​Comparative Paper : Islam and another religon

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Comparative Paper

The comparative paper should be a minimum of 5 pages (12 pt font, 1” margins, double spaced, no space between paragraphs). The header (name/date/assignment/title) should be no more than four singlespaced lines.

This paper requires you to engage in a comparative practice, which requires four steps: selection, description, comparison, and theorization. This will not require a formal thesis.

Selection requires picking two sources of data from two different religions. Our sources of data will come from texts, which will be your A and your B. You will also have to do a close reading of A and B to identify an element that appears in both texts. This element should be a concrete thing, idea, or theme (e.g. “ark,” “creation of animals,” “anger of the gods”) or one of the comparative terms we’ve discussed (e.g., “myth and ritual,” “creation myth,” “sacred,” “profane”). This element, your C, is the comparative framework.

Description begins with a close re-reading of A and B, paying attention to how the C appears, what role it plays, specific language used in discussing it, and any other relevant detail. You will want to take detailed notes when you are doing this.

Comparison requires identifying what is the same and different in your A and B with regard to your C. This can be how C is described, what role C plays, why C is important, etc.

Theorization takes the data from your comparison and hypothesizes about what the differences say about each religion and what the similarities might suggest about religion in general.

Your paper will thus include these elements: 1. Selection: (1-2 sentences max) a. Which texts are you using and what is your comparative framework? (i.e. what is your A, B, and C; 1-2 sentences). b. Why is your C relevant to A and B? (i.e., why is C important to A and B) 2. Description: (1 page) a. What is your “data” for C? (how does C appear in each text? What role does C play in each text? This is where you can do summary.) 3. Comparison a. What is the same about C in A and B? (i.e., in both A and B, C is/does this thing) b. What is different about C in A and B? (i.e., in text A, C also is/does this; in text B, C also is/does this) 4. Theorization (this is where you’ll do analysis and argumentation) a. What do the differences suggest about religion A and religion B? (i.e., since C does this in A, we can hypothesize that religion A is/does this; since C does this in B, we can hypothesize that religion B is/does this). b. What do the similarities suggest about religion in general? (since C is/does this in both A and B, we can hypothesize that in all religions, C is/does this)

You not waste space with a flowery introduction. Your first sentence(s) should answer the selection question (i.e. 1a).

Also, while your paper does not require a formal thesis, it must still be written as a paper. With the exception with the selection questions, you should not simply create a list answering the questions above one-by-one.

You may summarize the text in your description, but do quote directly from the texts where necessary for analysis. You should be using the translations/editions we’ve used in class.

Scripture should be cited parenthetically by book, chapter, and verse(s). E.g. “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:1). Enuma Elish and Epic of Gilgamesh should be cited by tablet number and line number. E.g., “There father Anu swore an oath” (Gilgamesh XI.15); “With a clean festal robe she made his face shine” (Enuma Elish V.82).

Your paper will be graded on the following criteria: • Adherence to proper spelling/grammar conventions • Meeting formal guidelines of paper (including rules about style and formatting) • Accuracy/creativity of description/comparison:

o The best papers will identify interesting elements in each text that go beyond a mere surface reading

o Is your description/comparison/analysis supported by what is specifically said in the text or does it come out of assumptions made (but not supported by) the texts? • Logical coherence of theorization from comparison.

o Your theorization does not have to be ground-breaking, but it does need to make sense. You will have to make an argument that is supported by your data for your theorization.

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Please refer back to the guidelines of the “comparative paper above” assignment. Your paper must include something from Islam as your “A,” but you may choose either Christian, Jewish or Near Eastern Texts as your “B.” You may use either the Qur’an or material from F.E. Peters’ Reader on Classical Islam for your A; you should likewise choose something from a specific text for your B. For example you may do a comparison of the Qur’an and the Gospel of Mark with “apocalypticism” as your C, but you may not chose the Qur’an and Christianity with apocalypticism as your C.

You are free to choose for your C anything that appears in both your A and your B. You may choose a person as your C, but only if you’re looking at later commentary on that person for your A and B. For example, if you chose Moses, your B should not come from Exodus. A proper comparison for Moses would be Qur’an as A and (for example) Gospel According to Matthew as B. Here are some other suggestions for your C:

Charismatic Authority (Muhammad as “A,” and Jesus in a specific gospel) Apocalypticism (Qur’an as A – though you will need to pick specific suras; Galatians, Thessalonians, Mark, Daniel, or 1 Enoch as your B) Monotheism (Qur’an as A; Abrahamic/Mosaic covenant, reforms of Josiah, or Ezra/Nehemiah as B) Travel/Pilgrimage (Hajj, Hijra, Miraj as A; Exodus as B) Abraham (Qur’an as A; Romans or Galatians as B) Prophets (could do either general commentary about “prophets” in Qur’an and Gospel According to Matthew/Luke, or a comparison of two specific prophets – for example, Jesus in Qur’an as A; John the Baptist in Gospel According to Luke as B)

