quran to his Companions nor the Companions to each other, nor could he or anyone else lead the public prayers, in which long portions of the Book were recited, without following a known and accepted order.

Complete written copies of the Quran

The Holy Quran thus existed in a complete and ordered form in the memories of men, but no complete written copy of it existed at the time, nor could such a copy be made while the Holy Prophet was alive, and still receiv­ing revelations. But the whole of the Quran in one arrangement was safely preserved in the memories of reciters.

It happened, however, that many of the reciters fell in the famous battle of Yamama, in the caliphate of Abu Bakr,10 and it was then that Umar11 urged upon him the necessi­ty of compiling a standard written copy, so that no portion of the Quran should be lost even if all the reciters were to die. And this copy was com­piled, not from the hundreds of copies that had been made by individual Companions for their own use but from the manuscripts written under the direction of the Holy Prophet himself, and the arrangement adopted was that of the oral recitation as followed in his time. Zaid ibn Thabit was chosen for the task of collecting and compiling the Quranic writings since, during the Holy Prophet’s life at Madinah, he had done by far the greater part of the work of writing his revelations.12

Thus a standard written copy was prepared, which was entrusted to the care of Hafsah, wife of the Prophet.13 But still no arrangement had been made for securing the ac­curacy of the num­erous copies that were in circulation. This was done by Uthman14 who ordered several copies to be made of the copy pre­pared in the time of the first Caliph, and these were then sent to the different Islamic centres so that all copies made by individuals should be compared with the standard copy at each centre.

Standardization of the Quran

Thus Abu Bakr ordered a standard copy to be prepared from the manuscripts written in the presence of the Holy Prophet, following the order of chapters which was followed by the reciters under the directions of the Holy Prophet, and Uthman ordered copies to be made from this standard copy. If there was any variation from that standard copy, it went no further than this that where the Quraish wrote a word in one way and Zaid ibn Thabit wrote it in another way, Uthman’s order was to write it in the manner of the Quraish. This was because Zaid belonged to Madinah while his colleagues were Quraish, which was the leading tribe of Makkah, the Holy Pro­­­phet Muhammad himself belonging to the Banu Hashim branch of this tribe.

Differences of readings

There were slight differences in the spoken language of different tribes, that of the Quraish being the model for the literary language. The Holy Quran was revealed in the dialect of the Quraish, the liter­ary language of Arabia. But when, towards the close of the Holy Prophet’s life, people from different Arabian tribes accepted Islam in large numbers, it was found that they could not pronounce certain words in the idiom of the Quraish, being habituated from childhood to their own idiom, and it was then that the Holy Prophet allowed them to pronounce a word according to their own peculiar idiom. This permission was given only to facilitate the recitation of the Quran. The written Quran was one; it was all in the chaste idiom of the Quraish, but certain people belonging to other tribes were allowed to pronounce it in their own way.

There may have been certain revelations in which an optional reading was permitted. Readings belonging to this class can only be accepted on the most unimpeachable evidence, and the trustworthiness of the Hadith reports containing such readings must be established beyond all doubt. But even these readings do not find their way into the written text, which re­mains permanently one and the same. Their value is only explanatory: they only show what significance is to be attached to the word used in the text; they are never at variance with the text. They are known to very few even of the learned, to say nothing of the general readers of the Holy Book, and are considered to have the value of an authentic Hadith report in explaining the meaning of a certain word occurring in the text.

Thus, the so-called different readings were either dialectic varia­tions, which were never meant to be permanent and intended only to facilitate the reading of the Quran in individual cases, or explanatory variations meant to throw light on the text. The former ceased to exist with the spread of education in Arabia, and the latter have still the same explanatory value as they origi­nally had.

