God Almighty has vowed to preserve the
Qur’ān from all possibilities of foreign interference and corruption. The Qur’ān
says:
It is indeed We Who have sent down
this remembrance, and most surely We are its Guardians. (15:9)
The Qur’ān is thus the primary source of
knowledge in Islam. Furthermore, the Book itself clarifies that it is meant to
be taken as al-Furqān: the ultimate criterion between right and wrong. It says:
Blessed is He Who revealed the
Criterion (of right and wrong) to His servant that he may be a warner for the
world. (25:1)
Moreover, the Qur’ān has been conferred
the role of muhaymin i.e. guardian over the earlier books of divine origin.
The supreme status of the Qur’ān as a
source of knowledge entails that in all matters on which the Book of Allāh has
given guidance -- direct or indirect, specific or general -- no other source can
overrule it. There can always be a possibility of difference of opinion in the
understanding of the contents of the Book, but the general rule that the
Qur’ānic verdict holds supreme to all other sources of knowledge, whether
religious or secular, is so unquestionable that whoever disputes it, disputes
the very foundation of Islam. The only theoretical possibility one could imagine
of an authority that could have possibly overruled a Qur’ānic verdict was the
Prophet (sws) but the Qur’ān has pre-empted to set aside this possibility by
requiring him to declare thus:
Say [O prophet]: It is not for me to
change it [the Qur’ān] of my own accord. I only follow that which is inspired in
me. If I disobey my Lord I fear retribution of an awful Day. (10:15).
Although the Qur’ān was originally
revealed in a sequence that was markedly different from the existing one, it is
the present sequence in which the Qur’ān was finally left by the Prophet (sws).
This sequence, according to the Qur’ān, has divine origins:
Surely, its collection and recitation
are Our responsibility. (75:17)
The Qur’ānic text, apart from the
sequence, has two other divinely ordained units: āyat (verse) and sūrah
(chapter). Where as it is not completely unanimously
claimed that the entire Qur’ānic text has six thousand two hundred and
thirty-six verses, the total number of chapters in the Qur’ān are undisputedly
one hundred and fourteen. The entire text is also divided for the purpose of
analysing the message into two categories i.e. the one that was revealed to the
Prophet (sws) in the first thirteen years of his prophetic mission at Makkah,
and the other that was revealed on him in his subsequent ten years of stay at
Madīnah. It is estimated that nearly two-third of the Qur’ān is thus Makkan and
the rest Madīnan. The Qur’ānic sūrahs are thus categorised as Makkan and Madīnan,
even though some of these sūrahs may be carrying a few verses which may have
been revealed in an era different from the one in which the rest of the sūrah
was revealed. The Makkan Sūrahs
generally consist of the basic message of faith in God, life of the hereafter,
and the prophets, while the Madīnan sūrahs seek to guide believers in the
practical aspects of their lives.
The divine scheme of preservation of not
only the words but also the sequence of presentation was carried out primarily
through the process of memorising the text by the first generation of Muslims
many of who would immediately commit to memory the new Revelation, no sooner it
was communicated by Angel Gabriel to the Prophet (sws). The fact that the
Prophet (sws) used to recite different passages from the revealed text while
leading the daily congregational prayers (three of the five of which were
performed in a manner that the Prophet (sws) would recite the Qur’ān audibly for
the participants) made the task of memorising it easier. Because of the love of
the Book of Alla^h and also the fact that the Prophet (sws) had declared the
process of memorising the book an act of great virtue, many of the
later-generation Muslims emulated their predecessors in memorising the entire
Qur’ān. Thus the number of huffāz
increased from generation to generation. A few huffāz in the first generation
(according to an estimate they were not more than thirty) were thus replaced by
hundreds in the next generation and the number continued to swell until now more
than fourteen hundred years later we observe that there are hundreds of
thousands of them all across the globe, most of who care to regularly revive
their memory of the text at least once a year during the month of Ramadān. This
fool-proof, divinely ordained process of preservation of the Book has ensured
that the Qur’ānic promise of its preservation should come true.
The fact that the oral preservation was
also accompanied by a written record was only meant to consolidate the process.