If you have any doubts about your comparison, please check with me

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image CONTENTS Editorial Board Editors’ Contributions Acknowledgments Abbreviations Arabic Transliteration and Pronunciation General Introduction, Seyyed Hossein Nasr Approaching The Study Quran Understanding the Citations in the Commentary Commentator Key The Quran: Translation and Commentary 1 The Opening, al-Fātiḥah Commentary 2 The Cow, al-Baqarah Commentary 3 The House of ʿImrān, Āl ʿImrān Commentary 4 Women, al-Nisāʾ Commentary 5 The Table Spread, al-Māʾidah Commentary 6 The Cattle, al-Anʿām Commentary 7 The Heights, al-Aʿrāf Commentary 8 The Spoils, al-Anfāl Commentary 9 Repentance, al-Tawbah Commentary 10 Jonah, Yūnus Commentary 11 Hūd, Hūd Commentary 12 Joseph, Yūsuf Commentary 13 The Thunder, al-Raʿd Commentary 14 Abraham, Ibrāhīm Commentary 15 Ḥijr, al-Ḥijr Commentary 16 The Bee, al-Naḥl Commentary 17 The Night Journey, al-Isrāʾ Commentary 18 The Cave, al-Kahf Commentary 19 Mary, Maryam Commentary 20 Ṭā Hā, Ṭā Hā Commentary 21 The Prophets, al-Anbiyāʾ Commentary 22 The Pilgrimage, al-Ḥajj Commentary 23 The Believers, al-Muʾminūn Commentary 24 Light, al-Nūr Commentary 25 The Criterion, al-Furqān Commentary 26 The Poets, al-Shuʿarāʾ Commentary 27 The Ants, al-Naml Commentary 28 The Story, al-Qaṣaṣ Commentary 29 The Spider, al-ʿAnkabūt Commentary 30 The Byzantines, al-Rūm Commentary 31 Luqmān, Luqmān Commentary 32 Prostration, al-Sajdah Commentary 33 The Parties, al-Aḥzāb Commentary 34 Sheba, Sabaʾ Commentary 35 The Originator, Fāṭir Commentary 36 Yā Sīn, Yā Sīn Commentary 37 Those Ranged in Ranks, al-Ṣāffāt Commentary 38 Ṣād, Ṣād Commentary 39 The Throngs, al-Zumar Commentary 40 The Forgiver, Ghāfir Commentary 41 Expounded, Fuṣṣilat Commentary 42 Counsel, al-Shūrā Commentary 43 Gold Ornaments, al-Zukhruf Commentary 44 Smoke, al-Dukhān Commentary 45 Upon Their Knees, al-Jāthiyah Commentary 46 The Sand Dunes, al-Aḥqāf Commentary 47 Muhammad, Muḥammad Commentary 48 Victory, al-Fatḥ Commentary 49 The Private Apartments, al-Ḥujurāt Commentary 50 Qāf, Qāf Commentary 51 The Scatterers, al-Dhāriyāt Commentary 52 The Mount, al-Ṭūr Commentary 53 The Star, al-Najm Commentary 54 The Moon, al-Qamar Commentary 55 The Compassionate, al-Raḥmān Commentary 56 The Event, al-Wāqiʿah Commentary 57 Iron, al-Ḥadīd Commentary 58 She Who Disputes, al-Mujādilah Commentary 59 The Gathering, al-Ḥashr Commentary 60 She Who Is Examined, al-Mumtaḥanah Commentary 61 The Ranks, al-Ṣaff Commentary 62 The Congregational Prayer, al-Jumuʿah Commentary 63 The Hypocrites, al-Munāfiqūn Commentary 64 Mutual Dispossession, al-Taghābun Commentary 65 Divorce, al-Ṭalāq Commentary 66 Forbiddance, al-Taḥrīm Commentary 67 Sovereignty, al-Mulk Commentary 68 The Pen, al-Qalam Commentary 69 The Undeniable Reality, al-Ḥāqqah Commentary 70 The Ascending Ways, al-Maʿārij Commentary 71 Noah, Nūḥ Commentary 72 The Jinn, al-Jinn Commentary 73 The Enwrapped One, al-Muzzammil Commentary 74 The Covered One, al-Muddaththir Commentary 75 The Resurrection, al-Qiyāmah Commentary 76 Man, al-Insān Commentary 77 Those Sent Forth, al-Mursalāt Commentary 78 The Tiding, al-Nabaʾ Commentary 79 The Wresters, al-Nāziʿāt Commentary 80 He Frowned, ʿAbasa Commentary 81 The Enfolding, al-Takwīr Commentary 82 The Cleaving Asunder, al-Infiṭār Commentary 83 Those Who Defraud, al-Muṭaffifīn Commentary 84 The Sundering, al-Inshiqāq Commentary 85 The Constellations, al-Burūj Commentary 86 What Comes by Night, al-ṭāriq Commentary 87 The Most High, al-Aʿlā Commentary 88 The Overwhelming Event, al-Ghāshiyah Commentary 89 The Dawn, al-Fajr Commentary 90 The Land, al-Balad Commentary 91 The Sun, al-Shams Commentary 92 The Night, al-Layl Commentary 93 The Morning Brightness, al-Ḍuḥā Commentary 94 Expansion, al-Sharḥ Commentary 95 The Fig, al-Tīn Commentary 96 The Blood Clot, al-ʿAlaq Commentary 97 Power, al-Qadr Commentary 98 The Clear Proof, al-Bayyinah Commentary 99 The Earthquake, al-Zalzalah Commentary 100 The Chargers, al-ʿĀdiyāt Commentary 101 The Calamity, al-Qāriʿah Commentary 102 Vying for Increase, al-Takāthur Commentary 103 The Declining Day, al-ʿAṣr Commentary 104 The Slanderer, al-Humazah Commentary 105 The Elephant, al-Fīl Commentary 106 Quraysh, Quraysh Commentary 107 Small Kindnesses, al-Māʿūn Commentary 108 Abundant Good, al-Kawthar Commentary 109 The Disbelievers, al-Kāfirūn Commentary 110 Help, al-Naṣr Commentary 111 The Palm Fiber, al-Masad Commentary 112 Sincerity, al-Ikhlāṣ Commentary 113 The Daybreak, al-Falaq Commentary 114 Mankind, al-Nās Commentary ESSAYS How to Read the Quran Ingrid Mattson The Quran in Translation Joseph Lumbard The Islamic View of the Quran Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami Quranic Arabic: Its Characteristics and Impact on Arabic Language and Literature and the Languages and Literatures of Other Islamic Peoples Muhammad Abdel Haleem Quranic Commentaries Walid Saleh Traditions of Esoteric and Sapiential Quranic Commentary Toby Mayer Scientific Commentary on the Quran Muzaffar Iqbal The Quran as Source of Islamic Law Aḥmad Muḥammad al-ṭayyib The Quran and Schools of Islamic Theology and Philosophy Muṣṭafā Muḥaqqiq Dāmād The Quran and Sufism William C. Chittick The Quran and Islamic Art Jean-Louis Michon The Quranic View of Sacred History and Other Religions Joseph Lumbard Quranic Ethics, Human Rights, and Society Maria Massi Dakake Conquest and Conversion, War and Peace in the Quran Caner K. Dagli Death, Dying, and the Afterlife in the Quran Hamza Yusuf Essay Author Biographies Appendix A Ḥadīth Citations Appendix B Time Line of Major Events Related to the Quran Appendix C Biographies of Commentators Maps Index Copyright About the Publisher EDITORIAL BOARD (Editor-in-Chief), University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, is an international authority on Islamic philosophy, mysticism, art, and science as well as comparative religion and religion and ecology. He is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles and the subject of a number of books, edited collections, and articles. Some of his recent publications include The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism (2007), Islam’s Mystical Tradition (2007), Islam in the Modern World (2010), In Search of the Sacred (2010), and Metaphysical Penetrations (a translation of Mullā Ṣadrā’s Kitāb al-Mashāʿir, 2014). SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR CANER K. DAGLI (General Editor), Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, is a specialist in Sufism, Islamic philosophy, interfaith dialogue, and Quranic studies. His publications include The Ringstones of Wisdom (an annotated translation of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, 2004), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Science, Philosophy, and Technology in Islam (senior coeditor, 2014), and Ibn al-ʿArabī and Islamic Intellectual Culture: From Mysticism to Philosophy (2015). (General Editor) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University, specializing in Shiism, Sufism, Islamic philosophy and theology, the Quran, interfaith dialogue, and issues related to women and the feminine in classical Islam. She is the author of The Charismatic Community: Shīʿite Identity in Early Islam (2007) and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to the Quran (forthcoming). MARIA MASSI DAKAKE JOSEPH E. B. LUMBARD (General Editor) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Arabic and Translation Studies at the American University of Sharjah and an Associate Editor for the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (in progress). A specialist in Quranic studies, Sufism, Islamic philosophy, comparative theology, and Islamic ecotheology, he is the editor of Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition (2nd edition, 2010), and author of Submission, Faith, and Beauty: The Religion of Islam (2009) and Love and Remembrance: The Life and Teachings of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī (2016). (Assistant Editor), Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University, specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and theology, and Quranic exegesis. He is the author of The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mullā ṣadrā (2012) and translator of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī’s The MOHAMMED RUSTOM Condemnation of Pride and Self-Admiration (2017). EDITORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS Seyyed Hossein Nasr supervised the entire Study Quran, including selecting the editorial board and essay authors; editing the translation, commentary, and essays; and overseeing the style and scope of the translation and commentary. Caner K. Dagli wrote the commentary for sūrahs 2–3, 8–9, and 21–28, was the primary translator for sūrahs 2–3, 8–9, and 22–28, and was an editor for the remainder of the translation and commentary; he also conceived and supervised the design of the book. Maria Massi Dakake wrote the commentary for sūrahs 4–7 and 16–19, was the primary translator for sūrahs 4–7, 10–12, and 14–21, and was an editor for the remainder of the translation and commentary. Joseph E. B. Lumbard wrote the commentary for sūrahs 1 and 29–114, was the primary translator for sūrahs 1, 13, and 29–114, and was an editor for the remainder of the translation and commentary. Mohammed Rustom wrote the commentary for sūrahs 10–15 and 20 and contributed to editing other parts of the commentary and the translation. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Major funding for The Study Quran was provided by: The Institute for Religion and Civic Values The El-Hibri Foundation The following organizations and individuals provided additional support: His Majesty King Abdallah II The Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies The Radius Foundation Sheikh Abdul Rahman and Sadiqua Rahman Steve and Debra York The Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta We would like to express our gratitude to our contributors for their generous support. The funds provided allowed the editors to devote their time to The Study Quran and subsidized the many research assistants whose contributions have been invaluable. We must also thank Shabbir Mansuri, Munir Sheikh, Karim El-Hibri, and Zen Hunter Ishikawa for their assistance in procuring and managing these funds. George Mason University and the College of the Holy Cross provided generous leaves and financial assistance that contributed to the completion of this project. The editors of The Study Quran wish to thank the authors of the essays for their excellent contributions. We are grateful to Daoud Casewit for his work on the citations of ḥadīth and sayings, and for conceiving of and providing the initial drawings for the maps. We also wish to thank Ryan Brizendine for several years of invaluable editorial work as well as Shankar Nair, Arjun Nair, Hamilton Cook, Sayed Amir Mirtaheri, and Abigail Tardiff, all of whom helped with research, editorial work, indexes, and the preparation of the text for publication. Their work has vastly improved the final product, though any errors remain our own. Our special thanks go to HarperOne and its editors Eric Brandt, who helped launch the project, and Mickey Maudlin, who has guided the project to completion, along with all those who helped to prepare the text for publication, especially Ann Moru, who skillfully copyedited an enormous, demanding, and complex text, as well as our production editors, Suzanne Quist and Natalie Blachere. We would like to thank Ralph Fowler, who typeset the book, and Shiraz Sheikh, who indexed it. We are also grateful to Stephen Hanselman, our literary agent, who first proposed this project when he was an editor with HarperOne. Many friends and colleagues have made helpful suggestions and provided invaluable advice along the way. They are too numerous to name here, though we owe them all a debt of gratitude. We were honored to have the American master calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya provide the Arabic calligraphy that appears in the text. Finally, we thank our families, who have been so patient and supportive during the many years it has taken to complete this project. ABBREVIATIONS* AD Common Era year, Anno Domini AH Islamic year, Anno Hegirae c commentary of The Study Quran ca. circa cf. compare chap. chapter d. death date ed. editor passim throughout pl. plural sing. singular v. verse vv. verses *Note: A list of abbreviations for the commentators cited in this work is to be found on pages lvii–lix. ARABIC TRANSLITERATION AND PRONUNCIATION Arabic sounds resemble corresponding English sounds unless otherwise noted. ‫ء‬ ʾ ‫ب‬ b ‫ت‬ t ‫ث‬ th ‫ج‬ j ‫ح‬ ḥ a heavy h, with the throat constricted ‫خ‬ kh like the ch in the Scottish loch or German Macht ‫د‬ d ‫ذ‬ dh like the th in that ‫ر‬ r like a Spanish rolled r ‫ز‬ z ‫س‬ s ‫ش‬ sh ‫ص‬ ṣ a heavy s, with the back of the tongue raised ‫ض‬ ḍ a heavy d, with the back of the tongue raised ‫ط‬ ṭ a heavy t, with the back of the tongue raised ‫ظ‬ ẓ more a heavy dh than z, with the back of the tongue raised ‫ع‬ ʿ voiced sound formed by constriction of air in the throat, commonly elided into the following vowel ‫غ‬ gh like the French r, at the back of the tongue ‫ف‬ f ‫ق‬ q ‫ك‬ k ‫ل‬ l ‫م‬ m ‫ن‬ n ‫ه‬ h ‫ة‬ -h, -t hamzah or glottal stop, marking a shift in vowel, as in the middle of the colloquial uh-oh like the th in thin a heavy k, back in the throat tāʾ marbūṭah, appears at the end of some words and is written and pronounced h when not in construct with the following word, e.g., zakāh, and as t when it is, e.g., zakāt alfiṭr The letters ‫ ي‬,‫ا‬, and ‫ و‬can function either as consonants or long vowels: ‫ا‬ ʾ when used as an initial hamzah ‫ا‬ ā when used as a long vowel ‫ي‬ y when used as a consonant ‫ي‬ ī when used as a long vowel ‫و‬ w when used as a consonant ‫و‬ ū when used as a long vowel Short Vowels a like the vowel in son when vowelizing heavier consonants (kh, r, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, gh, q), and like the vowel in set for lighter consonants (ʾ, b, t, th, j, ḥ, d, dh, z, s, sh, ʿ, f, k, l, m, n, h, w, y) i like the vowel in sit u like the vowel in soot Long Vowels ā like the vowel in sob for heavier consonants (kh, r, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, gh, q) and like the vowel in sat for lighter consonants (ʾ, b, t, th, j, ḥ, d, dh, z, s, sh, ʿ, f, k, l, m, n, h, w, y), but pronounced slightly longer ī like the vowel in seen ū like the vowel in soon The Hamzah In transliteration, the hamzah (‫ء‬, see above) is not represented at the start of a word, but is elided into the following vowel, e.g., iḥsān, not ʾiḥsān. An initial “discontinuous” hamzah or hamzat qaṭʿ (‫ أ‬or ‫ )إ‬is always pronounced fully regardless of what precedes it, but a “connecting” hamzah or hamzat waṣl, usually represented by an alif (‫ )ا‬at the start of a word but sometimes as an alif with a waṣlah sign (‫)ٱ‬, is elided into the vowel that precedes it. The most common connecting hamzah is the first letter of the definite article al-, and the elision of the a is shown by the replacement of the connecting hamzah with an apostrophe. For example, when dhū is attached to al-qurbā, it is written as dhu’l-qurbā, not dhū al-qurbā. This elision and connection also has the effect of shortening any long vowel that immediately precedes the hamzah; thus one writes dhu’l-qurbā, not dhū’l-qurbā, and one pronounces it dhul-qur-ba, not dhool-qur-ba. Another important instance of the connecting hamzah is the first letter of the Divine Name Allāh. For example, one writes lā ilāha illa’Llāh, not lā ilāha illā Allāh, with the capital “L” taking the place of the first letter of the Divine Name. However, in some cases, as in names such as ʿAbd Allāh and phrases such as subḥān Allāh, the Divine Name is written without the elision. Sun and Moon Letters When spoken or recited, the l in the definite article al- takes on the sound that follows it in the case of certain consonants, traditionally called “sun letters”: t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, l, n. For example, al-nūr is pronounced an-noor, not alnoor. For the other consonants, traditionally called “moon letters” (ʾ, b, j, ḥ, kh, ʿ, gh, f, q, k, m, h, w, y), the l in the definite article al- remains pronounced; for example, al-kitāb is pronounced al-ki-taab. This pronunciation