Collective testimony of the purity of the Quranic text

Random reports that a certain verse or chapter, not to be met with in the Quran, was part of the text, have no value at all as against the con­clusive and collective testimony which establishes the purity of the text of the Holy Quran. It is a fact that ev­ery verse of the Quran was, when revealed, promulgated and made pub­lic; it became a part of the public prayer and was repeated day and night to be listened to by an audience of hundreds. When the written manuscripts of the Quran were first collected into one volume in the time of the first Caliph Abu Bakr, and later on when copies were made from that original in the time of the third Caliph Uthman, there was the unanimous testimony of all the Compan­ions that every verse that found a place in that collection was part of the Divine revelation. Such testimony of overwhelming numbers cannot be set aside by the evidence of one or two, but, as a matter of fact, all reports quoted as affecting the purity of the text ascribe a certain statement to only one man, and in not a single case is there a second person to support that assertion.

The theory of abrogation

That certain verses of the Holy Quran are abrogated by others is now an ex­ploded theory. The two passages on which it was supposed to rest, refer really to the abrogation, not of the passages of the Quran but of the previ­ous revelations whose place the Holy Book had taken. The first verse is contained in the 16th chapter (al-Naḥl) — a Makkah revelation — and runs thus:

“And when We change a message for a message — and Allah knows best what He reveals — they say: You are only a forger.” — 16:101

It is a fact that details of the Islamic law were revealed at Madinah and it is in relation to these details that the theory of abroga­tion has been broached. Therefore, a Makkah revelation would not speak of abrogation. But the reference in the above verse is to the abrogation, not of the Quranic verses but of the previous Divine messages or revela­tions, consequent upon revelation of the Quran. The context shows this clearly to be the case, for the opponents are here made to say that the Prophet was a forger. He was so accused by the opponents not because he announced the abrogation of certain verses of the Quran but because he claimed that the Quran was a Divine revelation which had taken the place of previous revelations. They argued that it was not a revelation at all: “Only a mortal teaches him” (16:103). According to them the whole of the Quran, and not merely a particular verse of it, was a forgery. The theory of abrogation, therefore, cannot be based on this verse which speaks only of one revelation or one law taking the place of another.

The other verse which is supposed to lend support to the theory runs thus:

“Whatever message We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or one like it.” — 2:106

A reference to the context will show that the Jews or the followers of previous revelations are here addressed. Of these it is said:

“…they say: We believe in that which was revealed to us; and they deny what is besides that.” — 2:91

So they were told that if a certain revelation was abrogated, it was only to give place to a better one. And there is mention not only of abrogation but also of something that was forgotten. The words “or cause to be forgotten” cannot refer to the Quran at all because no portion of it could be said to have been forgotten so as to require a new revelation in its place. There is no point in supposing that God should first make the Holy Prophet forget a verse and then reveal a new one in its place. Why not, if he really had forgotten a verse, remind him of the one forgotten? But even if it is sup­posed that his memory ever failed in retaining a certain verse (which real­ly never happened), that verse was quite safely preserved in writing, and the mere failure of the memory could not necessitate a new revelation. That the Holy Prophet never forgot what was recited to him by the Holy Spirit is plainly stated in the Quran:

“We shall make you recite, so you shall not forget”. — 87:6

History also bears out the fact that he never forgot any portion of the Quranic revelation. Sometimes the whole of a very long chapter would be revealed to him in one portion, as in the case of the sixth chapter which extends over 165 verses, but he would have it written down without delay, and make his Companions learn it by heart, and recite it in public prayers, and that without the change of even a let­ter, despite the fact that he himself could not read from a written copy, nor did the written copies, as a rule, remain in his possession. It was a miracle indeed that he never forgot any portion of the Quran, though other things he might forget, and it is to his forgetfulness in other things that the words except what Allah pleases, in the next verse (87:7), refer. On the other hand, it is a fact that parts of the older revelations had been utterly lost and forgotten, and thus the Holy Quran was needed to take the place of that which was abrogated, and that which had been forgotten by the world.

