INTRODUCTION TO

The
ur'an

M.A. Draz

I.B.Tauris Publishers
LONDON • NEW YORK
Published in 2000 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, London WC1B 4DZ
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
website: http:/ /www.ibtauris.com

In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by

St Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

Copyright © The heirs of M.A. Draz, 2000

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
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ISBN 1 86064 421 X

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Lbrary
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Lbrary of Congress

Lbrary of Congress catalog card: available

Translation by Ayeshah Abdel-Haleem

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin
from camera-ready copy supplied by the Centre of Islamic Studies, London
 Contents

Foreword vii
Preface ix

Part One: Background History 1

1 The Early Life of the Prophet 3
2 The Composition of the Revealed Text 13
3 How the Qur 'anic Doctrine was Announced to the 25
World

Part Two: The Qur'an from its Three Main Aspects: 39

Religion, Morality and Literature
4 Truth, or the Religious Element 41
5 Goodness, or the Moral Element 61
6 Beauty, or the Literary Element 89

Part Three: The Origin of the Qur 'an 97

7 Meccan Sources of the Qur'an 99
8 Medinan Sources of the Qur 'an 113

Conclusion 127

Notes 143
Index 161

v
----------- --

Foreword

It.gives me enormous pleasure to introduce this book finally to readers of

English. It has been available to readers of French now for over half a
century, and to readers of Arabic for some thirty years. The subject of the
book is so significant, and its author and his approach so impressive, that it
is not only essential reading for scholars of the Qur 'an, Islam and
comparative religions, but is also of great interest to the general reader.
Much has been written about the Qur'an in English, mainly by non-Muslim
scholars; here we have a work by an outstanding Muslim scholar, who
combines his deep knowledge of the Qur 'an and Muslim scholarship with an
impressive familiarity with French and English works on the subject.
The late Professor Muhammad 'Abd Allah Draz was born in Egypt in
1894. He came from a family of distinguished scholars in religious studies,
and studied at Al-Azhar University, the most ancient and respected of
Islamic universities. Draz graduated in 1916, and went on to teach Qur'anic
Studies at Al-Azhar for some eight years, commenting on some of the great
Islamic scholarly texts, such as the Muwafaqat of Al-Shatibi [d 790/1388],
one of the classics of Islamic jurisprudence.
He was then sent on a scholarship to prepare for a doctorate at the
Sorbonne. In Paris he studied philosophy, the history of religions,
psychology and ethics, before embarking on the preparation and writing of
two dissertations: this book, under the title Initiation au Coran, and the
major and monumental La Morale du Coran. Both were examined in
December 1947, and resulted in Draz being awarded a doctorate with the
highest distinction. On his return to Egypt, Draz taught at Al-Azhar and
Cairo Universities, producing many distinguished studies in Arabic. He died
at a conference in Pakistan in January 1959.
In preparing this book, Draz employed both his great knowledge of the
Qur'an and Islamic sources, and his training in Western scholarship at the
Sorbonne. His approach, marked by rigorous academic investigation and