The objective of preservation of the Qur’ānic text, as we have seen, was
effectively achieved through the involvement of hundreds of thousands of
believers. The involvement of a few scores of scribes in the first generation
was meant only to confirm it. Any criticism on the latter process besides being
factually unjustifiable can do hardly anything to take away one’s confidence in
the veracity of the text that was basically kept away from possibilities of
corruption through the process of memorising. It is reported that the Prophet (sws)
used to ask some of his literate companions to write the verses of the Qur’ān
immediately after they were revealed. He would conduct special sessions (called
‘ardah) for these scribes where in he would himself recite the entire revealed
portion of the Qur’ān to enable the participants to correct errors in copying
the text, if any. It is reported that two sessions of ‘ardah took place after
the Qur’ān was fully revealed.
At the time of the caliphate of the
first caliph, Abū Bakr, some of the prominent huffāz got killed in the battle of
Yamāmah fought against a large army of insurgent apostates. That incident
prompted ‘Umar Ibn Khattāb to convince the caliph to accept the idea of writing
down an official version of the Book, unanimously acceptable to all companions
of the Prophet (sws). After some deliberation the caliph gave in to ‘Umar’s
arguments. The task was undertaken by a committee of huffāz headed by Zayd Ibn
Thābit. A unanimously agreed to version was thus finalised. It was kept by Abū
Bakr and then, on his death, the text went into the custody of the second
caliph, ‘Umar Ibn Khattāb. Before the latter’s death, however, the copy came in
the custody of his daughter Hafsah, the wife of the Prophet (sws). Uthmān, the
third caliph, did not initially find it important to get the copy from her.
However, the expanding empire of the Muslim world necessitated that the large
number of newly converted Muslims most of who were new to Arabic language be
spared from the possibility of the confusion of confronting more than one
version of the Qur’ānic text. Uthmān, therefore, finally got the copy of the
Qur’ānic text from Hafsah and entrusted the task to Zayd Ibn Thābit to finalise
the text beyond any possibilities of doubt. The possible differences of the
dialects were also eliminated in the light of Uthmān’s decision that in such
matters the Makkan dialect would be considered final. On the finalising of the
text under the direct supervision of the caliph, a few copies were made, which
too were validated for their authenticity by being read out and confirmed. These
copies were sent to the important centres of Islamic empire. It is disputed as
to whether the number of such copies was four or seven. Some of those copies are
claimed to have survived until now.
Whereas some non-Muslim orientalists
have attempted to cast serious doubts on the usefulness of arranging the Qur’ān
in its present sequence instead of letting it remain the way it was originally
revealed, there are many Muslims too who are not properly acquainted with the
merits of its present sequence of presentation. However, when the Qur’ānic text
is read with a view to discover logical justification for its substantially
altered arrangement from the sequence of its revelation, one discovers abundant
evidence of thematic and structural coherence in its text to be convinced that
the arrangement is indeed not without important merits which more than outweigh
the disadvantages that could be imagined in it for not having been arranged in
the order it was initially revealed. To be precise, one finds deep coherence in
the message of Qur’ānic verses within each sūrah; almost all sūrahs are
arranged in a manner that they form sūrah-pairs; and finally, the entire
Qur’ānic text is arranged to reveal seven distinct sūrah-groups.
Although many beginners are frustrated
in their initial attempts at reading the Qur’ān in an effort to find any real
coherent message within a sūrah, the fact is that the verses in all sūrahs of
the Qur’ān are very closely knit with their respective basic themes. If the
theme is correctly identified on repeated readings of a sūrah, the task of
finding the link of the apparently incoherent passages with it becomes an
exciting intellectual challenge. For instance, the central theme of the seventh
sūrah of the Qur’ān (al-‘Ārāf) is the narration of the fact that the messengers
of God conveyed the message to their nations and that the nations found guilty
of rejecting them were destroyed. In this broad theme, however, one finds it
initially difficult to appreciate, for example, how verses describing the
phenomenon of rainfall and the subsequent sprouting of useful plantation --
impressively abundant in some soils and completely disappointing in others
(verses 57, 58) -- fit into the general mood of the sūrah. The difficulty in
appreciating the contextual relevance accentuates when in the very next verse
(59) the reader is confronted with the beginning of the story of the prophet
Noah, Allāh’s blessings be on him, which informs how he undertook efforts to
convince people of his nation to have faith in the message of Allāh. Most of the
people, however, continued to deny; only a few got the privilege of believing in
the message. A little more reflection, however, leads one to see the link: Like
in case of physical rainfall it depends on the quality of soil whether useful
cultivation will take place or not, similarly in the case of spiritual rainfall
(i.e. divine revelation) it depends on the quality of inner soil (unbiased
preparedness of one’s heart to accept the truth) whether good results (true
faith) are going to emerge or not. Thus, the apparently disordered set of verses
would begin to appear meaningfully coherent to the reader.