Hadith on abrogation

It is quite strange that the theory of abrogation has been accepted by writer after writer without ever thinking that not a single report in Hadith, however weak, touching on the abrogation of a verse, was traceable to the Holy Prophet. It never occurred to the upholders of this theory that the Quranic verses were promulgated by the Holy Prophet, and that it was he whose authority was necessary for the abrogation of any Quranic verse; no Companion, not even Abu Bakr or Ali, could say that a verse was abrogated. The Holy Prophet alone was entitled to say so, and there is not a single hadith to the effect that he ever said so; it is always some Companion or a later authority to whom such views are to be traced.

In most cases, where a report is traceable to one Companion who held a certain verse to have been abrogated, there is another report traceable to another Companion to the effect that the verse was not abrogated.15 Even among later writers we find that there is not a single verse on which the verdict of abrogation has been passed by one without being questioned by another; and while there are writers who would lightly pass the verdict of abrogation on hundreds of verses, there are others who consider not more than five to be abrogated, and even in the case of these five the verdict of abrogation has been seriously impugned by earlier wri­ters.

Use of the word naskh

The theory of abrogation has in fact arisen from a misunderstanding of the use of the word naskh (abrogation) by the Companions of the Holy Prophet. When the significance of one verse was limi­ted by another, the former was sometimes spoken of as having been “abrogated” (nusikhat) by the latter. Similarly when the words of a verse gave rise to a miscon­ception, and a later revelation cleared up that misconception, the word “abrogation” was metaphorically used in connection with it, the idea un­derlying its use being not that the first verse was abrogated but that a certain conception to which it had given rise was abrogated. Earlier authorities admit that abrogation means explanation metaphorically. It is an abrogation, but not an abrogation of the words of the Quran; rather it is the abrogation of a misconception of their mean­ing. This is further made clear by the application of abrogation to verses containing statements of facts, whereas, properly speaking, abro­gation could only take place in the case of verses containing a command­ment or a prohibition. This use of the word “abrogation” by the earlier authorities regarding statements of facts shows that they were using the word to signify the removal of a wrong conception regarding, or the placing of a limitation upon, the meaning of a certain verse. At the same time, it is true that the use of this word soon became indiscriminate, and when anyone found himself unable to reconcile two verses, he would declare one of them to be abrogated by the other.

Basis of abrogation

The principle on which the theory of abrogation is based is unaccepta­ble, being contrary to the clear teachings of the Quran. A verse is consi­dered to be abrogated by another when the two cannot be reconciled with each other; in other words, when they appear to contradict each other. But the Quran destroys this foundation when it declares that no part of it is at variance with another:

“Will they not then meditate on the Quran? And if it were from any other than Allah, they would have found in it many a discrepancy.” — 4:82

It was due to lack of reflection that one verse was thought to be at variance with another; and hence it is that in almost all cases where abrogation has been upheld by one person, there has been another who, being able to reconcile the two, has repudiated the alleged abro­gation.

Later commentators on abrogation

It is only among the later commentators that we meet with the tendency to augment the number of verses thought to have been abrogated, and by some of these the figure has been placed as high as five hundred. In this connection, Sayuti, one of the well-known commentators, says: “Those who multiply [the number of abrogated verses] have included many kinds — one kind being that in which there is neither abrogation, nor any par­ticularization [of a general statement], nor has it any connection with any one of them, for various reasons.” Sayuti himself brings the number of verses which he thinks to be abrogated down to twenty-one, but he admits that there is a difference of opinion even about these.16

A later writer, however, the famous Shah Wali-ullah of India, com­menting on this in his Fauz al-Kabīr, says that abrogation cannot be proved in the case of sixteen out of Sayuti’s twenty-one verses, but in the case of the remaining five he is of the opinion that the verdict of abro­gation of one verse by another is final.

However, an examination of these five verses shows that in two of them some early commentators themselves reject abrogation, and in the other three it is due to a misunderstanding.17

Thus the theory of abrogation falls to the ground on all considerations.