vii
calm reasoned treatment, succeeds in gammg the respect of the reader.
Significantly, he addresses even those orientalists' claims about the Qur'an
with which he himself was not in agreement. Perhaps the greatest indication
of the soundness of his methods is the applause of his French examiners,
who awarded him such a distinguished grade.
The contents page illustrates the fundamental importance of the issues
Draz deals with; then, and still now, living issues in Qur'anic scholarship.
Muslim scholars find both his study and his approach extremely refreshing.
His book stands in a class of its own in its thoroughness, its seriousness in
~~~~~~~~~h~~~~~~~
Muslim scholars. This is a book that commends itself to anyone wishing an
authoritative, balanced and intellectually engaging introduction to the
Qur'an.
The translation and production of the present work was made possible by
a generous contribution from the Abdallah Al-Zeer Charitable Foundation of
Kuwait, without which this English translation would never have come to
light, and to whom the Centre of Islamic Studies wishes to express its
profound gratitude.
The next book in the London Qur' an Studies series will be Draz's
magnum opus, The Moral World of the Qur' an.

London, 31 May 2000

Muhammad Abdel Haleem

viii
 Preface

Though there are several extremely diverse angles from which one can
approach a study of the Qur'an, these will ultimately fall into two main
categories: language and ideas. The Qur 'an is, simultaneously and on the
same level of importance, a work of literature and a book of doctrine.
To study the Qur 'an as an artistic, linguistic and rhetorical work
presupposes an in-depth knowledge of the Arabic language, in which tongue
the text was given. As most educated Europeans (to whom, after all, we
principally address ourselves here) are not familiar with this language, we
shall not direct the greater part of our efforts on this front, though we will of
course touch upon language where this is used to enhance the primary theme
or reinforce the implications of the teaching it embodies.
We shall concentrate rather on the treasury of ideas one can discover
beneath the Qur 'an's literary form. This approach does not require our being
Arabs or students of Arabic, yet it nonetheless enables us to undertake a
serious and fruitful study of the Qur 'an.
Provided that one has a good translation, 1 one can study the Qur 'an from
any of three angles quite independently of its Arabic form: first of all there is
the nature of Qur 'anic doctrine, the ensemble of solutions it proposes so as
to resolve the two eternal problems of knowledge and action; then there are
the means of persuasion the Qur 'an employs, in order to establish the truth
of this doctrine; and finally there is the manner in which it demonstrates the
sacred and Divine character that it attributes to its own message. It is to this
quite independent study that we propose to contribute by the present work.
The principal objective of this study is to disengage the Qur 'an's moral
law from everything which connects it to the rest of the Book. However,
before extracting this living cell from the whole organism which is Qur 'anic
ix
doctrine, we feel it right and useful to present in their indivisible unity the
main lines of its doctrinal structure. Thereby we hope to demonstrate the
position of the moral element within the integrated framework.
In order to achieve this, we shall first consider the structure that is the
Qur 'an - rapidly it is true, but with sufficient penetration to discern the
generative ideas behind each of its sections, and sufficient breadth to
encompass an overall picture of its methods and aims.
Apart from certain indispensable historical guidelines - which we have
added at the justified instigation of M. Maurice Patronnier de Gandilla,
professor at the Sorbonne - the essential object of the present work is to lay
bare in its wholeness the Qur 'anic message as the text itself presents it, and
not as it has been judged, interpreted or applied across the years.
In treading our path we shall encounter severe judgements passed on the
Book which will have to be corrected, and hasty conclusions which will have
to be put right, but in principle we shall the leave the words of the Qur 'an to
provide its own defence and self-justification. Our intervention will consist
almost exclusively of coordinating and linking up into a logical sequence the
separate pieces that make up this plea of defence, leaving to the reader the
task of judging the historical and philosophical validity of the discourse for
him- or herself.
The issue at hand is one of studying the Qur 'an objectively - insofar as a
thinker is able to detach himself from his or her own subjective conditions.
To play the role of protagonist does not mean that one is prevented from
clothing one's formulations with a personal overtone, an energetic mood, or
a persuasive aspect. These should be seen as the reflection which the original
projects onto its mirror, and not an essentially novel accretion of our
particular manner of thinking.
It is necessary to say that, in divesting the Qur 'anic idea of its clothing,
and thus disengaging it from its local framework so as to make it accessible
to those unfamiliar with the Arabic language, we are doing no more than
helping to reveal its true purpose. Appealing constantly to reason, common
sense and the more generous human sentiments, the Qur'an addresses itself
in effect to all mankind, regardless of national roots or ethnic origins.
The Qur 'an is a universal teaching which aims to purify customs, to throw
light on and reconcile beliefs, to cause racial barriers and national
chauvinism to fall, and to replace the law of brute strength with that of truth
and justice. In addition to its contribution to world philosophy, however, it
also serves as a precious source of succour for those who study it during this
frenetic period of domination and destruction.

Paris, 21 February 1947

M.D.
X
 Part One
Background History

Before we engage in a methodical analysis of the sacred Book of Islam, we

should call to mind the conditions under which it appeared, and the stages it
has undergone before reaching us today.
We shall first give some key dates in the early life of the Prophet, since
his history is linked inseparably with that of the Qur 'an. Whatever the nature
of the criteria we bring to bear upon the origin, Divine or human, of the
Qur'an, there is no doubt that historically speaking the Qur'an is a
Muhammadan phenomenon. This is irrespective of whether, as the sceptics
say, the Prophet drew it from within himself or from the surrounding
ambience of knowledge at this time, or whether, as the Qur'an affirms on
many occasions, he received it in textual form at the dictation of a celestial
messenger serving as intermediary between God and Muhammad.

For surely he revealed it to thy heart by Allah's command, verifying that

which is before it and a guidance and glad tidings for the believers.
2:97

Since we, with our limited experience and knowledge, could never aspire to
such a superhuman source, we may say definitively that it is from
Muhammad that we obtain this text, be it as the author himself or as the
unique intermediary of its reproduction and transmission to all humanity.
 1
The Early Life of the Prophet

Given such a close liaison between the Messenger and his message, and
since our work is destined principally for milieux barely familiar with the
story of the Arab Prophet, we shall commence by giving a concise portrait of
Muhammad from his childhood up to the time when he was invested with his
world mission.
Who, then, was this man? He belonged to a greatly illustrious family from
Mecca, the Hashemite branch of the tribe of Quraysh, known for its
religious, rather than political, nobility. Tradition has it that he is descended
from Isma'il, son of Abraham, through 21 named generations as far back as
'Adnan, then through several generations whose precise number and names
are engulfed in obscurity and uncertainty .1
According to the unanimous opinion of his biographers, Muhammad was
born on a Monday in the second week of the lunar month Rabi' al-Awwal, 2
in the Year of the Elephant. This was the year of the invasion of the Hejaz,
unsuccessfully undertaken by Abraha, then vice-roy of Yemen, under the