difference is not represented in the transliteration or the original Arabic script. GENERAL INTRODUCTION Bi’smi’Llāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm The Quran is for Muslims the verbatim Word of God, revealed during the twentythree-year period of the prophetic mission of the Prophet Muhammad through the agency of the Archangel Gabriel (Jibrīl or Jabraʾīl). The meaning, the language, and every word and letter in the Quran, its sound when recited, and its text written upon various physical surfaces are all considered sacred. The Quran was an oral revelation in Arabic first heard by the Prophet and later written down in the Arabic alphabet in a book consisting of 114 sūrahs (chapters) and over 6,200 verses (āyāt), arranged according to an order that was also revealed. Considered the Book (al-Kitāb) by all Muslims, it has many names, such as al-Furqān (“the Criterion”) and al-Hudā (“the Guide”), but its most commonly used name is alQurʾān, which means “the Recitation.” In the same way that Christians refer to their sacred scripture as the Holy Bible, Muslims usually refer to theirs as alQurʾān al-Majīd (“the Glorious Quran”; 50:1; 85:21) or al-Qurʾān al-Karīm (“the Noble Quran”; 56:77). Known in English as the Quran (also Koran), it is the central theophany of Islam and the basic source and root of all that is authentically Islamic, from metaphysics, angelology, and cosmology to law and ethics, from the various arts and sciences to social structures, economics, and even political thought. The Quran is the constant companion of Muslims in the journey of life. Its verses are the first sounds recited into the ear of the newborn child. It is recited during the marriage ceremony, and its verses are usually the last words that a Muslim hears upon the approach of death. In traditional Islamic society, the sound of the recitation of the Quran was ubiquitous, and it determined the space in which men and women lived their daily lives; this is still true to a large extent in many places even today. As for the Quran as a book, it is found in nearly every Muslim home and is carried or worn in various forms and sizes by men and women for protection as they go about their daily activities. In many parts of the Islamic world it is held up for one to pass under when beginning a journey, and there are still today traditional Islamic cities whose gates contain the Quran, under which everyone entering or exiting the city passes. The Quran is an ever present source of blessing or grace (barakah) deeply experienced by Muslims as permeating all of life. Inasmuch as the Quran is the central, sacred, revealed reality for Muslims, The Study Quran addresses it as such and does not limit it to a work of merely historical, social, or linguistic interest divorced from its sacred and revealed character. To this end, the focus of The Study Quran is on the Quran’s reception and interpretation within the Muslim intellectual and spiritual tradition, although this does not mean that Muslims are the only intended audience, since the work is meant to be of use to various scholars, teachers, students, and general readers. It is with this Book, whose recitation brings Muslims from Sumatra to Senegal to tears, and not simply with a text important for the study of Semitic philology or the social conditions of first/seventh-century Arabia, that this study deals. This Book, according to Islam, was revealed by Gabriel to the Prophet during the twenty-three years of his prophetic mission on different occasions during night and day, in both Makkah and Madinah, in such a manner that, although the words of the Quran came out of his mouth, its Author is God. The Prophet was the instrument through which the reality of the Quran, which existed with God on a level of reality beyond time, in what Muslims call the Preserved Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ; 85:22), was revealed to men and women in this world. That is why revelation itself is often described as “descent” (tanzīl), which means that the Quran was a reality before its revelation or descent to the Prophet and therefore not his own words, as claimed by those who have denied the revealed nature of the Quran over the ages. And yet something of the reality of the Prophet’s soul is present in the Quran, and that is why, when asked about his character, his wife ʿĀʾishah replied, “His character was the Quran.” Shortly before his departure from the earthly plane, the Prophet said in a famous tradition, or ḥadīth, “I leave among you something which is very important and should be followed; you will not go astray if you take hold of it after I am gone, one part of it being more important than the other: God’s Book, which is a rope stretched from Heaven to earth, and my close relatives, who belong to my household. These two will not separate from one another till they come down to the pool [in the Hereafter]; so consider how you act regarding them after my departure.” The Message of the Quran What are the grand themes with which this sacred scripture deals? The Quran contains above all a doctrine about the nature of reality on all its levels, from Absolute Reality Itself, that is, the One God, to the reality of creation both macrocosmic and microcosmic. It provides the full revelation of Allāh, or God, as the supreme Reality Whose Oneness is at the center of the Islamic message. God is One, at once impersonal and personal, transcendent and immanent, majestic and beautiful, beyond all that we can conceive and yet nearer to us than our jugular vein, as the Quran itself asserts so poetically (50:16). The Quran also reveals a galaxy of Divine Names and Qualities, which by virtue of being revealed are sacred and provide the means of not only knowing God, but also of returning to Him. They thus play a central role not only in Islamic metaphysics and theology, but also in the practical and ritual aspects of Islamic religious and spiritual life. As the Quran itself states, Unto God belong the Most Beautiful Names (7:180; cf. 17:110; 20:8; 59:24); it then commands the believers to call upon Him through these Names (7:180). Islamic doctrine based upon the Quran distinguishes between the Divine Essence, which is beyond all names, qualities, attributes, and descriptions; His Names, Qualities, and Attributes; and His Acts, which include the creation and sustenance of all the worlds and all creatures within them and the constant operations of His Will in His creation, especially the human order, in which His Love and Mercy as well as Justice and Judgment are ever present. The testimony of faith in Islam, that is, the first shahādah, lā ilāha illa’Llāh (“There is no god but God”), a phrase that was revealed in the Quran itself (37:35; 47:19), is not only the supreme statement concerning Divine Unity and Transcendence, but also the means of reintegrating all positive qualities back into the One. The shahādah also means that there is ultimately no beauty but the Divine Beauty, no goodness but the Divine Goodness, no power but the Divine Power, and so on. Metaphysically it means that there is ultimately no reality but the Divine Reality. The Quran also deals fully with the nature of human beings. It teaches us who we are, why we were created and placed here on earth, what our goal in life is, what our responsibilities and rights are according to the Divine Law, what we need to know about the immortality of the human soul and its posthumous states, and the consequences of how we live in this world for our state of being after death. Although it addresses both men and women in most of its verses, it also deals explicitly in some places with the meaning of the creation of human beings as male and female or in pairs (zawj), the sacredness of sexuality, the importance of the family, and the responsibilities of each gender toward the other in marriage. Also treated is the correct relationship between the individual, society, and the rest of God’s creation. No sacred scripture of which we have knowledge speaks more about the cosmos and the world of nature than does the Quran, where one finds extensive teachings about cosmogenesis, cosmic history, eschatological events marking the end of the cosmic order as it now exists, and the phenomena of nature as revealing Divine Wisdom. In fact, the Quran refers to these phenomena as āyāt (“signs,” or symbols), employing the same word that is used for the verses of the Sacred Book. The Quran also speaks of life and its origin and of the relation of all beings, animate as well as inanimate, from animals and plants, to mountains, seas, and stars, to God. In a sense the Quran was revealed to a whole cosmic sector as well as to humanity, and many Muslim sages over the ages have referred to the cosmos itself as a revelation, in fact the primordial revelation. That is why they have so often referred to the cosmos as “the cosmic Quran” (al-qurʾān al-takwīnī), the meaning of whose “verses” can only be understood by means of “the written Quran” (al-qurʾān al-tadwīnī), that is, the book of the Quran, which is Islam’s sacred scripture. Of course, as many traditions of the Prophet (aḥādīth, sing. ḥadīth) have indicated, the Quran possesses an outward meaning (ẓāhir) and an inward meaning (bāṭin), in fact several inner meanings, the most inward of which is said, according to tradition, to be known only to God. Grasping the multiple levels of meaning of the Quranic text is essential for learning to “read” the cosmic book and for the full understanding of all of its teachings, including the metaphysics, cosmology, science of the human state, eschatology, and spiritual life of which the Quran speaks. To return to the central subjects and themes mentioned in the Quran, it is important to emphasize that the Quran is the fundamental source of Islamic Law (al-Sharīʿah) and that, although historically the Prophet has been called, like Moses, a legislator, the ultimate legislator is considered in Islam to be God Himself, who is often called al-Shāriʿ, “the Legislator.” A few hundred Quranic verses deal in a concrete manner with law, while others deal with principles upon which revealed laws are based. In fact, for Muslims the Islamic Sharīʿah, or Divine Law, is the concrete embodiment of the Divine Will as elaborated in the Quran for the followers of Islam; and from the Islamic point of view the scriptures of all divinely revealed religions, each of which possesses its own sharīʿah (see 5:48), have the same function in those religions. For Muslims, who accept the Quran as the Word of God, therefore, following the Divine Law is basic and foundational for the practice of their religion. The Quran is also a book of ethics. It provides the criteria for discernment between not only truth and falsehood, beauty and ugliness, but also good and evil. Although it emphasizes that human beings should use their God-given gift of intelligence (al-ʿaql) to discern what is true, beautiful, and good, it also insists that it is necessary to have faith in the revelation that provides the final judgment as to what is true and good and in fact allows human intelligence to be fully operative rather than becoming atrophied by human passions. Moreover, the ethical teachings of the Quran concern both the cultivation of virtues that pertain specifically to individuals, and of social ethical qualities, such as justice and generosity, that are basic for any society that could be called properly Islamic. Furthermore, from a Quranic perspective the rights of the individual and those of society are not in tension or opposition with each other, as they are sometimes perceived to be in modern Western societies. As the fundamental source of the Islamic religion, the Quran contains teachings, including economic and political ones, that pertain to both individual believers and Islamic society as a whole. It also contains instructions for various individual religious practices and especially rites, whose details were provided by the sunnah (“wont”) and aḥādīth (sayings, actions, and tacit approvals) of the Prophet. But the Quran also establishes communal religious practices and institutions that are basic to Islamic society as a whole. Many are aware that the Quran is concerned with religious life as well as matters related to both individual salvation and the social order, but fewer realize that the Quran is also a guide for the inner spiritual life. Paying attention to the inner meaning of the Quran results in the realization that not only does it contain teachings about creating a just social order and leading a virtuous life that results in a return to God after death in a felicitous state; it also provides the means of returning to God here and now while still in this world. The Quran is therefore also a sapiential and spiritual guide for the attainment of the truth, a guide for the attainment of beatitude even in this world. Another theme that runs throughout many of the sūrahs of the Quran is sacred history and narratives that pertain to prophets of old and their peoples. This sacred history confines itself almost completely to the Abrahamic tradition and the Israelite prophets, although some Arab prophets not found in the Bible are also mentioned. The import of this sacred history is meant, however, to be universal, since the Islamic revelation is addressed to all of humanity rather than to a particular people, as is the case with Judaism. For Muslims, the sacred history narrated in the Quran was revealed by God to the Prophet; it is not simply a compilation of reports heard from Jewish or Christian sources. There is in fact a subtle difference between Biblical and Quranic accounts of sacred history. While the Biblical accounts have a more historical nature, Quranic sacred history is more ahistorical and is revealed primarily to teach ethical and spiritual lessons. Quranic sacred history is seen more as events within the human soul rather than as just historical events in the world. All human beings possess within their being, for example, the qualities of Moses and those of Pharaoh, the beauty of Joseph and the conniving of his brothers; this sacred history is a means of teaching Muslims about their own souls as well as about good and evil and the ultimate triumph of good over evil, if one takes recourse in God, seeks His Help, and has confidence in Him throughout the trials of life, as did prophets of old. Traditional views of religious history are usually concerned with eschatology, and Islam’s are no exception in this regard. The Quran looks upon history as a finite reality that begins with God’s creation of the present humanity and ends with His bringing human and cosmic history to its eschatological end. The Quranic conception of the march of time is in a sense cyclical: each cycle is marked by the descent of a message from God through a prophet, the gradual forgetting of that message by the particular people to whom it was sent, and usually the occurrence of a Divinely willed calamity, followed by the coming of a new prophet. But these cycles of prophecy are not endless. Rather, the Quran announces that the Prophet of Islam is the Seal of prophets (33:40) in the chain of prophecy and that after him will come not another prophet, but eschatological events that mark the end of this world and present-day humanity. The Quran also hints at the possibility after the destruction of this world of a new creation by God, an issue, which is, however, beyond the concerns of present humanity, to which the Quran is addressed (see 14:19, 48; 35:15). Descriptions of eschatological events related to both individuals and human society as well as to the cosmos are central to the Quranic message. Numerous passages throughout the Sacred Text speak about death, Resurrection, Divine Judgment, Paradise, Hell, and by implication Purgatory as well as human beings’ final end. The Quran expresses these eschatological realities in a most powerful, concrete, and at the same time highly symbolic language. The Hereafter is presented in such a manner that it remains a constant reality in the consciousness of Muslims throughout their lives here in this lower world (al-dunyā). The delights of Paradise as well as the terrible punishments of Hell are described in such a way as to leave an indelible effect upon the mind and soul of believers, profoundly affecting their actions and thoughts in this world. Moreover, Quranic language is at once concrete and sensuous, to be understood