Interpretation of the Quran

The rule as to the interpretation of the Quran is thus given in the Holy Book itself:

“He it is Who has revealed the Book to you; some of its verses are decisive — they are the basis of the Book — and others are allegori­cal. Then those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead, and seeking to give it [their own] interpre­tation. And none knows its interpretation except Allah, and those firmly rooted in knowledge. They say: We believe in it, it is all from our Lord. And none are mindful except those who have understanding.” — 3:7

In the first place, it is stated here that there are two kinds of verses in the Holy Quran, namely, the decisive and the allegorical — the latter being those which are capable of different interpretations. Next we are told that the decisive verses are the basis of the Book, that is, that they contain the fundamental principles of religion. Hence whatever may be the differences of interpretation, the funda­mentals of religion are not affected by them, all such differences relating only to secondary matters. The third point is that some people seek to give their own interpretation to allegorical statements and are thus misled. In other words, serious errors arise only when a wrong interpre­tation is placed on words which are susceptible of two meanings. Lastly, in the concluding words, a clue is given as to the right mode of interpreta­tion in the case of alle­gorical statements: “It is all from our Lord” — meaning that there is no disagreement between the various portions of the Book. This statement has in fact been made elsewhere also, as already quoted (see 4:82).

The important principle to be borne in mind in the interpretation of the Quran, therefore, is that the meaning should be sought from within the Quran, and never should a passage be interpreted in such a manner that it may be at variance with any other passage, but more es­pecially with the basic principles laid down in the decisive verses. This principle, says the Holy Quran, is followed by “those firmly rooted in knowledge.”

The following rules may, therefore, be laid down:

• The principles of Islam are enunciated in decisive words in the Holy Quran; and, therefore, no attempt should be made to establish a principle on the strength of an allegori­cal passage, or of words susceptible of different meanings.

• The explanation of the Book should in the first place be sought in the Quran itself; for, whatever it has stated briefly, or merely hinted at, in one place, will be found ex­panded and fully explained elsewhere in it.

• The Holy Quran contains allegory and metaphor along with what is plain and decisive, and the only safeguard against being misled by what is allegorical or metaphorical is that the in­terpre­tation of such passages must be strictly in consonance with what is laid down in clear and decisive words, and not at variance therewith.

• When a law or principle is laid down in clear words, any statement carrying a doubtful significance, or a statement apparently opposed to the law so laid down, must be inter­preted subject to the principle enunciated.

Value of Hadith and commentaries in interpreting the Quran

Hadith also affords an explanation of the Holy Quran but a report can only be accepted when it is reliable and not opposed to what is clearly stated in the Quran. As regards commentaries, a word of warning is necessary against the ten­dency to regard what is stated in them as being the final word on interpre­tation, since by so doing the great treasures of knowledge which an exposition of the Holy Quran in the new light of modern progress reveals are shut out, and the Quran becomes a sealed book to the present genera­tion. The learned men of old all freely sought its meaning according to their understanding and circumstances, and the same right belongs to the present generation. It must also be added that though the commentaries are valuable stores of learning for a knowledge of the Quran, the numer­ous anecdotes and legends with which many of them are filled can only be accepted with the greatest caution and after the most careful sifting.

Divisions of the Quran

The Holy Quran is divided into 114 chapters, each of which is called a sūrah, meaning literally eminence or high degree and also any degree of a structure. The chapters are of varying length, the longest comprising one-twelfth of the entire Book. All the chapters, with the exception of the last thirty-five, are divided into sections, each section or rukū‘ dealing gener­ally with one subject, and the different sections being interrelated to each other.18 Each section contains a number of verses, a verse being known as an āyah. The total num­ber of verses is more than 6000.

For the pur­pose of recitation, the Quran is divided into thirty equal parts (juz’), each of these being again subdivided into four equal parts. Another division is into seven portions (manzil), which is designed for the completion of its recital in seven days. These divisions for the purpose of recitation have nothing to do with the subject-matter of the Holy Quran.