domination of the Byzantines, with an army containing the largest elephant
in the Abyssinian kingdom. The most accredited scholars say that this event
corresponds with the year 53 before the Hijra, that is, the year 571 AD.
Muhammad was born an orphan, his father 'AbdAllah having died seven
months before his birth:

Did He not find thee an orphan and give (thee) shelter?

93:6

Following a custom held sacrosanct by the notables of the city, whereby

their new-born babies were reared in the salubrious air of the country, the

3
4 INTRODUCfJON TO THE QUR'AN

child was consigned to the care of a Bedouin wet-nurse, l:lalima, of the tribe
of Bani Sa 'd, until he reached the age of four. His mother Amina then
undertook his education, helped by an Abyssinian housekeeper, Umm
Ayman.
Unhappily, he was not to benefit long from such loving maternal care.
Losing his mother at the age of six, the orphan was then taken into the
guardianship of his grandfather, 'Abd al-Muttalib, who showed the boy
special affection and predicted a great future for him. Hardly had he reached
the age of eight, however, than he lost his grandfather too. From now on he
received the protection of his uncle 'Abd Manaf, surnamed AbO Talib.
Although already burdened with a very large family, and finding his
situation far from easy, Abo Talib reserved a sincere paternal love for his
nephew, and was aware that a relative prosperity reigned in his house from
the time that the young boy entered it. He held great store by having
Muhammad by his side at all times, and, in a reciprocal attachment, the
young man did not wish any the more to be separated from his uncle. Thus
we find Muhammad (then aged 12) accompanying his uncle on a trading trip
to Syria in 582.
Linked to this journey is the famous account of Muhammad's first contact
with religion, in the person of a Christian monk at Bo~ra (then in Syria),
called Bal,Ura. The tradition says that this sage, having noticed in the march
of the caravan certain signs recounted in the sacred texts, invited the party to
dine with him. He set about examining the faces of the travellers, so as to
compare their appearance with the documents in his possession, but they did
not tally. Then, after questioning our youth, who arrived later at the scene,
Bal).ira approached AbO Talib and said to him: 'This young man will be
called upon to play a great role in the world. Tell him to return to your
country as soon as possible; but watch over him always and beware
especially of the Jews, who could do him evil if they knew what I know
about him. '3
There is little detail to tell about Muhammad's life between this event and
his marriage. We know that he spent his youth in a state bordering on
poverty, as the Qur'an describes:

And find thee in want, so He enriched thee?

93:8

The tradition explains the Prophet's situation as follows: since his father died
young while his grandfather was still alive, the only inheritance Muhammad
received on the death of his mother was a black slave, a herd of sheep and
five camels. His most frequent occupation during this period seems to have
 THE EARLY LIFE OF THE PROPHET 5

been that of shepherd - a function performed, he was later to say, by the

earlier prophets, such as Moses, David and others.
Muhammad stood out from other adolescents on account of his refined
manners, the most evident of which was his extreme modesty. He distanced
himself from the easy pleasures of most young people, and was absolutely
chaste. He inspired a lively interest in all those with whom he felt in
harmony, and the confidence he engendered in the hearts of his companions
merited the surname they gave him: al-Amin (the trustworthy). Such solid
qualities as these do not generally pass unnoticed, and thus we see
Muhammad, while still a young man (aged 20), called upon to sit beside the·
most venerable chiefs of the tribes in the Fm;hil confederation.4
As well as marking a time of prosperity for him, Muhammad's marriage
at the age of 25 revealed in him other, no less excellent, qualities. Charged
with a business mission by his wife Khadija, a virtuous, rich and noble
widow of middle age, he acquitted himself with intelligence and honesty,
confirming for her the name he had already earned from his comrades.
Indeed, despite the material differences separating the two, it was she who
made overtures towards him concerning marriage, to which he agreed,
notwithstanding the age difference between them.
For a quarter of a century Khadija remained Muhammad's only wife.
Death alone was able to separate them, leaving her faithful remembrance to
arouse the naive jealousy of his later household. She presented him with two
boys, al-Qasim and 'Abd Allah, both of whom died when they were still
young,5 and four daughters, Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthfim and Fatima,
all of whom embraced Islam. The latter was to become the wife of 'Ali, the
fourth caliph; the two next youngest were successively to marry 'Uthrnan,
the third caliph. As for the eldest, Zaynab, before the time of Islam's advent,
she married one of her maternal cousins, Abii1-'As, who later converted.
She died two years before her father, leaving a daughter, Umama, who
married 'Ali after Fatima's death.
An excellent father and faithful spouse, Muhammad showed deep
tenderness towards his children and grandchildren. He would walk several
miles just to see them and embrace them when they stayed in the care of
their wet-nurses; he would allow them to cling to his neck during prayer; and
he would interrupt his preaching in order to bid them welcome and place
them beside him on his chair. His interchanges with the Bedouin of Tamim
are well known on the subject of paternal feelings. 6
Despite his having become wealthy through marriage, Muhammad
remained simple and frugal, only taking advantage of his easy circumstances
in order to generate bounty around him. Thus, in order to acquit himself of
the debt of gratitude he owed to the uncle who had looked after him during
his childhood, he took it upon himself to aid him in the education of his
6 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

youngest son, 'Ali, to whom he was later to give Fatima, the youngest of his
daughters.
The most prominent event between his marriage and his calling to
prophethood took place when Muhammad was 35 years old, on the occasion
of the renovation of the Ka'ba. This monument may be considered to have
been the national temple of Arabia, since all of the Arab tribes, despite the
diversity of their cults, shrouded it in the most profound veneration. They all
laid great importance upon procuring for themselves the honour of
participating in its reconstruction and, so as to satisfy all possible claims, it
was arranged by a form of division of labour that all would be given work.
One day those taking part in the reconstruction found themselves faced
with a job they could not share equally among themselves: the putting in
place of the famous Black Stone. No one wanted to cede the right to make it
his responsibility, nor could anyone ward off an imminent conflict. Before
running to take up arms, however, one last conference was held.
It was decided to resort to the arbitration of the first person to enter the
sacred precinct through the Bani Shayba gate, and, as chance would have it,
this person was Muhammad. As soon as they saw him enter, they shouted:
'al-Amin, al-Amin! 'They were not to be disappointed in their expectation of
an equitable solution.
With the presence of mind and impartiality to which Muhammad's life
had always given evidence, he laid out his cloak on the earth, placed the
Black Stone in the middle, and asked the head chiefs of each tribe to take an
edge of the cloak and lift it simultaneously to the prescribed height. Arriving
thus at the location which the Stone was to occupy, he then took it himself
and put it in place with his own hands. Unanimous satisfaction was
complete, and immediate peace was re-established.
By now, Muhammad was physically, intellectually and morally complete,
and his character thus formed would remain with him to the end of his life.
Of a stature slightly above the average, he was solidly built, with a wide
chest and shoulders, a large head and a wide forehead. He had a large mouth
and white teeth slightly separate from each another, an abundant beard, black