by the simplest believers, and symbolic and metaphysical, to satisfy the needs of sages and saints. The paradisal delights described in the Quran are not sublimations of earthly delights, as some have claimed; but earthly delights, both those that are permissible to Muslims in this life and those, such as wine, that are not, are presented as earthly reflections of paradisal realities. The Quran is also a book of knowledge, and for Muslims it contains the roots of all authentic knowledge as traditionally understood, not as seen by some modern scientistic commentators who seek to identify various verses of the Noble Book with this or that recent scientific theory or discovery. In traditional Islamic civilization, all the Islamic sciences, from jurisprudence to astronomy, from theology to medicine, were considered to have their root in the Quran; in fact, all Islamic thought and art can be viewed as commentaries on it. The fact that the descent of the Quran led not only to the foundation of one of the world’s great civilizations, but also to the creation of one of the major scientific, philosophical, and artistic traditions in global history was not accidental. Without the advent of the Quran, there would have been no Islamic sciences as we know them, sciences that were brought later to the West and we therefore would not have words such as “algebra,” “algorithm,” and many other scientific terms of Arabic origin in English. Nor would there be the Summas of St. Thomas Aquinas, at least in their existing form, since these Summas contain so many ideas drawn from Islamic sources. Not only was the Quranic message foundational for the development of the Islamic sciences, but it was and remains the essential reality in the creation of the Islamic arts, whose principles derive from the ḥaqīqah, or inner truth, of the Quran. The Islamic holy book has provided over the ages the principles as well as the inspiration for the sacred Islamic arts from calligraphy to architecture. Its teachings have also channeled Muslim artistic creativity in certain directions and provided the social context for the creation of works of Islamic art. The fact that Islamic civilization has produced so much outstanding poetry, but practically no sculpture of consequence, and the fact that calligraphy is so central to Muslim life, are directly related to the Quranic message, in both its form and content. Also stemming from the Quran are the determination of what constitutes sacred art, what domains are of significance in the traditional arts, and what the hierarchy of the arts must be in Islamic civilization. The message of the Quran concerning religion is universal. Even when it speaks of islām, it refers not only to the religion revealed through the Prophet of Islam, but to submission to God in general. Therefore, in the Quran Abraham and Jesus are also called muslim in the sense of “submitter.” The Quranic message is based on the universality of revelation, and the Sacred Text states explicitly that there are no people to whom God has not sent a messenger, as in 16:36: We indeed sent a messenger unto every community, “Worship God, and shun false deities!” This universalist perspective has had the greatest effect upon the relation between Muslims and followers of other religions, both practically and intellectually, throughout Islamic history. It is because of the message of the Quran that before modern times Muslims were the first people to develop what has come to be known as the science of religions, or Religionswissenschaft, and to write in a scholarly fashion about other religions, including non-Abrahamic ones, as we see in the Indica of Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (d. 442/1048), written a thousand years ago. It is for the same reason that over seven centuries ago such Muslim seers and sages as Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī (d. 672/1273) wrote about the inner unity of religions, and somewhat later Sufis in India carried out religious dialogue based on mutual understanding with Hindu authorities and translated sacred texts of Hinduism from Sanskrit to Persian, and some in China created a body of works that can be called “Islamic Neo-Confucian.” The message of the Quran is at once sapiential and practical, legal and moral, concerned with everyday problems as well as the spiritual and intellectual life. The Sacred Text deals with every aspect of human concern, from the deepest intellectual questions and the most lofty spiritual issues to the mundane matters of ordinary life. It is at once therapeutic and didactic. It is a message of glad tidings (bishārah) and also of warning (nadhr). That is why it calls the prophets, including the Prophet of Islam, both harbingers or bearers of glad tidings (bashīr) and warners unto humanity (nadhīr). It is a guide for every conceivable aspect of human life, action, and thought and yet also a comfort for the soul of believers. As the central theophany of Islam, a theophany whose every aspect is considered sacred, the Quran is the source of all that is properly speaking Islamic. As the living Word of God, it is the ubiquitous companion of Muslims from the cradle to the grave and provides the spiritual and religious space within which they are born, breathe, live, and die. The Language, Structure, and Recitation of the Quran The Quran was revealed in the Arabic language and refers to itself as an Arabic Quran (12:2; 20:113; 39:28; 41:3; 42:7; 43:3). The Quranic revelation in a sense “shattered” the Arabic language and transformed it into the sacred language that it is for Muslims. It created a work whose language is inimitable and considered miraculous, a book that is believed to be untranslatable. The sacred presence and theophanic reality of the Quran as well as the levels of meaning contained in its verses cannot be rendered into another language, even Persian and other Islamic languages that were themselves deeply influenced by Quranic Arabic. In this context it is essential to remember that in various religions where the revelation is considered by believers to be the directly revealed Word of God, the language in which it was revealed is a sacred language, as is the case of Hebrew in Judaism or Sanskrit in Hinduism; in religions where the founder himself is considered to be the Word or the Message, the language of the message does not play the same role. For example, in Christianity Christ himself is considered to be the Word of God or the Logos, and in a sense the New Testament is the word of the Word of God. For two millennia traditional and Orthodox Christians have conducted the Mass in Greek, Latin, Slavonic, and, in the smaller Eastern churches, Aramaic, Coptic, and even Arabic itself. But for Christianity these languages are liturgical and not sacred. The celebration of the Eucharist is valid according to the traditional churches no matter which accepted liturgical language is used. But in Islam the daily prayers, the central rite that could be said to correspond to the celebration of the Eucharist in Christianity, are not valid if not performed in Arabic, whether the worshipper is Arab or non-Arab. One might say that, just as in the Eucharist worshippers become “attached” to the Word, that is, Christ, by eating the bread and drinking the wine, which are transformed through the rite into his flesh and blood, in Islamic rites worshippers “devour” the Word of God through the enunciation of verses in Quranic Arabic. For Muslims, Quranic Arabic is therefore, in the deepest sense, like bread and wine in the Eucharist or the body of Christ in traditional Christianity. Both are embodiments of the Word of God and therefore sacred. For Christians or those from a Christian background who wish to understand the full religious and spiritual significance of Quranic Arabic, it is not enough to compare it to Aramaic, which was the language of Christ, or the Latin of the Vulgate. It must be compared to the role of the body of Christ in the Christian tradition. Arabic was the last Semitic language to enter into the general arena of history compared to other languages in this family such as Hebrew, Coptic, the Babylonian languages, Aramaic, and Syriac. For many philologists, Arabic is considered the closest to what German philologists call Ursemitisch, the original and primordial Semitic language. The fact that this language, Arabic, was chosen by God for the Quranic revelation is very much related to the nature of Islam as a reassertion of the primordial religion, where the last and the first revelations are united, where the omega reconfirms the alpha, where the alpha of the prophetic chain manifests itself in the omega point in the vast history of prophecy. The revelation of the Quran in Arabic lifted this language out of time and created a work that stands above and beyond historical change. Arabic as a human language used for daily discourse of course continued and in fact spread far beyond Arabia, thanks to the Quran itself. This daily language has undergone some changes over the centuries, but even those transformations have been influenced by the immutable presence of the Quran. The language of the Quran has been “dead” to the changes of this world, but has remained most alive as the embodiment of the ever living Word of God. For every generation of Muslims, Arab and non-Arab alike, the Quran as revealed in Arabic has been and remains today an ever living presence beyond the changes of the human condition, immutable and filled with the abiding life of the Spirit and constantly affecting and guiding human life. It speaks directly to Muslims today as it did to the Companions who first heard it from the mouth of the Prophet. It remains the supreme guide of Muslims, no matter in which point of space or moment of time they find themselves in this world. The Arabic of the Quran is in places didactic and matter-of-fact and in other places allegorical, anagogical, symbolic, and highly poetic. It is true that in some places, such as Sūrah 26, “The Poets,” the Quran castigates poets and that some of the early detractors of the Prophet accused him of being just a poet in a pejorative sense. The reason for such criticisms is that in pre-Islamic Arabia poets were often paid panegyrists and soothsayers with little concern for the truth or for spiritual realities. During the rise of Islam, poets were also employed by the Prophet’s opponents to compose verses denigrating him and the religion of Islam. According to many Muslim authorities, the prominence of the linguistic arts in pre-Islamic Arabia was among the reasons that the language of the Quran was chosen by God to be miraculous and that the Quran itself challenges anyone to produce its like (see 2:23; 10:38; 11:13). The eloquence (balāghah) of the Quran is in fact considered to be miraculous (muʿjizah) and beyond the possibility of imitation by any human being. But if we use the term “poetry” in its universal sense, then the Quran, especially its last part, but also many other sections, is a work of the highest poetic quality and power that has never been matched in any work of even the greatest Muslim poets. It has also influenced profoundly the poetry created in various Islamic languages and is, moreover, the direct cause of the privileged position of poetry in Islamic civilization and in everyday Muslim life in many Islamic communities. The Quran speaks of itself as a clear Book (e.g., 12:1; 26:2; 27:1), but this characteristic does not only indicate literal and outward clarity, for there are verses whose clarity becomes known only when levels of meaning beyond the outward are considered. Since God is both the Outward (al-ẓāhir) and the Inward (al-Bāṭin), as the Quran states (57:3), so does His Word have outward and inward levels of meaning. And since God is the Creator of both the apparent or visible (al-shahādah) and the absent or Unseen (al-ghayb), in His Word the Unseen often manifests itself mysteriously in the visible and apparent words and phrases that constitute its recited and heard sounds. Because of the multiple levels of meaning, the language of the Noble book is sometimes literal, sometimes allegorical, sometimes anagogical, and yet at other times simultaneously anagogical and symbolic. The Quran is like an ocean into which Muslims plunge, but whose depth can never be fully reached. If we remember the original meaning of the Latin verb comprehendere, which is “to encompass,” then it can be said that it is the Quran that encompasses or “comprehends” the reader, while the reader can never fully encompass the Quran. The Quran is like a net cast into the world of multiplicity in order to bring us back to the world of Unity, which is infinite. As finite beings, we cannot encompass the Infinite, but we can and should be drawn to and ultimately immersed in It. One cannot discuss the language of the Quran without saying something about the remarkable mathematical structure that undergirds the Quranic text based on the mathematical symbolism of the letters of the Arabic alphabet. The traditional esoteric Islamic science known as al-jafr, whose origin is attributed traditionally to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, who became the first Shiite Imam and the fourth Sunni Caliph), deals with the numerical values of the letters of the Arabic alphabet and their symbolic significance. It is similar to the science of gematria, which, based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, is significant in Jewish Kabbalah and in those schools of Christian mysticism usually known as Christian Kabbalah. In The Study Quran we have not considered commentaries and separate Quranic studies based on al-jafr, but it is important to mention here their existence. The science of al-jafr brings out remarkable aspects of the inner teachings of the Quran, including the meaning of the mysterious separated letters (al-ḥurūf almuqaṭṭaʿah) that appear at the beginning of twenty-nine sūrahs, and elucidates many basic doctrines. For example, according to Islamic metaphysics, all beings reflect certain Divine Names and Qualities, but man (homo or insān), meaning both male and female, is the only being in this world who in his or her full reality as the Universal or Perfect Man (al-insān al-kāmil) is the mirror that reflects all of the Divine Names. Now, the Name Allāh contains all the Divine Names, and that is why one of the names of the Prophet, as the Universal Man par excellence, was ʿAbd Allāh and not, for example, ʿAbd al-Karīm, ʿabd here meaning the recipient and reflection of any of His Names. According to the science of al-jafr, the numerical value of Allāh is 66, and so is the numerical value of Ādam wa Ḥawwāʾ, that is, Adam and Eve, who in their androgynous union constitute the state of insān. Thus, the science of al-jafr helps one to grasp immediately and intuit this profound doctrine concerning the human state in relation to God. The orthography of the alphabet in which Quranic Arabic is written also possesses a symbolic significance that is brought out in certain traditional studies of the inner meaning of the Quran. For example, in Arabic, as in English, the first two letters of the alphabet are a and b, or alif and bāʾ in Arabic. In Arabic orthography alif is written as a straight vertical line (‫ )ا‬and bāʾ as a horizontal line with a dot under it (‫)ب‬. Now, alif is the first letter of the Divine Name Allāh, and bāʾ the first letter of the first word of the Quran, that is, Bi’smi’Llāh (“In the Name of God”), the full text of which is known as the basmalah. According to the science of the symbolism of Arabic orthography, the alif symbolizes the descent of the Divine Word from the world of Divine Transcendence, and bāʾ its reception in the human world and in human language, which is thereby sanctified. The point under the bāʾ symbolizes the meeting place of the two letters, of the vertical and the horizontal, and therefore constitutes the essence of all the letters of Arabic, hence of the Quran. In traditional Arabic calligraphy the lines are constituted by the harmonious repetition of the single point or dot. There is an enigmatic saying attributed to ʿAlī whose meaning can only be understood by having recourse to this science of the symbolic form of the letters of the Arabic alphabet when written in Arabic script. ʿAlī is reported to have said: “The whole of the Quran is contained in al-Fātiḥah (“The Opening”). The whole of al-Fātiḥah