Makkah and Madinah chapters

An important division of the Quran relates to the Makkah and Madi­nah chapters. After the Divine Call to prophethood, the Holy Prophet passed 13 years at Makkah, and was then forced to migrate with his Companions to Madinah where he spent the last ten years of his life. Out of the total of 114 chapters of the Book, 92 were revealed during the Makkah period and 22 during the Madinah period, but the Madinah chapters, being generally longer, contain about one-third of the Holy Book. In arrangement, the Makkah revelation is intermingled with that of Madinah.

On referring to the subject-matter of the Makkah and Madinah revelations, we find the following three broad fea­tures distinguishing the two groups of chapters. Firstly, the Makkah reve­lation deals chiefly with faith in God and is particularly devoted to grounding the Muslims in that faith, while the Madinah revelation is mainly intend­ed to translate that faith into action. It is true that exhortations to good and noble deeds are met with in the Makkah revelation, and in the Madinah revelation faith is still shown to be the foundation on which the structure of deeds should be built, but, in the main, stress is laid in the former on faith in an Omnipotent and Omnipresent God Who requites every good and every evil deed, and the latter deals chiefly with what is good and what is evil, in other words, with the details of the law. The second feature distinguishing the two revelations is that while that of Makkah is generally prophetical, that of Madinah deals with the fulfilment of prophecy. Thirdly, while the former shows how true happiness of mind may be sought in communion with God, the latter points out how man’s dealing with man may also be a source of bliss and comfort to him. Hence a rational arrangement of the Quran must of necessity rest on the intermingling of the two revelations, blen­d­ing of faith with deeds, of prophecy with fulfilment of prophecy, of Divine communion with man’s relation to and treatment of man.

The place of the Quran in world literature

That the Quran occupies a place of eminence in Arabic literature which has not fallen to the lot of any other book goes without saying; but we may say more and assert with confidence that the place so occupied has not been attained at any time by any book anywhere. For what book is there in the whole history of the human race that, through so many centuries, has not only remained admittedly the standard of the language in which it is written but has also originated a world-wide literature?

The feat accomplished by the Holy Quran is unique in the whole history of the writ­ten word. It transformed a dialect, spoken in a very limited area of a for­gotten corner of the world into a world-wide language which became the mother-tongue of vast countries and mighty empires, and produced a liter­ature which is the basis of the culture of powerful nations from one end of the world to the other. There was no literature, properly speaking, in Arabic before the Holy Quran; the few pieces of poetry that did exist never soared beyond the praise of wine or woman, or horse or sword. It was with the Quran that Arabic literature originated, and through it that Arabic became a powerful language spoken in many countries and casting its in­fluence on the literary histories of many others. Without the Quran, the Arabic language would have been nowhere in the world.

There are other considerations which entitle the Quran to a place of eminence to which no other book can aspire. It throws light on all the fundamentals of religion, the existence and unity of God, the reward of good and evil, the life after death, paradise and hell, revelation, etc. In addition to expounding to us the mysteries of the unseen, it offers a solution of the most difficult problems of this life, such as the distribution of wealth, the sex-problem, and all other questions on which depends in any degree the happiness and advancement of man. And the value of this copiousness of ideas is further enhanced when it is seen that it does not confront man with dogmas but gives reasons for every assertion made, whether relating to the spiritual or the physical life. There are hundreds of topics on which it has enriched the literature of the world, and whatever questions it discusses, it adopts a rational approach and convinces by argument and not by dogma.