wavy hair which fell in curls around his eyes, white skin with a pink tinge,
black eyes and bloodshot corneas. His gait was both lithe and imposing, as if
he were in the middle of descending a slope, and he wore simple clothes that
were clean and well-cared for.
He was always serene and had a rare sobriety, without, however, denying
himself the enjoyment of good things when the occasion presented itself. He
showed effortless endurance under difficulty and fatigue; he was usually
collected and spoke little, this economy of speech neither meaning that he
did not enjoy conversation nor that he was not sensitive to innocent
playfulness.
---------- - ---

THE EARLY LIFE OF THE PROPHET 7

Once he had become the chief and sole leader of the state, Muhammad
was tempted neither by riches nor the goods of this world. He deliberately
brushed aside all kinds of luxury in all spheres, both for himself and for his
family. The most formal indication of this attitude may be seen in his anger
at those in his family who wanted the ostentatious glitter of this life:

0 Prophet, say to thy wives: If you desire this world's life and its
adornment, come, I will give you a provision and allow you to depart a
goodly departing. But if you desire Allah and His Messenger and the abode
of the Hereafter, then surely Allah has prepared for the doers of good
among you a mighty reward.
33:28-9

Eventually, the few possessions Muhammad owned were not even destined
to be inherited by his relatives, but were distributed in their entirety to the
poor after his death.
It is in social matters above all that we see Muhammad at his most
admirable. Endowed with an exemplary gentleness and a fastidiousness
which never left him, not even when at the height of his power, he was never
curt in conversation - regardless of with whom he was speaking - and never
showed impatience. He was never the first to withdraw his hand from his
interlocutor, and showed firmness and impartiality in the dispensation of
justice in the community. He was very indulgent in anything connected with
personal rights; one of his servants, Anas bin Malik, affirms that during the
ten years of his service he was never scolded by his master, nor even
questioned about his motives for doing one thing rather than another.
Although he lived at peace with the world, and knew how to win affection
and admiration in all circles, it was not long before Muhammad provoked
animosity against himself and against those people who used to hold him so
dear. He was by now nearing 40, and was on the eve of a decisive event
which would stamp a new orientation upon his conduct, an event which in
the wider view would constitute a veritable turning point in history.
The first indication of his vocation as a prophet, according to his own
account given to 'A 'isba, consisted in the fact that everything he saw in his
dreams would then take place by the following evening, 'with a clarity
resembling that of daylight.' Following this, he experienced a certain
inclination for solitude. As a place of retreat his choice fell upon Mount
I:Iira ', or Jabal al-Niir (mountain of light) to the north of Mecca. There, far
from the impious and corrupt environment of the town, and far too from all
worldly preoccupations, he liked to retire into a cave overlooking the
venerated temple of the Ka'ba and the firmament which spread to infinity
behind it. 7
8 INTRODUCTION TO TilE QUR' AN

It was on one such night, according to Ibn Sa'd on the 17th of Rama<;lan to
be exact (February 610 AD), that Muhammad entered into contact for the
first time with the beyond. In this absolute calm, he had his first experience
of the phenomenon of genuine revelation.
The manner in which this happened is described by Muhammad himself
in the form of a dialogue taking place between himself and Gabriel, the
disciple and his preceptor.
'Read!' said the angel. 'I am not of those who knows how to read,' replied
Muhammad, astonished. 'Read! ' repeated Gabriel, at the same time
squeezing him almost unbearably. 'What should I read?' Muhammad asked.
The same order to read was then reiterated with even greater pressure, as
though to awaken his attention to its extreme limits, and to inculcate in his
soul the full seriousness of the superhuman task to be placed upon him.
'How can I read?' repeated our terrified recluse. And so the angel recited to
him: 8

Read in the name of thy Lord who creates - creates man from a clot, read,
and thy Lord is most generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he
knew not.
96:1-5

These words were fixed indelibly in Muhammad's memory; he repeated

them to himself, and then the angel disappeared. But hardly had he emerged
from the cave to return home, than he heard a voice calling to him. He raised
his head, and there was an angel, filling the sky beyond the horizon and
declaring: '0 Muhammad! In truth, you are the Messenger of God, and I, I
am Gabriel. ' It was not possible for him to avert his gaze, to move forward
or to retreat; there was no part of the sky in which he could not see the angel.
This lasted a certain time, and then he saw no more.
Muhammad was filled with awe at such an unprecedented visual and
auditory experience. No doubt, for a moment, it aroused some doubt in him
as to the identity of the voice that had revealed these things. He held a fear of
having been the victim of a diabolic hallucination - he who detested nothing
more than the methods of sorcerers and diviners, and who would dread to be
classed as one of their ilk. Perhaps also, in his eyes, the bodily suffering he
experienced as a result of this encounter resembled the death throes, and
therefore he believed that he was no longer alive. Feeling a mixture of moral
and physical disturbance, he returned directly home and, agitated by a sort of
cold fever, asked to be wrapped in heavy coverings in order that his terror
might be dissipated.
 THE EARLY LIFE OF THE PROPHET 9

Divulging the incident to Khadija later, Muhammad gave voice to his fear
and perplexity. His devoted companion reassured him with all her might,
using her wisest and most comforting words.
'No,' she said to him, 'Do not afflict yourself. On the contrary, this is
good news, which should cause you to rejoice. Surely God would not wish to
inflict evil upon you, nor to cover you with shame, for you have never done
anything bad. You always tell the truth; you maintain all the bonds which
bind those near to you in an excellent way; you help the weak; you give
money to those who need it; you show hospitality to all your guests; and you
give your help to all those who suffer for a just cause.'
However, being unable to give a positive or certain explanation of the
nature of the event, Khadija felt the need to seek the opinion of some
competent authority. So she decided to go with Muhammad to consult such a
one: her cousin, Waraqa bin Nawfal, an old man converted to Christianity.
Waraqa was well-versed in Hebrew and familiar with the holy Books,
though he was by now quite blind.
'If the account you give is precise,' said Waraqa, 'then this can be none
other than the Namos,9 which God revealed to Moses. This means that
Muhammad will be the Messenger of God to this nation. Would that I could
live to the day when your compatriots will expel you from your country!'
'What?' cried Muhammad. 'They will expel me?'
'But assuredly,' replied Waraqa. 'Never has it been that a man brings
what you bring without becoming the object of hostilities and persecutions.
But if God prolongs my days until that time, and if I possess enough energy,
I will lend you the strongest support in this battle. '
Waraqa did not live that long, however. And though his comforting words
had been able to throw some gleam of hope onto Muhammad's anxious soul,
despite the Prophet's hunger for knowledge, evidence and certainty, the hope
in this truly positive spirit was still not so very strong, and in the event did
not last long. For what could be more natural, if this promised knowledge
had been announced by the voice of truth, than to wait and see from one day
to the next whether this promise would be fulfilled?
And so Muhammad often returned to seek out a second lesson, in the
same place in which he had received his first. He put himself into the same
conditions as before; he roved around the mountain, turning his gaze in all