is contained in Bi’smi’Llāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm (“In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful”) [this formula in Arabic begins with the letter bāʾ]. The whole of the Bi’smi’Llāh is contained in the letter bāʾ. The whole of the letter bāʾ is contained in the dot (nuqṭah) underneath the bāʾ. And I am that dot.” ʿAlī was alluding here to his inner state of “supreme identity” or “supreme union,” to the full realization of unity (al-tawḥīd). This account illustrates the significance of the science of symbolism of the forms of the alphabet used in Quranic Arabic, a science that needs to be mentioned, even if it has not been considered in the commentary because of the audience for which this study is meant. Turning to the formal structure of the Quran, it bears repetition that it is constituted of 114 sūrahs, which some translate as “chapters,” starting with alFātiḥah, “The Opening,” which consists of seven verses (āyāt), followed by alBaqarah (“The Cow”), which is the longest sūrah of the Quran. Then the sūrahs as a general rule gradually become shorter as one proceeds through the text, although there are exceptions. The last part of the Quran contains the shortest sūrahs, but the last sūrah is not the shortest in number of verses or words. It is important to note, for those not familiar with the Quran, that the sūrahs are not ordered chronologically according to when they were revealed. Often parts of a sūrah were revealed, followed by parts or the whole of another sūrah, and then certain verses belonging to the earlier revealed sūrah descended. The order of the sūrahs itself is considered a matter of revelation, as the Prophet himself specified the location of verses in sūrahs and the order of sūrahs in relation to one another as they were revealed to him. Each sūrah has a name, and in some cases more than one. Muslims believe that some of these names were also revealed to the Prophet along with the command concerning which verses belonged to which sūrahs, no matter when they were revealed, and the order of the verses within the sūrahs. During the twenty-three-year prophetic career of the Prophet, when the whole of the Quran was revealed, many memorized it, and it was also written down on parchment, shoulder bones of camels, sheepskin, and other surfaces. According to tradition, Zayd ibn Thābit compiled it, and this text was given to the first Caliph, Abū Bakr, after which it was left with the second Caliph, ʿUmar, and upon his death it was placed in the custody of his daughter Ḥafṣah, one of the widows of the Prophet. After consultation with those who knew the Sacred Text by heart, a second collection was ordered by ʿUthmān, the third Caliph, again under the direction of Zayd ibn Thābit. This text, which is known as the ʿUthmānic codex, came to constitute what ʿUthmān had scribes copy; copies were then sent to the four major cities of the Islamic world of that time, Makkah, Kufa, Basra, and Damascus, and ʿUthmān kept one copy for himself. These five texts then became the basis of the written Quran that we have today. There was some discussion among the Companions concerning the numbering of some of the verses, and traditionally several schools of iḥṣāʾ, the Quranic science dealing with the enumeration of the verses, have been recognized. With regard to the recitation of the Quran, there are also variants in the declensions and different traditionally transmitted styles of psalmody. Some morphological variations are traditionally seen as something that testifies to the very polyvalence of the Quranic text. The structure of the Quran is for all practical purposes one and immutable. It has undergone no changes over the ages, and Sunnis, Shiites, and Kharijites all accept the same text as the final revelation of God to humanity. Shiites and some Sunnis believe that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib also wrote down the Quran and therefore that there was a second original written copy of it; we know that ʿUthmān also had Zayd ibn Thābit consult with ʿAlī in assembling the definitive text of the Sacred Book. It is also reported in Sunni sources that other Companions, chief among them ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, and Salīm, had also collected copies of the Quran before the ʿUthmānic codex was established. Polemical accounts in some apocryphal sources state that the Quran written down by ʿAlī possessed certain sūrahs that were deleted in the ʿUthmānic text, but this view is not accepted by mainstream Shiism or Sunnism, and the Quran used by Shiites today contains the same sūrahs and āyāt as the Quran found in the Sunni world except for a slight difference in the enumeration of a few verses. There is but a single Quran, with fewer variations of any kind than are found in any other sacred scripture. In addition to being divided into sūrahs and āyāt, the Quran was also divided later into thirty parts (ajzāʾ, sing. juzʾ). Each juzʾ is also divided in two, creating sixty aḥzāb (sing. ḥizb), which are themselves divided into halves and quarters to facilitate reading and memorization. In some parts of the Islamic world, one ḥizb will be read, either communally or privately, in the early morning prayer and another in the sunset prayer. The text is also divided into sevenths, known as manāzil (sing. manzil), which allow devotees to complete the recitation of the entire text in one week. Sometimes the thirty ajzāʾ or the seven manāzil are bound separately, so that one may carry only those volumes one wishes to read while on a journey. During the month of Ramadan, when the Quran was first revealed, it is customary for many devout Muslims to read the Quran more than at other times of the year; some read one juzʾ each day and thus complete the reading of the whole of the Quran during the thirty days of the holy month. When Ramadan is twentynine days, they usually recite the last two ajzāʾ on the last day or night of that month. Recitation of the Quran is an essential part of Muslim piety. Many read the Sacred Book from beginning to end not only during Ramadan, but also during other periods of the year. However, most Muslims turn over and over again to certain of the sūrahs with which they have particular affinity. In the same way that many pious Jews and Christians continue to read the Psalms, such sūrahs as Yā Sīn (“Yā Sīn,” 36), al-Raḥmān (“The Compassionate,” 55), al-Wāqiʿah (“The Event,” 56), al-Mulk (“Sovereignty,” 67), and many of the shorter sūrahs at the end of the Quran are recited often and in many cases on a regular basis by numerous Muslims. Besides the recitation of the whole of the Quran, which terminates with a joyous celebration known as “sealing the Quran” (khatm alQurʾān), ordinary recitation usually involves reading and meditating on a small section at a time (a practice recommended for newcomers to the Noble Book as well). Of course all practicing Muslims, Arab and non-Arab alike, recite certain parts of the Quran in their daily canonical prayers, a ritual recitation that must be in Arabic. But other than during prayers, the Quran is often also read by many Muslims in the language of non-Arab believers, whether they are from larger groups who speak Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Malay, Bengali, Swahili, English, French, or Spanish or from smaller groups who speak Yoruba, Fulani, Somali, Albanian, Bosnian, Gujarati, Tamil, or Malayalam. There is practically no language spoken by Muslims in which a translation of the Quran does not exist, and in many cases there are numerous translations. There are, however, a few exceptional cases that should be mentioned. Although the Berbers were among the first non-Arab people to embrace Islam fourteen centuries ago, because of special social and cultural circumstances, a Berber translation of the Quran has been made available only recently for the first time. And in China for twelve centuries Chinese Muslims did not want or allow a Chinese translation to be made of the Quran; such a translation appeared for the first time only in the nineteenth century. In any case when speaking of the recitation and reading of the Quran, it is important to recall the vast number of languages in which it is read and studied, but also the fact that no translation can take the place of the Arabic Quran in the ritual and liturgical life of all Muslims, whatever their mother tongue might be. The recitation of the Quran in Arabic is based on certain rules, and there is both an art and a science connected with it. It can be read by individual Muslims silently or recited aloud, but not excessively loud. Moreover, the recitation should not be too fast or too slow. There is an art to the recitation of the Quran that must be mastered, and Quranic psalmody, when performed according to traditional norms, is considered the highest sonoral art in Islam, at the peak of the hierarchy of Islamic arts. It is, along with Quranic calligraphy and sacred architecture, the latter of which creates spaces in which the sound of the Quran reverberates, Islamic sacred art par excellence. Outside of the daily prayers, the experience of the recitation of the Quran for most Muslims is passive rather than active; that is, most listen to the recitation rather than recite themselves. That is why those who are professional reciters of the Quran, or qurrāʾ (sing. qārīʾ), play such an important role in Islamic society. There is no part of the Islamic world in which qurrāʾ are not present, and most Muslims experience the Quran through their voices. This art is so important that, in order to encourage it, international contests are held annually in many parts of the Islamic world, contests in which both male and female qurrāʾ participate. And although the Arab country of Egypt has been blessed over the ages with so many remarkable qurrāʾ, some of whom are known throughout the Islamic world, sometimes non-Arab qurrāʾ win those international contests. Some non-Arab countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia produce a greater number of female qurrāʾ than Arab nations. Many who do not even know the full meaning of the Arabic are trained in the art of recitation. Most Muslims thus experience the Quran as the oral revelation that it in fact is and as it was experienced by many of the Companions who first heard it from the mouth of the Prophet. Many qurrāʾ know the Quran by heart and recite from memory. Those who have memorized the entire Sacred Text hold the title of ḥāfiẓ, or memorizer of the Quran. The poet whom many, including myself, consider to be the greatest poet of the Persian language, that is, Shams al-Dīn Ḥāfiẓ (d. 793/1391), bore this name because he was a ḥāfiẓ of the Quran. A ḥāfiẓ can usually be found in a village in the forest of Sumatra or in the desert of the Sahara, not only in Makkah and other major Islamic cities such as Cairo, Isfahan, and Istanbul. Wherever ḥuffāẓ (pl. of ḥāfiẓ) are, they recite the Quran in beautiful psalmody and thus transmit the grace, or barakah, of the sound of the Sacred Text to those around them. The ubiquitous presence of ḥuffāẓ is considered one of the miracles of the Quran, because in a mysterious way it facilitates memorization even by those whose mother tongue is not Arabic. In this vein, the Quran says of itself: Indeed We have made the Quran easy to remember (54:17, 22, 32, 40). There is probably no sacred scripture in any religion that is memorized by so many people as is the Quran. The Role and Function of the Quran in Muslim Life Much of what has already been said deals with the reality of the Quran in the life of Muslims, but it is necessary to portray the full range of its importance and its effect on the lives of believers. As the central theophany of the Islamic religion, everything related to the Quran, the verbatim revelation of the Divine Word, is sacred—from the ideas, injunctions, laws, and other aspects of its message; to the physical presence of the Sacred Text, which Muslims read and carry with them or keep in a place of honor in their homes; to the sound of its recitation, which accompanies them throughout their lives. The two testimonies (shahādatān), one bearing witness to the Oneness of God and the other to the prophethood of the Prophet of Islam, both verses from the Quran, are the first words uttered into the ears of a newborn child and in most cases the last words uttered by a Muslim in the last moments of consciousness before death. Between these two moments marking the alpha and omega of earthly human existence, the life of the Muslim is replete with the presence of the Quran. The sound of its recitation is nearly always present in Islamic cities, towns, and even villages, and in an inner manner it determines the qualitative experience of the space in which traditional Muslims live. Every positive act, from starting a meal, to leaving the house for work, to welcoming a guest to one’s house, to starting a letter, a book, or any other task legitimate in the Eyes of God, begins with the formula of consecration (the basmalah), that is, “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” with which the Quran itself begins; and these events usually end with another Quranic phrase, al-ḥamdu li’Llāh, that is, “Praise be to God.” What has already taken place is mentioned using another Quranic phrase, mā shāʾa’Llāh, “As God has willed,” to reassure the believers that nothing has taken place without His Will; and events that one hopes to occur in the future are referred to with in shāʾa’Llāh, another verse drawn from the Quran meaning, “If God wills,” thus confirming that the future also belongs to God and all events in it are determined by the Divine Will. The Quran is recited on occasions of both joy and sorrow, at weddings and at funerals, in individual circumstances as well as in communal events. It is recited often by individuals during private moments when they are alone with their Creator as well as at the opening of conferences or parliaments, the investiture of political authorities, or even sports events. It can be said that the substance of the soul of a Muslim, whether male or female, is like a mosaic made up of the imprint of verses of the Quran upon that human substance. Not only are the laws by which Muslims live, the ethical norms that are to be followed in life, the root of all authentic knowledge, and the principle and spirit of all forms of art that can be called truly Islamic based on the Quran, but the Quran is present in the soul and mind of believers during every moment of life, whether one is engaged in lovemaking, fighting a battle in the middle of war, or busy in economic activity. No matter how much one writes about the role of the Quran in Muslim life, it is impossible to exhaust the subject, for the Quran affects every aspect of a Muslim’s existence, from the body, to the psyche and the inner faculties, to the mind, the intellect, and spirit. The Quran, complemented by the Prophetic wont (Sunnah), even affects in a subtle manner all aspects of comportment (adab), which includes not only thoughts, speech, and actions, but also bodily postures and physical faculties —how traditional Muslims carry themselves while walking or talking, entering the mosque, sitting in an assembly, or greeting others. The Quran also transforms the inner faculties, especially the memory, and affects even the dreams of believers. As far as memory is concerned, there is no practicing Muslim who does not know some of the Quran by heart. The Quran itself strengthens the memory, and traditional Islamic pedagogy places a great deal of emphasis upon memorization. The traditional education system begins with Quranic schools for the very young, where their memory becomes imprinted with Quranic verses that will serve them the whole of their lives. Later, whether students continue on to higher education or enter the workforce, their memory remains a treasury of Quranic verses from which they continue to draw guidance, protection, and sustenance. Needless to say, this is also true for all those Muslims who have gone on to produce intellectual or artistic works on the highest level. When Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037), the greatest Muslim philosopher-scientist, was writing his al-Qānūn fi’l-ṭibb (The Canon of Medicine), which is the single most influential medical work in the history of medicine, his memory was as much filled with Quranic verses, which