More wonderful still is the effect which the Holy Quran has pro­duced. The transformation which it brought about is unparalleled in the history of the world. A complete change was wrought in the lives of a whole nation in an in­credibly short time — a period of no more than twenty-three years. The Quran found the Arabs worshippers of idols, unhewn stones, trees and heaps of sand, yet in less than a quarter of a century the worship of the One God ruled the whole land and idolatry had been wiped out from one end of the country to the other. It swept all superstitions before it and, in their place, gave the most rational religion the world could dream of. The Arab who had been wont to pride himself on his ignorance had been transformed into the lover of knowledge, drinking deep at every fountain of learning to which he could gain access. And this was directly the effect of the teach­ing of the Quran, which not only appealed to reason, ever and again, but declared man’s thirst for knowledge to be insatiable. And along with superstition went the deepest vices of the Arab, and in their place the Holy Book put a burning desire for the best and noblest deeds in the service of humanity.

Yet it was not the transformation of the individual alone that the Holy Quran had accomplished; equally was it a transformation of the fa­mily, of society, of the very nation itself. From the warring elements of the Arab race, it welded a nation, united and full of life and vigour, be­fore whose onward march the greatest kingdoms of the world crumbled as if they had been but toys before the reality of the new faith. Thus the Holy Quran effected a transformation of humanity itself — a transformation material as well as moral, an awakening intellectual as well as spiritual. There is no other book which has brought about a change so miraculous in the lives of people.

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Notes to Chapter 1

1. The word Qur’ān means ‘a book that is recited’. It calls itself al-kitāb or ‘the book’ in many places, as in 2:2, 2:151, 3:3, etc. It is from a root qara’a, meaning ‘collecting things together’. This may refer to the Quran gathering together in itself the fruits of all Books of God; see 98:2­–3.

2. The Quran, 2:185, 10:37, 10:61, 17:106, etc.

3. See Matthew 22:43, Mark 12:36, and see also Luke 11:13.

4. Bukhari, book 1: ‘The beginning of revelation’, ch. 3, h 3.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.,book 1, ch. 2, h. 2. Some misdirected critics have represented this extra­ordinary experience of the coming of the revelation as an epileptic fit. The question is whether an epileptic could, when the fit came on, utter those grand religious truths which are met with in the Quran, or indeed make any coherent statement at all; or possess the unparalleled energy which we witness in every phase of the Holy Prophet’s life; whether hundreds of thousands of men possessing the Arabs’ independence of character would have taken him for a leader whose orders were obeyed in the minutest details of life?

7. Bukhari, book 8: ‘Prayer’, ch. 12 heading (above h. 371).

8. Bukhari, book 1: ‘How revelation began’, ch. 2, h. 2.

9. Abu Dawud, book 2: ‘Prayer’, ch. 127, h. 786. Tirmidhi, book 47: ‘Commentary on the Quran’, h. 3086 (DS: book 44, ch. 9).

10. Abu Bakr was the first Caliph of Islam, ruling from 632 to 634 C.E.

11. Umar was the second Caliph, from 634 to 644 C.E.

12. The account is given by Zaid himself. See Bukhari, book 65: ‘Commentary on the Quran’, h. 4679 (on Surah 9, v. 128).

13. Bukhari, book 66: ‘Virtues of the Quran’, ch. 3, h. 4986.

14. Uthman was the third Caliph, from 644 to 656 C.E.

15. Some examples, taken only from chapter 2, may be noted here — 2:180 is held by some to have been abrogated while others have denied it; 2:184 is considered by Ibn Umar as having been abrogated while Ibn Abbas says it was not (Bukhari, book 65, h. 4506 and h. 4505 on Surah 2, v. 184); 2:240 was abrogated according to Ibn Zubair while Mujahid says it was not (Bukhari, book 65, h. 4530 on Surah 2, v. 240 and h. 4531 on v. 234).

16. Itqān fī ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān by Jalal-ud-Din Sayuti, v. 2, pp. 22, 23.

17. Editor’s Note: In The Religion of Islam Maulana Muhammad Ali has fully dealt with these five verses. Here we have summed up his conclusion.

18. Editor’s Note: The sub-division of chapters into sections is only found in certain parts of the Muslim world, such as the Indian subcontinent.