directions. And the days passed, the weeks flew by, months succeeded
months, a year ended and another began and, according to al-Sha'bi, then a
third, and yet nothing more happened. The only exception is that, each time
he found himself on the edge of the abyss of despair, he would see and hear:
'0, Muhammad! You are, in truth, the Messenger of God and I, I am
Gabriel. ' These words would calm him somewhat, but then he would relapse
into sadness and anguish, anxiously awaiting any substantial revelation.
10 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

Some said: 'Surely this is nothing more than madness!' Others surmised
that a priceless celestial offering had indeed been made, but that, due to his
fragile stamina, Muhammad had shown himself incapacitated and,
consequently, unworthy of Divine concern. Two short Qur'anic revelations
reassured the Prophet himself against these fears, though they did not go on
to provide the teaching he so much hoped for:

By the grace of thy Lord thou art not mad.

68:2

Thy Lord has not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased.

93:3

Muhammad made it his duty to stay awake throughout a large part of the
night, waiting for the promised 'words of great gravity':

0 thou covering thyself up! Rise to pray by night except a little, half of it, or
lessen it a little, or add to it, and recite the Qur' an in a leisurely manner.
Surely We shall charge thee with a weighty word. The rising by night is
surely the firmest way to tread and most effective in speech. Truly thou hast
by day prolonged occupation.
73:1-7

Furthermore, since the occurrence of the first revelation, he had adopted the
habit of retiring to Mount ijira' at the same period each year, that is to say in
the month of Ramac,ian.
At last, in his 43rd lunar year, the Prophet had just completed his retreat
and descended the slope in the direction of the town, when he heard
someone call to him. He looked to the right, then to the left, then behind him
-and saw nothing. Then, raising his eyes to the sky, he recognized the angel
he had seen at ijira '. The suddenness of the apparition and the majestic
immensity of the celestial being struck him so forcibly that his legs were
unable to support him. Trembling with fear (and perhaps also from the
January cold), he returned to Khadija to ask her for the same ministrations as
on the first occasion.
This time, however, the honourable visitor appeared before him once
more, at his home, and conveyed to him the decree whereby he was invested
with his second role:

0 thou who wrappest thyself up, arise and warn.

74:1-2
 THE EARLY LIFE OF THE PROPHET 11

Thus, Muhammad received not only a Divine teaching, but also a command
to transmit this message to the people. His role as Messenger was from now
on connected to that of Preacher of God's word.
Between the two investitures described above, Muhammad experienced
long intervals between his inspirations. Moreover, these were prone to
abruptness of appearance and disappearance, and tended to be fairly
insubstantial. From the time of his vocation to preach, however, the Prophet
received his revelations if not regularly, or even frequently, at least with a
certain continuity and without such sudden breaks.
The year 612 was the true point of departure in the career of the
Messenger of Islam, a career which the date of the Hijra comes to divide into
two almost equal parts: 10 ten years in Mecca, the town where he was born,
and ten more at Medina, his later residence. It was here that he was to die, on
12 or ~3 Rabi' al-Awwal in the eleventh year of the Hijra (7 or 8 June 632
AD), aged exactly 63lunar years, or slightly more than 61 solar years. 11
Without doubt, it would be very interesting to follow Muhammad in his
indefatigable evangelizing activity during these two decades. After all, they
brought about one of the greatest civilizing revolutions humanity has ever
known. But since the principal object of this work is the analysis of the
Qur 'anic system itself, having brought the study of Muhammad's life to the
point where the union between the message and the Messenger has begun to
be effected, we may now move on to consider the Work he has left to us. In
the following chapter, we shall describe the manner in which the work was
composed, ordered, conserved and transmitted across history.
 2
The Composition of the Revealed Text

Today the Qur 'an is presented as one volume, most commonly arranged over
about 500 pages of 15 lines each, and divided into 114 suras (chapters) of
unequal length. After the Fdtiha (opening), which consists of five short
lines, the siiras are in general arranged in order of descending length, 1 with
the longest at the beginning,2 those of medium length in the middle, and the
shortest (some of which are only one line long) at the end. Diacritical signs,
vocalization, orthographic and punctuation marks are all included, so as to
guide the reader in its correct pronunciation and pauses.
Yet the Qur 'an would not have looked like this during the time of the
Prophet: while the text itself remains rigorously as it was given under his
dictation, its appearance in the written form has changed considerably. In the
beginning, it was not what one might call a volume, for, as we have already
demonstrated by the few examples given above, the Qur 'an appeared piece
by piece, with each piece being of shorter or longer length, varying from an
entire sura to a single verse, or sometimes even part of a verse. As each
fragment inspired in the Prophet was recited by him, it would be learned by
his listeners and spread further to those who had not heard it directly from
his lips.
Muhammad's followers waited fervently for each fragment, and desired to
have it imparted to them as and when it emerged. Indeed, even the enemies
of the Prophet, far from being indifferent to his Qur 'an, tried often to listen
to its recitation, either to find a weak point in it which might lead them to
challenge or attack him, or to assuage their passionate appetite for literature.
Imagine, then, the interest it must have inspired in its adherents! For them,
the Qur'an was food for the spirit, a rule of conduct, a text for prayer, an

13
14 lNTRODUCflON TO THE QUR'AN

instrument for preaching; it was their hymn and their history, their
fundamental law and code for all circumstances in life.
But the sacred text is not only a 'recitation' (qur' an), an assemblage of
oral recitations destined solely to be conserved in the memory, it is also a
kitab, a 'scripture' or 'book', with the two aspects corroborating and
controlling each other mutually. Each fragment inspired in the Prophet and
recited by him was immediately put down in writing on anything the scribes
could lay their hands on: leaves, planks, pieces of parchment, leather, flat
stones, shoulder-blades and so on.
The most trustworthy scholars describe up to 29 people who were called
upon by the Prophet to fulfill the role of secretary. The most well-known are
the first five caliphs (Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, 'Ali, Mu'awiya) plus al-
Zubayr bin al-'Awwam, Sa'id bin al-'A~. 'Amr bin al-'A~. Ubayy bin Ka'b
and Zayd bin Thabit, with Mu'awiya and Zayd bin Thabit being the most
prolific. But, over and above these few who were unofficially given this
office in Mecca, from the very outset and even in the midst of persecutions,
the individual faithful were constantly recording fragments of the revealed
text in personal manuscripts for private use.
A story handed down to us tells us that the conversion of 'Umar was due
to his reading a leaf of just such writing which he found on his sister, and
which bore the first verses of the 20th sura:

Td hd. We have not revealed the Qur' dn to thee that thou mayest be
unsuccessful; but it is a reminder to him who fears: a revelation from Him
Who created the earth and the high heavens. The Beneficent is established
on the Throne of Power. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and
whatever is in the earth and whatever is between them and whatever is
beneath the soil. And surely if thou utter the saying aloud, surely He knows
the secret, and what is yet more hidden. Allah- there is no God but He. His
are the most beautiful names.
20:1-8

At this stage, these written documents were not meant to form a crude