affected his whole attitude toward knowledge and science, as when he was writing his own Quranic commentaries. The most outstanding Muslim spiritual poets, such as Ḥallāj, Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Ibn ʿArabī, ʿAṭṭār, Rūmī, and Ḥāfiẓ, did not compose their great poetic masterpieces by forcing themselves to focus on the verses of the Quran. The Quran was already present in their memory and had transformed their souls, so that during the artistic process of creating their beautiful poetry the Quran was already functioning as the central reality of their creative power. Those familiar with the history of German literature know that Goethe and Rückert were influenced by the Quran. They can surmise how much greater this influence must have been in the literatures of the Islamic peoples themselves. The same can be said for the Islamic arts and sciences in general. In the field of the arts that affect directly everyday life, the Quran both provided the spirit, the principles, and in many ways the forms of these arts and determined the direction that these arts would take. It is the Quran that made calligraphy, architecture, and Quranic psalmody the central sacred arts of Islam, and it is also the teachings of the Quran that prevented the development in Islam of iconic sacred art, which is so central to Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. It is the Quran that led to the development of the aniconic sacred art of Islam. In everyday Muslim life, one practical aspect of the Quran is its role in the protection of Muslims. It is said in the Quran that God is its protector, and in turn His Word provides protection for believers. Its message, if heeded, protects Muslim men and women from sin and error, while its physical presence is considered protection from various external dangers. That is why many Muslims carry the Quran or some of its verses on their bodies, why they pass under it when embarking upon a journey, and why in days of old even the armor worn by soldiers in battle was inscribed with Quranic verses. That is also why the Quran is not only recited, but also physically placed near the head of a dying person as protection for the journey to the afterlife. Muslims also turn to the Quran for its therapeutic effect upon illnesses of both body and soul. There is a whole traditional science dealing with the therapeutic power of certain Quranic verses, and countless anecdotal accounts in all Islamic societies maintain the miraculous efficacy of these verses. This aspect of the Quran is also the source of such practices in folk medicine as immersing particular verses of the Quran in water and then drinking it. Finally, the Quran also plays a role in helping decide future actions. The traditional Quranic art called al-istikhārah, which some have translated as “bibliomancy,” though this only captures one dimension of the practice, involves performing voluntary supererogatory prayers and then consulting the Quran for guidance or asking God for other forms of guidance, usually by means of a dream. On important occasions where human intelligence and revealed religious injunctions are not sufficient criteria for deciding to perform or not perform a particular action of consequence, believers often have recourse to istikhārah, sometimes carried out by those who possess a gift for this art and other times by themselves. Many people, when they want to marry, first make an istikhārah before making their final decision. The same holds true for those who are not certain of, for example, migrating to another place, choosing a particular physician in case of serious illness, changing jobs, or deciding on a course of study and lifelong profession. Some believers overdo this practice by using an istikhārah to determine whether they should eat a particular dish for lunch, but this is a distortion of the function of istikhārah and is discouraged by most religious authorities. According to a famous dictum, there is no need for istikhārah when there is clear istishārah, that is, indication based on religious injunctions and/or God-given intelligence. The Quran, then, is the foundation of Muslim life and of Islamic civilization in all its aspects. It is a sacred reality that accompanies Muslims throughout their lives. It is at once the means of discernment between truth and error, the criterion of judgment of their actions, and their protector and source of grace and comfort. It is both their judge and their friend; it inculcates in the soul both the love and fear of God. For believers the Quran is not an inanimate book, but the living Word of God. Its verses, words, and even letters are living beings that speak to believers and also mysteriously “hear” them. The Sacred Text is the Muslim’s constant companion from the beginning to the end of life and even beyond earthly life on the journey to that Reality from which the Quran descended. The Study Quran The history of the composition of The Study Quran began some nine years ago when the publisher HarperSanFrancisco (now HarperOne) approached me and asked me to become the chief editor for a volume that would be called The Study Quran and complement The HarperCollins Study Bible, which this firm had already published. I was humbled by the enormity of the task and first balked at accepting such a monumental undertaking. But after much soul searching and prayer, I came to the conclusion that this was a responsibility that God was putting on my shoulders, one I could not refuse, especially when I discovered that the project might not be realized if I did not agree. I therefore accepted with humility on the condition that this would be a Muslim effort and that, although the book would be contemporary in language and based on the highest level of scholarship, it would not be determined or guided by assertions presented in studies by non-Muslim Western scholars and orientalists who have studied the Quran profusely as a historical, linguistic, or sociological document, or even a text of religious significance, but do not accept it as the Word of God and an authentic revelation. Rather, it would be grounded in the classic Islamic tradition in order to provide readers access to the many ways in which the Quran has been understood and explained by Muslims for over fourteen centuries. I also set the condition that I would have complete freedom in choosing the editors and other collaborators. All my conditions were accepted, and so the project began. For the reasons mentioned above, I chose only Muslim scholars to collaborate with me in this task. At the same time, I did not want the work to be confined or limited confessionally, ethnically, or geographically. It was to be universal and at the same time traditional, that is, expressing traditional Islamic views and therefore excluding modernistic or fundamentalist interpretations that have appeared in parts of the Islamic world during the past two centuries. I set out to produce a text that reflects how Muslims have understood the Quran during their long history and how those Muslims who remain traditional, which means most of them, do so today. To this end I chose three editors, all American, all with doctorates in Islamic studies from leading American universities, and all with direct experience of the Islamic world, familiarity with the traditional Islamic sciences, and mastery of classical Arabic. To preserve diversity, I chose two men and one woman, two of whom, Joseph Lumbard and Maria Dakake, are American Muslims of Christian background, and one of whom, Caner Dagli, was born, in America, into a Muslim family of Circassian origin. Later in the project, after the translation had been made and the essays edited, I added an assistant editor, Mohammed Rustom, who was born as a Muslim into a Canadian family of South Asian origin and who has a doctorate in Islamic studies from a major Canadian university. Since this collaborative effort also required the preservation of the unity of the work, I chose these four from among those who had studied with me in one way or another in years past. There exists, therefore, a unity of intellectual vision, spiritual perspective, and scholarly attitude between us that has made it possible to produce a unified work. This unity in the translation and commentary has come about not because of my coercion, but because of the presence of a common vision among us. We have consulted each other at every turn, and in cases of scholarly disagreement between the editors, I have been the final judge and arbiter. But in fact it is remarkable how harmonious our collaboration has been, which might be surprising to some in this age of individualism. Even so, it is appropriate to say a few words about the division of responsibility. Each editor had primary responsibility for the translation, research, and composition of commentary for different sections of the Quran. When the first draft of a section of translation or commentary was completed, each editor would consult with the others, who would make comments and suggestions. Then it would come to me, and I would make my final additions and edits. The primary contribution for the translation is as follows, by sūrah: Caner Dagli: 2–3, 8–9, 22–28; Maria Dakake: 4–7, 10–12, 14–21; Joseph Lumbard: 1, 13, 29–114. The primary authorship of the commentary, which also includes a great degree of collaboration among all of the editors, is as follows, by sūrah: Caner Dagli: 2–3, 8–9, 21–28; Maria Dakake: 4–7, 16–19; Joseph Lumbard: 1, 29–114; Mohammed Rustom: 10–15, 20. As for the essays, I drew up the list of the subjects to be treated in consultation with the editors, and then I chose the authors for the essays, again in consultation with them. In making these choices, I wanted to be as global and universal as possible within the framework of traditional Islamic scholarship. I therefore chose scholars from different schools of Islamic thought and different schools of Islamic Law, Muslims who hailed from diverse parts of the Islamic world as well as those living in the West. Some of these writers are world-famous Muslim authorities; others, young gifted scholars just beginning to make their mark. They include all the way from the grand Shaykh of the most important seat of Sunni learning, al-Azhar University, and one of the leading Shiite ayatollahs of Iran to young professors at Western universities. I took the final responsibility for editing the essays, going over translations when it was called for, and translating into English one of the essays that was written originally in Persian. Translation The translation of the Quran into a Western language has a nearly thousand-year history going back to its translation into Latin ordered by Peter the Venerable in the eleventh century. The earliest translation in English appeared in the seventeenth century. Since then numerous translations have appeared in English as well as in other European languages, and in fact the number of translations in English has increased almost exponentially in recent decades. Most of the earlier translations were made by non-Muslims, many in order to refute Islam. In more recent decades, however, many translations have been made by Muslims themselves. Among these many translations, some are more accurate than others, some more eloquent and poetic, but there has never been nor can there ever be a single “official” or perfect translation of the Quran, even one approved by Muslim authorities, such as the religious authorities (ʿulamāʾ) of al-Azhar University. In our translation we have often consulted some of the best-known English translations such as those of Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Muhammad Asad, A. J. Arberry, ʿAlī Qūlī Qarāʾī, and Muhammad Abdel Haleem, but our rendition is based on the Arabic text itself and not on any previous translation. Furthermore, we have sought to be extremely vigilant in translating the Quranic Arabic itself and not later interpretations of the Arabic. And the fact that ours was a collaborative effort by several scholars has helped us to eschew the personal predilections that can often influence the translation process. Our aim in the translation has been, first of all, to be as accurate and consistent as we could within the possibilities of the English language and with full consideration of the different “fields of meaning” that many words, both Arabic and English, possess, fields that often overlap only partially, and are not completely equivalent. In fact, a huge effort and many countless hours have been expended to ensure that the translation is internally consistent in matters of both style and content. This effort included the creation of hundreds of secondary indexing documents and an enormous spreadsheet to track the use of individual words, phrases, and roots appearing in the translation. Considering the nature of the sacred language of the Quran, we have sought to make use of the full possibilities of the English language without the pretext of wanting to be so up-todate in word usage that our rendition would soon become out-of-date. We have also sought to be as eloquent as possible, in an effort to reflect something of the inimitable eloquence of Quranic Arabic, which Muslims consider a miracle that no human being can ever duplicate. We have sought to produce the best translation possible, and only God knows to what extent we have succeeded. Since we had the opportunity to explain in the commentary unfamiliar idioms or turns of phrase in the Quranic text as well as to expand upon the broader ranges of meaning that are alluded to in its verses, we could provide more literal translations in many instances. Moreover, literal translation of certain Quranic verses or phrases is often necessary to make sense of the traditional commentaries on these verses, many of which offer substantial spiritual interpretations based upon philological or grammatical analyses of the verses. A literal style of translation is also especially important when trying to represent adequately the complex intertextuality that is a hallmark of the Quranic style. Commentary Numerous commentaries have been written on the Quran over the ages not only in Arabic, but also in many other languages. Among the traditional commentaries some have been primarily grammatical and linguistic, and some historical, mostly in the sense of sacred history. Others have been legal, theological, philosophical, cosmological, scientific, metaphysical, esoteric, or mystical, and some several of these at once. In a sense the whole of the Islamic intellectual tradition is a commentary upon the Quran. Moreover, the sīrah literature (works dealing with the life of the Prophet), his Sunnah (or wont), and the Ḥadīth (traditions) are the first commentaries upon the Quran. Even the great works of Islamic architecture from the Dome of the Rock to the Taj Mahal may be said to be commentaries upon the Quran in stone. And lest one forget, the greatest mystical poem produced in Islamic civilization, the Mathnawī of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī, has been called “the Quran in the Pahlavi [i.e., Persian] language.” We have benefitted in the composition of our commentary from all these sources as well as of course from works known specifically as tafsīr, or commentary, upon many of which we have based our commentary without attempting to be exhaustive. We selected the most authoritative and widely read and accepted traditional commentaries as well as specialized commentaries that offered important information not always available in those commentaries that are more widely read; all of these are listed in the “Commentator Key.” When necessary we also drew from the sīrah literature and from Sunni and Shiite Ḥadīth literature. As far as our own commentary is concerned, it is not meant to be nor can it be exhaustive in a work confined to a single volume. After all, there are well-known commentaries in Arabic, Persian, and other Islamic languages that extend to numerous hefty tomes, some running to twenty or thirty volumes, and even they are not exhaustive. Our commentary is meant to take readers beyond the literal meaning of the text when necessary, to clarify difficult passages, to reveal the inner meanings of verses when called for, and to provide a reasonable account of the diversity of views and interpretations in matters of law, theology, spirituality, and sacred history put forth by various