Qur'an

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The Qur'ān (القرآن) is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind. They also consider the text in its original Arabic, to be the literal word of Allah[1] revealed by the angel Jibreel (Gabriel) to Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years[2][3], and view the Qur'an as God's final revelation.[4][5]

Content

Controversial Passages

The Qur'an justifies and permits things such as; persecution of homosexuals, child marriage, polygamy, hatred of Jews, institutional religious discrimination, legalized domestic violence, slavery and the rape of slaves. There are also scientific errors, historical errors and contradictions.

Love and Fear

"While there are over 300 references in the Koran to Allah and fear, there are only 49 references to love. Of these love references, 39 are negative such as the 14 negative references to love of money, power, other gods and status.

Three verses command humanity to love Allah and 2 verses are about how Allah loves a believer. There are 25 verses about how Allah does not love kafirs (unbelievers).

This leaves 5 verses about love. Of these 5, 3 are about loving kin or a Muslim brother. One verse commands a Muslim to give for the love of Allah. This leaves only one quasi-universal verse about love: give what you love to charity and even this is contaminated by dualism since Muslim charity only goes to other Muslims.[6]

Non-Muslims and Punishment

Approximately 67% of the Meccan verses deal with punishing unbelievers for disagreeing with Allah, and more than 50% of the so-called Medinan verses deal with hypocrites and jihad against unbelievers.[6] Also, there are nearly 500 verses (roughly one out of every twelve) in the entire Qur'an which speak of Hell, and over 400 which speak negatively or encourage hatred or dislike of Jews, Christians, idolaters and infidels in general.[6]

Jihad

Main Article: Jihad

Not including verses which deal with heavenly rewards for those who strive on the path of jihad, generic mentions of "victory", and Muhammad's negative opinions of those who do not participate in jihad, there are roughly 164 jihad verses in the Qur'an.[7] These speak clearly and directly of military expedition, fighting, spoils of war, raiding, enslaving and looting infidels.

Structure

In length, the Qur'an is slightly shorter than the Christian New Testament (at approximately 165,000 words in English).[8] The text is not in chronological order, but arranged roughly longest surah (chapter) to the shortest (nevertheless some surahs do deviate from this general order). Ayahs (verses) are generally written in the first person (spoken by Allah), thus they generally lack context. For context, Muslims use Hadith collections (oral traditions which record Muhammad's words and actions) and the Sirat (biography of Muhammad) (see: Quranism). With these, the surahs can be separated into two categories; Meccan and Medinan. (see: Chronological Order of the Qur'an).

Orality

Archer (2020) when discussing the Qur'an in relation to Professor Walter J. Ong's classical studies on orality and oral cultures (where literacy was either low or non-existent - like much of the ancient world), states that much of the Quran, shows signs of oral composition stylistically (as opposed to beginning as a written text), noting several common trends recognised by Ong.

• “Additive rather than subordinate”: Unlike written language which switches terms and grammatical constructions to break monotony, oral performances create much longer strings of repeating combinations. For example, consider the “and...and...and...” so typical of the books of the Pentateuch, the Gospel of Mark, or classical Arabic generally.

• “Aggregative rather than analytic”: Oral peoples prefer fixed expressions and formulas that create totalizing pictures, such as ‘the swift-footed Achilles’ or ‘the glorious October revolution.’ To the literate mind these come across as cliché, but to people who cannot look anything up references must come pre-loaded with maximal content. A simple Qurʾānic example is the Christology densely packaged in the phrase ‘Jesus, son of Mary’ and its variations.

• “Redundant or copious”: As a spoken word is ephemeral by nature, important information must be constantly re-presented and reenforced by the speaker. Although we readers would see this as needlessly repetitive or boring, it is a natural outcome of a literature in which the listener cannot slow down, pause, or re-read what has already appeared, and there is no guarantee of a second performance like one would have from words frozen on paper. For instance, the constant reassurance that God reveals (nazala, nazzala, anzala, etc.) information to humanity.

• “Conservative or Traditionalist”: It is only by retelling a story that it remains in existence. Furthermore, it is memory-efficient to work from existing material that the audience would know, rather than introducing totally new stories. “Narrative originality lodges not in making up new stories but in managing a particular interaction with this audience at this time — at every telling the story has to be introduced uniquely into a unique situation, for in oral cultures an audience must be brought to respond, often vigorously. But narrators also introduce new elements into old stories. In oral tradition, there will be as many minor variants of a myth as there are repetitions of it ...” Consider how the Qurʾān repeats certain significant stories like the fall of Iblīs with each account stressing different elements.

• “Agonistically toned”: Oral cultures generally throw down dares, puzzles, and provocations for its listeners to keep them engaged. “Proverbs and riddles are not used simply to store knowledge but to engage others in verbal and intellectual combat: utterance of one proverb or riddle challenges hearers to top it with a more apposite or a contradictory one.” On a similar note excessively violent material with gory detail, as well as rich declarations of praise, are common. The audience is not only to be interested; they must react. We have seen already the ‘challenge verse’ of Yūnus 10:38. More examples would include the very colorful explanations of Paradise and frightening imagery of damnation.
A Place Between Two Places: The Quranic Barzakh (Islamic History and Thought). pp. 77-78 footnote 33. George Archer. Published by Gorgias Press, 2020. ISBN 10: 1463239874 / ISBN 13: 9781463239879

See also

  • Qur'an - A hub page that leads to other articles related to the Qur'an

Translations

  • A version of this page is also available in the following languages: French and Czech. For additional languages, see the sidebar on the left.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Qur'ān, Chapter 2, Verses 23-24
  2. ↑ Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths, Mary Pat Fisher, 1997, page 338, I.B. Tauris Publishers,
  3. ↑ Qur'an, Chapter 17, Verse 106
  4. ↑ Qur'an, Chapter 33, Verse 40
  5. ↑ Watton, Victor, (1993), A student's approach to world religions:Islam, Hodder & Stoughton, pg 1. ISBN 0-340-58795-4
  6. ↑ Jump up to: 6.0 6.1 6.2 Bill Warner - LOVE VERSUS FEAR IN THE KORAN: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND REFORM ACCORDING TO GOLDEN RULE
  7. ↑ 164 Jihad Verses in the Koran - Yoel Natan
  8. ↑ Could Joseph Smith have written the Book of Mormon? - The Hundredth Sheep
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