version of a homogeneously ordered and numbered collection: the Prophet
himself did not own one written fragment and not one person around him
had in his possession a complete collection of what had so far been revealed.
Scattered thus amongst the faithful, it was not possible that they should find
a definitive arrangement in the communal memory until towards the end of
the Prophet's life.
Yet, from quite early on it was easy for the faithful to see that these
revealed fragments were not destined to remain entirely isolated, but neither
should they take their place one after the other in the chronological order of
 THE COMPOSITION OF THE REVEALED TEXT 15

their revelation. It came about that several groups of passages were

developing in distinct definition from each other. Little by little, with the
addition of other verses, these began to constitute independent wholes. These
would then be linked together, added to here or intercalated there, all on the
express indications of the Prophet, which he himself affirmed to be in
· conformity with the orders of the celestial spirit.
Due to the continuous nature of this process of construction, the faithful
were obliged to await the completion of the whole work before the
individual strands could be pulled into one body. Yet, despite this lack of a
sequential order in the written fragments at this stage, each oral passage at
every stage of the developing revelation knew its destined place within the
entire sura concemed. 3 It was the same for the prayer, as it was also for the
teaching, preaching and other recitations.
Thus, in the lifetime of the Prophet, several hundred of the Companions,
known as 'the carriers of the Qur 'an', were already specialized in reciting
the Book and knew each sura in its given form, be it provisional or
definitive. We have Ibn Mas'ud, for example, priding himself on having
learned more than 70 suras from the lips of the Prophet. In tum, the Prophet
affirms that every year in the month of Ramac;lan he made a general revision
of the text by reciting everything thus far revealed through Gabriel; and that
in the last year the Divine Messenger twice checked through the Qur 'an with
him, which presaged to him his approaching end.
Barely a year had passed after the Prophet's death before the faithful
began to assemble these scattered documents and try to make them into a
manageable, easy-to-consult collection, with the fragments within each
chapter following their appointed sequence, as they had been learned by
memory, but the overall arrangement remaining unfixed. The impetus for
this came from 'Umar, who suggested the idea to AbU Bakr after hundreds of
Muslims, including 70 'carriers of the Qur 'an', were killed at the battle of
Yamama against the false prophet, Musaylima. Fearing a progressive
diminution in the number of readers by further wars, a collection of these
Qur 'anic fragments would safeguard the totality of the written sources in a
state which could be consulted in times of need. It would also serve to
sanction a unified form of this document on the authority of its existing
readers and all the Companions, who each knew a smaller or greater amount
by heart. 4
The task was entrusted to Zayd bin Thabit. Aware of the heavy
responsibility involved in such an enterprise, Zayd hesitated at first to accept
it. But Abu Bakr insisted: 'You are an intelligent man. We do not have the
slightest suspicion concerning your honesty, since you wrote the revelations
at the dictation of the Prophet. Take it upon yourself, therefore, to gather
together the Qur 'an. '5 Another factor contributing towards the choice of
16 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

Zayd seems to have been that, in addition to being a scribe and a carrier, he
had been present at the final recitation, during which the Prophet had
presented the ensembled Qur 'an. 6
A working methodology was established and rigorously applied: no
writing was to be accepted unless certified by two witnesses as having been
put down, not from memory, but at the very dictation of the Prophet, and as
being part of the text as given in its final state. According to al-Layth bin
Sa 'd, the exigence of two witnesses meant that even a passage contributed by
'Omar concerning the punishment of adulterers by stoning was excluded,
since 'Omar had been the sole witness. 7
Having completed this task with all of these precautions followed, Zayd
placed his recension in the hands of Abu Bakr, who kept it with him during
his caliphate. Before his death, the first caliph entrusted it to 'Omar, whom
he had designated as his successor. 'Omar, in turn, rendered it in his last
moments into the protection of his daughter, I:Iaf~a. a widow of the Prophet,
since the third caliph had not been elected at that time.
This first official recension (which one can imagine as taking the form of
a dossier of ordered sheets in an unbound pile) differed from other existing
entire or partial copies because of the absolute rigour exercised at its
collation, and because of its exclusion of all that was not part of the text in
its final recited form. For example, Ibn Mas'iid or Obayy bin Ka'b, when
compiling their recensions, sometimes wrote from memory, putting in
variants belonging to an earlier period, or permitting themselves to mark
small explanatory notes, 8 or certain prayer formulas not included in the text,9
either in the margin or between the lines of their copies, often in a different
colour. The official recension, by contrast, may be seen to be purified even
of the titles of its chapters.
In spite of the enormous value attached to such a document, and the
laudable care that had been taken in establishing it, the official recension
maintained a more or less private character during the years that it remained
preciously guarded with the first two caliphs. Indeed, it did not acquire its
universal authority until the day it was published, during the rule of
'Othman, the third caliph.
During the battles of Armenia and Azerbaijan, dispute arose when the
armies of Syria and Iraq realized that there were differences in wording on
each side. The Syrians followed the reading of their fellow citizen, Obayy,
while the Iraqis followed that of theirs, Ibn Mas'iid, with the one side saying
to the other: 'What we have learned is better than what you have learned. '
Frightened by this spectacle, I:Iudhayfa bin al-Yaman went to the Caliph
'Othman, and urgently requested him to put an end to 'such disputes, which
could end in divisions similar to those of the Jews and the Christians on the
question of their Books '.
 THE COMPOSITION OF THE REVEALED TEXT 17

'Othman accordingly instituted a committee of four copyists, being the

same Zayd of Medina and three others from Mecca: 'Abd Allah bin al-
Zubayr, Sa'id bin al-A::; and 'Abd al-Ra)Jman bin al-I:Iarith bin Hisham.
Charging them with copying the original, still under }:Iaf1>a 's care, into as
many copies as there were principal towns in the Muslim empire, 10 he
specified: 1f there is any disagreement between you on the spelling of any
word, 11 write it according to the Qurayshi dialect, for it was in this dialect
that the Qur'an was (originally) given.' The work was thus completed in
perfect accordance with the original, which was then returned to }:Iaf::;a, and
the copies bound and distributed as the standard model of the Qur 'an. Any
variations showing deviations from this were rendered void.
Certain Shi'ites suspected 'Othman of having distorted the text of the
Qur'an, or more precisely, of having omitted parts referring to 'Ali. If this
fact were true, the 'carriers of the Qur 'an', who were still very numerous at
the time when it was published, would have been able to verify this by
comparing it with what they knew by heart. But even Ibn Mas'Ud, who had
more than one reason to be displeased with the political situation, recognized
the accuracy of the work no less than others, and predicted that at 'a later
time there will be many who read the Qur 'an, but few who are wise; when
the letters of the Qur 'an will be respected, but the application of its
commandments neglected'. 12 Even given the zeal of the first Muslims, who
were more ardent than their successors towards the word of God, it is
inconceivable to attribute to a mere spirit of conformity the fact that the