traditional Islamic authorities. Our hope is that this exposition will enable readers to interact on various levels with the Quran and remove the erroneous view, held in some non-Muslim quarters, that because Muslims consider the Quran to be the Word of God, they do not think about it or interact intellectually with it, whereas the Quran itself invites its readers to meditate upon and think about its teachings. Our commentary, while based on the traditional commentaries, is not simply a collage of selections drawn from these books, but a new work. Our text has required making choices about both inclusion and exclusion of earlier texts in addition to providing in some places our own commentary, which is not found, at least in the same way, in the earlier sources. Ours is therefore a new commentary that is nonetheless based completely on traditional Islamic thought and the earlier commentary traditions. We, and not earlier commentators, are therefore fully responsible for its content, which nevertheless contains numerous citations from the earlier traditional commentaries that we have consulted. These citations are not exhaustive; rather, they provide references for those who wish to pursue these citations further. In all instances we have sought to make the source and origin of our commentary transparent and to make clear when it is we who are expressing our voice. Traditional commentators have often given multiple conflicting opinions regarding particular verses. It should therefore be noted that when a particular traditional commentary conveys an interpretation, this does not mean that the commentator subscribed to that particular interpretation, only that this interpretation was mentioned in the commentary on that verse. For guidance regarding our citation methodology, see “Understanding the Citations in the Commentary.” The sheer size of the commentary literature has forced us to exclude some materials that might be of interest to certain readers concerned with some particular issue. Moreover, we have tended to omit from the commentary purely conjectural and fanciful interpretations or legendary and folkloric accounts, particularly if they are not widely attested in the traditional sources or offer little in the way of a meaningful interpretation. In cases where such material has been included, we have tried to be clear about our assessment of its questionable origin or authority and the extent to which it is consistent or inconsistent with other passages of the Quran or with ideas found in the Ḥadīth. Although we have relied heavily upon traditional sources, which are the mainstay of our translation and commentary, we have also consulted reliable sources based on both previous and recent academic scholarship in Quranic studies. We have, moreover, carried out this task with constant awareness of the biases and fashions present in both historical and contemporary writings about the Quran. We have been fully aware that many of these resources suffer, from the Islamic point of view, from the fact that they do not accept the Quran as revelation, they have a truncated view of the Islamic intellectual tradition, or they reject the Islamic worldview as a whole. In some extreme cases, such sources are based on either thinly veiled or sometimes outright hostility toward Islam and are often grounded in very questionable theories and published for the sake of worldly ends, such as gaining fame or furthering academic careers. Coming back to traditional commentaries, it is important to mention for those not familiar with them that technically tafsīr refers to a commentary on a part or the whole text of the Quran organized according to the order of the Quranic verses and written to clarify and bring out its range of meaning and implications. As already mentioned, in a sense all works on law, theology, metaphysics, cosmology, the sciences, spirituality, esoterism, mysticism, and other forms of knowledge developed in the Islamic intellectual tradition are also commentaries upon the Quran, but are not, strictly speaking, included according to the Islamic division of the sciences in the tafsīr category. In our commentary we have made use primarily of tafsīrs, but also when necessary works from the second category. The traditional commentators were usually men of great erudition, with profound knowledge not only of the Quran, but also of the different Islamic religious and intellectual disciplines. Their works therefore usually provide a vivid picture of the lively Islamic intellectual scene of their time. They often cite opposing opinions and views concerning various theological, ethical, or legal issues, but treat their opponents with confidence in their own position and usually with the courtesy and respect that is characteristic of disputations in the Islamic intellectual tradition as a whole. One needs only to thumb through the tafsīr of alRāzī or of al-Qurṭubī to see the lively intellectual ambience in which they flourished and the courteous tone of their disputations. Even a cursory study of these tafsīrs should dispel the notion that Muslims had or have a rigid and indiscriminate understanding of the text of the Quran. To the extent possible, we have sought to preserve these characteristics in our commentary. Essays Since this work is meant to be an aid in the study of the Quran, we have included a large number of essays at the suggestion of the publisher to deal separately with various major themes contained in the Quran. Because of the space allotted to us, again we could not be exhaustive. During Islamic history thousands upon thousands of works have been written on aspects of the Quran by Muslim scholars, from the language, grammar, and recitation of the Sacred Text to its metaphysical meaning, from the history of the compilation of the Quranic text to the sacred history contained in it, from Quranic legal injunctions to the most esoteric meaning of some of its verses. Traditional Quranic studies include numerous Quranic sciences, not all of which we have been able to include as separate subjects in the essays. We therefore had to select what we consider the most central issues for the contemporary audience. As already mentioned, the choice of the topics for the essays has been primarily mine, just as the choice of content has been up to the individual essay authors, but I always made the topic choices in consultation with the other editors; and of course other determining factors included the availability of scholars and their willingness to collaborate with us on this project. In any case, utmost care has been taken in the choice of both the topics of the essays and their authors. The essays are in a sense a separate book within this book and can be read either as a supplement to our translation and commentary or as an independent work on Quranic studies written by some of the most competent Muslim scholars of today. Audience The commentary we have provided has been composed with the aim of creating a work that is accessible to the general English-reading public, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, and that can also be of use to scholars and serious students of the Quran, again Muslim or otherwise. No previous knowledge of Arabic or the technical vocabulary of the Quran is necessary in order to understand our commentary, although we have included transliterations of Arabic terms whenever we deemed them valuable for those who have some knowledge of Arabic. The Study Quran is meant to be a resource both for those who wish to study the Quran in its entirety and for those who are interested in a particular subject or topic. We have provided indexes and internal citations and designed the work with red sūrah and verse numberings in the header, the translation, and the commentary in order to facilitate easy navigation and enable readers to reference quickly what they are seeking. Reading the translation does not require reading the accompanying commentary or the essays. The essays, as already mentioned, constitute a supplementary and independent section. How to Read The Study Quran As noted above, for Muslims the Quran is the Word of God; it is sacred scripture, not a work of “literature,” a manual of law, or a text of theology, philosophy, or history, although it is of incomparable literary quality, contains many injunctions about Sacred Law, is replete with verses of metaphysical, theological, and philosophical significance, and contains many accounts of sacred history. The unique structure of the Quran and the flow of its content constitute a particular challenge to most modern readers. For traditional Muslims the Quran is not a typical “read” or a manual to be studied. For most of them, the most fruitful way of interacting with the Quran is not to sit down and read the Sacred Text from cover to cover (although there are exceptions, such as completing the whole text during Ramadan). It is, rather, to recite a section with full awareness of it as the Word of God and to meditate upon it as one whose soul is being directly addressed, as the Prophet’s soul was addressed during its revelation. Newcomers to Islam’s Sacred Scripture may, however, wish to read the whole text at least once initially, but then subsequent study should take the form of returning to sections of it in the manner just mentioned. In this context it must be remembered that the Quran itself speaks constantly of the Origin and the Return, of all things coming from God and returning to Him, who Himself has no origin or end. As the Word of God, the Quran also seems to have no beginning and no end. Certain turns of phrase and teachings about the Divine Reality, the human condition, the life of this world, and the Hereafter are often repeated, but they are not mere repetitions. Rather, each iteration of a particular word, phrase, or verse opens the door of a hidden passage to other parts of the Quran. Each coda is always a prelude to an as yet undiscovered truth. These characteristics of the Sacred Text must be remembered in reading The Study Quran in order to draw greater benefit from the encounter with it. As for the commentary, many Quranic passages are cited in it, because these citations play a major role in understanding the manner in which particular Quranic passages are related to and elucidate one another. These citations often include passages from other parts of the Quran whose very citation clarifies the meaning of a particular word, phrase, or verse under consideration. The use of this method is itself traditional, and many commentators over the ages have composed works based on commenting upon the Quran through the use of the Quranic text itself. In contrast to the Bible, which is more like a library than a book with a single voice, the Quran has a single voice, the Voice of God as spoken to a single prophet, and in a sense is itself a commentary upon itself. This characteristic of the Quran was evident to the traditional commentators, who usually had remarkable mastery of the whole text, but it is not known to most contemporary readers, and we have therefore found it necessary to bring it out in our commentary. Technical Quranic terms can be found in the index with references to the Quranic text and the commentary passages where the terms in question are discussed. Often a turn of phrase or the relation between a family of concepts is best brought out by pointing to similar Quranic passages; we have therefore provided them in our commentary. Moreover, the multiple levels of meaning of Quranic passages are usually brought out by citing other passages. Although each word and even letter of the Quran is like a living being unto itself, on another level it can be said that each part exists in relation to other parts and together they function as a light that illuminates an object in such a way that we can see it from many different angles. To try to provide a translation and commentary of the Quran in English authentically poses major challenges that readers of The Study Quran need to be aware of. When one reads the King James Version of the Bible, one is not only reading an expression of the English language, but also a text that has itself been a major factor in the formation of modern English as far as symbols, metaphors, proverbs, turns of phrase, and certain styles are concerned, not to mention religious ideas and their formulations. This situation also holds true for such Islamic languages as Persian and Turkish, which themselves already contain many Quranic words, phrases, and ideas. Such of course is not as yet the case for English as far as the Quran is concerned. The composition of The Study Quran in English therefore posed for us a much greater challenge than if we had produced this work in Persian or Turkish, into the fabric of whose language the Quran is already woven. One of the goals of The Study Quran is to help close this gap and to take a step toward transforming English into “an Islamic language,” of course not in an exclusive manner, but like Bengali, which is both a Hindu and an Islamic language. Readers of The Study Quran should view the language that we have used in this light. It is meant to both reach the modern audience and convey the timeless nature of the text. Various Stylistic and Technical Points In dealing with the commentary tradition, it is not always easy to separate glosses that explain the language of the text from those that explain its meaning. This difference is not always clear in traditional tafsīrs. In our commentary, therefore, we have endeavored to render the Arabic without importing a particular interpretation of its meaning into the text, that is, insisting that a word or phrase that is allusive in its meaning and full of different implications in Arabic be made explicit and unequivocal in English. As for alternative orthography and pronunciation of words in Arabic, they are discussed in the commentary in those cases where some significant differences of opinion or interpretation are at stake. The commonly accepted “readings” and “recitations” (qirāʾah) are thus not foregrounded in our commentary, although they inform it. They are, however, discussed in the essay “The Islamic View of the Quran.” Quranic Arabic does not use the punctuation marks that exist in English except for the one that corresponds to the period. In fact, it has been said quite rightly that the whole of a traditional book in classical Arabic is in a sense one long sentence. But the structure of the Arabic sentences implies what would correspond to commas, semicolons, colons, and so forth in English. In both our translation and commentary we have made full use of punctuation marks according to the rules of the English language, while seeking to be as faithful as possible to the flow of the original Arabic. Also there is no capitalization in Arabic; again in this case we have remained faithful to the rules of English in capitalizing all proper names. Moreover, not only all the Names of God, but also all pronouns pertaining to Him as well as all His Qualities, Attributes, and direct Acts have been capitalized. In the latter case we have sought to distinguish between His direct and universal Attributes and Acts, which are always capitalized, and those that concern a delimited and particular manifestation of these Attributes and Acts in the created order. A particularly difficult case in this category is the word “sign,” or āyah, which strictly speaking should sometimes be capitalized and sometimes not. But to preserve consistency and avoid any confusion for readers we decided to lowercase “sign” in all instances. Design As the art of Quranic calligraphy and later illumination developed, texts of the Quran became often also works of art. In fact, some texts of the Quran, such as a number of Mamlūk, Īl-Khānid, Tīmūrid, and Maghribī Qurans, using different styles of calligraphy, are among the greatest works of sacred art created in any civilization and are recognized by experts as such. Of course because The Study Quran is in English, it cannot in any way reflect this art in the whole text, but we have sought to incorporate as much of this art as possible in this book. The basmalah was calligraphed especially for this book by the greatest living American master of Arabic calligraphy, Mohamed Zakariya. Our custom numbering medallions, created by Caner Dagli for this volume, hav...
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Explanation & Answer

