Qurʾān

Qurʾān. The scripture of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the word of Allāh, revealed to Muḥammad between the years 610 and 632 CE, recited by him, and subsequently recorded in written form.

In the Qurʾān itself, the word qurʾān means primarily the action of reciting; it can also in some places indicate an actual passage of scripture, or a part of the whole revelation, or the book; it is also mentioned together with the Tawrāt and Injīl (3. 3; 9. 111). The word kitāb (book) is also used as a synonym (e.g. 4. 105). The Qurʾān is thought to ‘confirm’, but also supersede, former scriptures (10. 37). It is taken from umm al-kitāb, the pre-existent scripture preserved in heaven.

The Qurʾān in its present form consists of 114 chapters (sūras) composed of varying numbers of verses (ayāt; sing., ayā), and roughly arranged in decreasing order of length. The first sūra, of only seven verses, is the Fātiḥa. In general, the earlier sūras are the shorter ones, and thus are found towards the end of the book.

The generally accepted belief among Muslims, although there has been criticism of the details is that during Muḥammad's lifetime portions of the Qurʾān were written down, at his dictation, but that the first collection was made during the caliphate of Abū Bakr (632–4 (AH 11–13)), by Muḥammad's scribe Zayd b. Thābit. Subsequently, under ʿUthmān, a recension was made by Zayd and a few others. Any other written versions of single parts were ordered to be destroyed. Thus within some thirty years of Muḥammad's death a definitive text was established, which has remained virtually unchanged down to the present day.

The Qurʾān is divided into the sūras revealed in Mecca, and those revealed in Madīna.

Although the Qurʾān describes itself as a ‘clear book’ (2. 2), and a clear ‘Arabic Qurʾān’ (12. 2), some of its passages are acknowledged to be obscure and in need of interpretation. The science of commentary and interpretation (tafsīr and taʾwīl) has given rise to a large body of literature.

As the speech (kalām) of Allāh, the Qurʾān is considered one of His attributes (ṣifāt), and also as co-eternal with him. Muslim teaching in general has been that the Qurʾān is eternal, uncreated, and perfect. Its inimitability (iʿjāz) is an article of faith (10. 38, 11. 13) and a proof of its divine origin. The intense respect for the words of the Qurʾān has led to an eagerness to recite portions frequently, and to learn the whole book by heart, one who has so learnt being known as a ḥāfiz̳. There has also been some reluctance to translate it into other languages. Any version other than Arabic is considered as, at best, an ‘interpretation’.