recension of 'Othman was accepted by everyone without contradiction.
Noldeke concludes that one should see in this the best proof that the text
'was as complete and faithful as one could make it'. 13
Whatever the case may be, this edition has been the only one in force in
the Muslim world for 13 centuries, including among the Shi'ites. Consider
the profession of faith of the lmamites (the most important sect within
Shi'ism), as it is found in the work of Abu Ja'far of Qum: 'Our belief
concerning the amount of the Qur 'an, which God the Most High revealed to
His Prophet Muhammad (may peace and blessing be upon him and his
family), is that it consists of what has been preserved up to now between two
covers for the use of men, and nothing more. The number of silras
recognized by most Muslims is 114, but according to us silras 93 and 94
form one sura and silras 105 and 106 form another; it is the same with silras
eight and nine. He who ascribes to us the belief that the Qur 'an is more than
this is a liar. ' 14
Leblois has also been able to affirm: The Qur'an is today the only sacred
Book which does not present notable variants. ' 15 Muir proclaimed the same
before him: The recension of 'Othman has passed from hand to hand to us
without alteration. It has been so scrupulously conserved that there are no
18 INTRODUC!lON TO THE QUR'AN

serious variants (and one could even say that there are none) in the
innumerable copies of the Qur 'an which circulate within the vast domain of
Islam . . . There has never been anything other than one Qur 'an for every
faction, however implacable; and this unanimous usage of the same scripture
accepted by all up to the present day is one of the unchallengeable proofs of
the trustworthiness of the text which we possess, and which goes right back
to the unfortunate caliph ['Uthman, who was assassinated]. ' 16
While demonstrating an unimpeachable impartiality in historical matters,
these judgements nevertheless call for a twofold correction, for they err both
by default and by excess. Thus, they are wrong to imply that the source of
the Qur 'anic text we possess goes back only as far as the third caliph,
'Uthman, for as we have already seen he did no more than make public the
manuscript brought together under Abii Bakr. More than this, we have seen
how this same original was nothing other than the integral reproduction,
according to the order of recital (an order which should not be confused with
that of the order of its revelation) of the text as taken down at the dictation of
the Prophet himself.
Furthermore, it is going too far to categorically state that these editions,
although repeating each other graphically, do not contain any variant in
pronunciation. Even those with only the slightest knowledge of Arabic
writing will know that, though long vowels have nearly always been
represented within the body of Arabic words, this has never been so with
short vowels, nor with certain medial vowels; in addition, several groups of
letters not only resemble each other, but are identical in their manner of
writing, the one being only distinguishable from the other by diacritical
points. In this way, (n) can be read as (t), (b) or (y}, according to whether
one or two dots are placed above or below it. Yet, neither during the lifetime
of the Prophet nor at the time of the first three caliphs were such points used.
Thus, while common sense sufficed in some cases to guess the precise
pronunciation of a word, most often this could not be certain unless indicated
orally. To complicate matters, tradition tells us that the Prophet himself did
not always keep to one version in his teaching. From the same word (or
rather from the same radical) it was not unusual for him to give several
instructions, all good and meaningful. Thus a word could be read malik
(master, owner) or malik (king); in the same way a word could be read
fatabayyanii. (inform yourselves) or fatathabbatii. (act with circumspection),
and traditionally these different readings are equally acceptable.
Among the Companions, from the very beginning, there grew different
forms of reading, often mutually unknown to each other. Al-Bukhiiri reports
that one day 'Umar heard Hisham bin I:Iakim bin I:Iizam reciting sura 25 in a
way different to that which he had himself learned from the Prophet, and
became very angry. Indeed, he found it difficult to control his fury whilst
 THE COMPOSITION OF THE REVEALED TEXT 19

Hisham was saying his prayers and, as soon as Hisham had finished, seized
him by the throat and asked him from whom he had learned this manner of
saying the sura.
'From the lips of the Prophet,' Hisham replied. 'You are lying,' said
'Umar, 'for the Prophet taught it to me differently,' and he led him to
Muhammad. The Prophet then ordered Hisham to recite, and approved his
reading, saying that the sura had indeed been thus revealed. Then he did the
same with 'Umar and added: 'In truth, the Qur'an is revealed in seven
readings, or variants; 17 recite the one which is the easiest among them.' Al-
Tabari tells us that Ubayy bin Ka'b was equally shocked by a difference in
reading concerning sura 16, and that he, too, had recourse to the arbitration
of the Prophet, who approved both readings.
Was 'Uthman, then, more exacting than his Master in forbidding readings
which the latter had allowed? It does not seem so to us, for 'Uthman too did
not mean to abolish every nuance of pronunciation. Just like those preceding
it, his edition was made up of skeleton words, susceptible to different
readings. In every case where the orthography of the words could not be
resolved by one possible reading, 'Uthman took great pains to render explicit
the different readings traditionally allowed. Thus we see the word musaytir
written with a sin topped by a $dd, or with a $dd topped by a sin, while we
find sdra'u in one of the master copies, wa-sdra'u in another; similarly bi-md
tashtahi and bi-md tashtahihi; sayaquluna Allah and sayaqu/Una /i-1/dh.
The publication of the Qur 'anic text under the supervision of 'Uthman
had, in our view, a double purpose. First, it sought to legitimize and protect
all the different readings which had a prophetic origin communally
recognized, in order to prevent impious disputes about them. As 'Uthman
himself explained: 'To say that such a reading is better than such another
almost amounts to unbelief. '18 Second, it sought to exclude everything that
did not show an absolute identity with the original, so as to 'ward off' any
possible serious rift between Muslims, or any eventual alteration of the text
by the insertion of certain variants. These may have been the subjects of
discussion, or the various explanations of individuals, who might have added
them in good faith to their copies.
On the other hand, we should not be under the misapprehension that this
'Uthmani edition, and even less its prototype, contains all the variants
probably taught by the Prophet under the heading Sab'at A/:lruf, or 'seven
ways of reading'. For although the edition conserved those readings which
witnesses accepted as having been incorporated in the text in its definitive
stage, it at the same time excluded any form transmitted by individuals who
could not provide such a guarantee. 19 From the very beginning, the
20 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

thousands of Companions were united on the practicality of this basic

principle.Z0
The criteria for exclusion of a reading from the written document do not
appear to have carried into the sphere of the spoken text: those who affirmed
that the Prophet had read a text in a certain way were at liberty to follow
their particular versions under their own moral responsibility, but not to
attempt to make that version authoritative for the community at large. This
fair and reasonable approach is demonstrated by 'Uthman 's response to the
political insurgents: 'As to the Qur'an, I have only forbidden readings to you
on account of my fear of dispute, but you can read what you wish as you
follow the letters. m Also the fatwd of Imam Malik, where he makes it
permissible to recite fa' mcj,u according to the reading of 'Umar, instead of
fa' s'aw (62:9). 22 Ibn 'Abd al-Barr specifies that, 'during the obligatory
prayers,' non-'Uthmiini readings are not a sure enough Qur 'an to do their
duty. 23