Attached.

Running head: COMPARATIVE PAPER

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Comparative Paper
Institution Affiliation
Date

COMPARATIVE PAPER

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Life and Death in Islam

For this comparative paper, I will analyze the Christian and Islam religion to ascertain the
belief of life and death both given by God and the belief in an afterlife in the two religions. Islam
presents Allah as the sole giver of life through the creation story found in the Qur’an. According
to Islam, Allah created the heavens and the earth first by commanding them to come together and
make significant shapes which became the planets (Leaman, 2013). It is believed that Allah
created the earth and all that is found in it for only six days (Lawrence, 2014). But the creation
does not end there and Muslims believe that creation has never ceased with the continuity being
displayed through each child that is born and every new plant that grows from the soil
(Lawrence, 2014). From this account of creation, there is a belief that every living thing was
made from water. It is depicted in the Qur'an that all organisms, those that crawl, walk by legs or
swim were all drawn from the water.
Within this creation episode, there was the creation of man that is portrayed as a special
creation by the Almighty Allah. This is according to how he was given special gifts and abilities,
unlike the other animals that roamed the world. Man is made from clay and fluid as is seen in the
creation process. Allah created Adam, the man, and also made him a woman, Hawwa (Lawrence,
2014). From this creation, Islam's hold Allah highly because they believe he created them. Islam
views death as the separation of an individual’s soul from its body. According to Islam, it is the
continuation of life but just in another point of existence. Angels, namely Munkar and Nakir
interrogate the deceased on their knowledge of their faith in order to allow them a happy life or
subject them to punishment (Lawrence, 2014). An angel, Azrael, is responsible for the extraction
of the souls of the dying (Lawrence, 2014). The extraction of a sinner’s soul is brutal and violent
whereas the extraction of a righteous soul is peaceful and joyous (Irish, 2014). The sinner's soul

COMPARATIVE PAPER

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is unwelcome in heaven and is sent to hell as punishment while the righteous soul is taken to the
seventh heaven, has its name written in the ‘Illiyin’ then sent back to earth...


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