In order to understand the thematic
coherence in the verses of a full sūrah, it would be more workable to cite the
example of Sūrah al-Jumu‘ah, a relatively shorter sūrah comprising of eleven
verses. The central idea of the sūrah is to make the native Arabs aware of the
tremendous blessings they have been bestowed with by God Almighty in the form of
revelation of the Qur’ān. However, even a casual reading of the sūrah unfolds
the fact that the sūrah is in fact divided into three distinct passages: verses
1 to 4, 5 to 8, and 9 to 11. The first passage addresses the central theme of
the sūrah directly. The second one, however, refers to the inept attitude of the
Jews towards Torah, the book of Allāh given to them, and the consequent
degeneration in their spiritual life that followed. The passage does not require
a great deal of in-depth reflection to disclose that it, in fact, is meant to
forewarn the believers through a historical reference on the ill effects of not
valuing the significance of the message of Allāh. It is thus a continuation of
the same theme. The third passage of the sūrah is, however, not quite as easily
amenable to the strict requirements of thematic coherence. It directly commands
the believers to respond immediately to the call for the congregational Jumu‘ah
prayers and to leave aside all worldly business on hearing it. Later, it laments
the behaviour of those Muslims who were not doing likewise at the time of
revelation of these verses. A deeper reflection, however, reveals that this
passage too is inextricably linked with the central idea of the sūrah: One of
the important injunctions which many of the Jews did not care to abide by with
seriousness of purpose was maintenance of sanctity of Sabbath which required
them to stay away from worldly activities and concentrate on the remembrance of
Allāh on Saturdays. Muslims have thus been cautioned in this sūrah to be
particularly careful about their obligation towards Jumu‘ah prayers, an Islamic
equivalent of the Sabbath law, lest they should fall into the same trap and face
similar consequences. Thus the entire sūrah seems to be contributing to erect
the same meaningful structure, although each passage is doing it differently.
A thoughtful reading of the Qur’ān also
reveals that a carefully designed scheme of sūrah-pairs is preserved in the
existing sequence of the of the Qur’ānic text as a result of which one discovers
that two adjacently arranged sūrahs are contributing to achieving the goal of
more fully understanding a common, broader topic, although one of the two sūrahs
is doing so by approaching the common theme by contributing towards one aspect
of it while the other sūrah is serving the same purpose by contributing towards
some other aspect of it. Two examples -- one of a sūrah-pair involving two of
the longest sūrahs and another involving two of the shortest sūrahs -- would
help understand the concept.
al-Baqarah and A^li ‘Imrān, the second
and third sūrahs of the Qur’ān, form a pair of Madīnan sūrahs. Apart from many
other common aspects in them, an important theme discussed in the two sūrahs is
the invitation extended by Allāh to the people of the earlier Books to have
faith in His last Message. However, where as in al-Baqarah the invitation is
primarily directed towards the Jews, in Ali Imrān Christians are invited to
have faith in the new revelation. Viewed in this context, it comes as no
surprise that a large passage al-Baqarah is devoted to the description of the
history of the Jews interspersed with strong urging to them to have faith in the
new Message from Allāh. A^li Imrān, on the other hand, while focussing on the
subject of inviting primarily the Christians to accept the new faith, not
surprisingly again, mentions in detail the important events preceding the
miraculous birth of Jesus (sws). Thus the two sūrah despite having a common,
broader theme have their own peculiar sub-topics to contribute to the main
theme.
The last two sūrahs of the Qur’ān, al-Falaq
and al-Nās (the pair is popularly referred to as Mu‘awwadhatayn i.e. the two
sūrahs through which refuge is sought), are no exceptions to the rule of sūrah-pairs.
Both are in the style of prayers seeking refuge in Allāh from the evils that
threaten man by invoking Him through His attributes. The former, however, seeks
refuge in Allāh from the evil forces that pose a danger to the spiritual life of
man from without, while the latter seeks to be guarded against the impending
dangers that lie within human souls. Thus, although the general theme -- seeking
refuge in Allah -- is the same, contributions made by the two is in their own
peculiar, distinct ways.
Perhaps the most daunting task of all in
the area of finding logic behind the Qur’ān’s present sequencing is to
meaningfully justify the structure of the Book in its entirety the way it
appears now. The enormity of the task makes the possibility of an attempt
prohibitive. However, some recent attempts towards this end have brought forth
convincing results. According to the understanding gained from the approach
adopted by a few scholars of the sub-continent,
the entire Qur’ān is neatly divided into seven meaningful blocks (called groups)
such that each group has its own central idea, again supported in distinct ways
by the different sūrah and sūrah-pairs of the group. The sūrahs in the seven
groups thus identified are sequenced in such a manner that each begins with one
or more Makkan sūrahs to be followed until the end of the group by one or more
Madīnan sūrahs. This pattern of alternating appearances of the two categories of
sūrah is consistently found all throughout the Qur’ānic text.
In order to illustrate the sort of
meaningful cluster the sūrahs of these groups create, perhaps the simplest
approach would be to take the example of the second group of the text consisting
of only four sūrahs, two Makkan, al-An‘ām (6) and al-‘Arāf (7), and two Madīnan,
al-Anfāl (8) and al-Tawbah (9). The basic theme of this group is to show that
the enemies of the messengers of Allāh are doomed to destruction. In order to
show this the first sūrah of the group, al-An‘ām, presents to the people of
Makkah the basic message of Islam, the same message which, according to the
sūrah, was presented by the unanimously revered Patriarch of the Arabs, the
Prophet Abraham (sws). The next sūrah, al-‘Arāf, then describes the stories of
some of the prominent messengers of Allāh who when they delivered the same
message of Allāh whose salient features were described in the previous sūrah
(al-An‘ām) their nations rejected them. These nations were, according to the
Qur’ān ultimately erased from the face of the earth, through one natural
calamity or the other. The next pair of sūrah, being Madīnan by the design of
the same Divine scheme that is so consistently observable in the entire text of
the Qur’ān, describes the practical manifestation in the contemporary setting of
the same law that was outlined in the preceding two Makkan Sūrahs. Sūrah al-Anfāl
requires the believers to be both spiritually and materially prepared to face
the enemies of Allāh. This being so because, according to a verse of al-An’ām
one of the possible ways Allāh sends his retributions to corrupt nations is by
letting the swords of some to inflict misery on others (6: 65). Thus, since the
believers of Madīnah were to be given the privilege of playing a role which in
the case of the earlier nations was played by natural calamities, the believers
were required to come upto the standards of the status that was befitting that
role. That having being achieved in al-Anfāl, the next sūrah, al-Tawbah, is the
sūrah of the declaration of Allāh’s punishment for the infidel pagans of Makkah.
It tells the believers that the pagan Arabs who have repeatedly rejected the
message of Allāh and have betrayed all pacts with the believers are not
deserving to survive in this world any more (like the nations that rejected the
earlier messages). No wonder, therefore, that the sūrah is the only one which
does not begin with the opening expression of tasmiyah, which mentions those
names of Allāh’s that reflect His supreme mercy and compassion. Thus the usual
opening words, which would have appeared inconsistent with the general mood of
the sūrah had they been allowed to precede its message, were omitted from being
mentioned.
To conclude, the Qur’ān is the
unquestionably supreme source of guidance for Muslims. Its existing form is
exactly the same which the Prophet (sws) himself had left for the followers. The
difference in the present arrangement of the Book from its initial sequence of
revelation is logically justifiable.
|