It can be seen, then, that outside its ritual recitation and incorporation in
the codex, all other usage stays entirely open. Islamic scholarship of every
age has not ceased to be interested in the study of these particular readings. It
is this double point which Dr Arthur Jeffrey, editor of Kitab al-Massa/Jif, has
not rightly understood. On the one hand 'this investigation' is not 'in its
infancy in the Muslim world', as he supposes. 24 We need look no further
than the number of Arabic works which Jeffrey himself utilizes on this
subject; not only special treatises on orthography, phonetics and Qur'anic
readings, but also a plethora of commentaries and other works by
philologists, traditionalists and jurists. On the other hand, far from
undergoing a certain 'pressure on the part of the orthodox' in this vast
domain, 25 these variants have always assumed a sacred character, not as
Qur 'anic text, but as }Jadith a}Jdd. As such they are still used by Sunnite
schools.
In spite of this evidence, the picture of Christian ecclesiastical history,
with which the English missionary is evidently more familiar, seems to have
so much obsessed Jeffrey that he appears to transpose it almost in its entirety
to the Islamic realm. In effect, the writer tries to establish in the text of the
Qur 'an an evolution more similar to that of the texts of the Gospels.
He begins, strangely, by distinguishing in the Qur'an, 'certain liturgical
pieces' which would 'probably' have been written at the time of revelation,
and other pieces which were not; 26 and by affirming, albeit contradicting
himself elsewhere, that, even at the death of the Prophet, the body of
revelations had not yet been collected together. 27 He goes on to deny, in a
play on words, the 'official' character of AbO Bakr's recension, 28 and finally
adjudges the probability of large divergences between the codices of the
various metropolitan centres at the time of the 'Uthmani decree. 29
~---------------------------------

THE COMPOSITION OF THE REVEALED TEXT 21

Jeffrey describes the Muslims of Kufa at that time as being divided into
two factions: 'Some accepted the new text sent by 'Uthmfm, but the larger
number supported that of Ibn Mas'Od. ' 30 Thus, 'Uthman 's text is presented to
us not only as one among several 'rival' texts, 31 but as a parvenu, opposed
not only to the older codices, but even to the reading as given at the time of
the Prophet, which was finally imposed, not through its internal merits, but
thanks to the prestige of Medina! 32
The grave errors revealed by this type of exposition of the history of the
Qur 'anic text require our thorough rectification. Let us first recall not only
the maturity of the text published by 'Uthrnan, but also its total identification
with the recension brought together under AbO Bakr,33 as is indeed
confirmed by modem Christian research. Thus Schwally, 'We have already
shown that the two editions of Zayd are identical, and the edition of 'Uthman
is nothing more than a copy of the codex of I:Iaf~a. ' 34 Let us also not forget·
that none of the material making up the latter dates solely from the time of
the first caliph; on the contrary, it can all be textually traced back to the time
of the Prophet.
Coming as they do from the same source, all the variants call for equal
recognition, whether in oral or written form. Thus, while it is possible that
certain divergences in readings were anterior in date to those which figure in
'Uthman 's recension, for they must have become attached during some
period of Muhammad's life, this relative anteriority cannot be taken to
constitute a criterion of priority. The most authentic text is not necessarily
the earliest, but, rather, that which was last in use; in the language of the
Companions, the expression applied to extra-textual readings does not mean
'a reading from the time of the Prophet' in general, but 'the earliest reading'
of the time, which is to say, the abrogated one. Thus the foundations on
which people have tried to build the importance of this type of variant
crumble.
Let us now leave aside these chronological gradations, for we still need to
discern the most essential conditions for establishing the authenticity of a
text: the assurance that its written form is sufficiently verified and vouched
for by the author or his representative. It is precisely this ensemble of
conditions which, at the moment of collection, rendered some variants
deficient and determined their exclusion from the standard codices, and this
irremediably fragile foundation was further to be shaken by the process of
later transmission.
Jeffrey declares himself struck on three fronts by the uncertainties which
afflict non-'Uthmani readings: their age - a later invention is sometimes
suspected as having been falsely given early authenticity in order to benefit
from the prestige of such a label; 35 the precise nature of their source - in
several cases, attribution to particular authorities seems confused; 36 and the
22 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR'AN

identification of their form - not only is it difficult to decide which of the

diverse renderings attributed to the same reader is authentic, but in certain
cases the readings seem to be linguistically impossible. 37
Although our orientalist recognizes that non-'Uthmam readings are rarely
attributed to authorities as figuring in their recensions, but most often as
belonging simply to their oral teaching or recitation/ 8 when he comes to
assembling them, he takes the liberty of putting them all under the rubric of
the codex. Thus he includes not only those readings which are in fact no
different to the official text (as if by increasing the volume of his collection
he will somehow raise its worth), but also accounts which, on the word of
such and such author, are imputed only to one of their disciples.
Of what do these spurious accounts consist, and what is their importance?
Let us note, first of all, that they have bearing neither on all the suras, nor on
the entire extent of any one sura. Under investigation, it becomes clear that
spurious accounts fall into several categories:
1) interpolations made which aim to explain the implications of a word, such
as wa-Isma'ilu yaquldni (2:127); wa-ndddl1.u al-mald'ikatu yd Zakariyyd
(3:38); ild qawmihi (a-qdla yd qawm (11 :25); or to repeat a word already
made explicit earlier, e.g. 'an qitdl; wa-'aid' l-$ald; wa-dmana (2:217; 238;
285); or to develop the same sense by a paraphrase, such as fa4lan min
rabbikum fl mawdsim al-haiii (a-ibtaghU hlna' idhin (2: 198); wa' 1-'a$r, wa-
nawd' ib al-dahr; la-fl khusr, wa-innahu la-fihi ild iikhir al-'umr (103: 1-2).
One can clearly see in all this the work of a commentator, moving away
from the purity of the Qur'anic style and overcharging the text with
excessive prolixity;
2) the substitution of a word, either for a synonym, like yukmilu = yutimmu;
yu' adduhu =yuwaffuhu; dharra = namla; al-'ihn = al-$11/. or for a word with
a different meaning, in order to bring out the implied meaning, for example
al-l:tajja wa' 1-'umrata li' 1-bayt instead of al-}Jajja wa'l-'umrata li' lliih
(2:196);
3) simple inversion, such as fl ~ulalin min al-ghamdmi wa' 1-mald' ika = wa' 1-
mald'ikatufl ~ulalin min al-ghamdm (2:210); 'aid kulli qalb ='aid qalbi kull
(40:35); ba$lrun bi-md ta'malun = bi-md ta'maluna ba$lr (3:156);
4) on rare occasions, the omission of words, such as bi-mithli md dmantum =
bi-md dmantum (2: 137); illd' 1-sd'ata an ta' tiyahum = illd' 1-sd'ata
ta'tiyahum (47:18).
Setting aside the matter of prejudging the respective literary value of their
various lessons, one can say a priori that in the last three categories it is
certainly possible that we are in the presence of equally admissible, genuine
variants, the sole condition being that their origin can be historically
 THE COMPOSITION OF THE REVEALED TEXT 23

established. In certain cases, however, one is tempted to suspect that the

variant is an arrangement that has arisen in official circumstances.
The received formulation always has the merit of going beyond all
particular considerations, whether of theological order (for example bi-mithli
md dmantum; ya' tiyahum Allah fi 'l:Ulal), political order (for example, min al-
muhdjirina wa' 1-an~dri wa-alladhin (9: 100), and not, as 'Umar believed it to
be, wa' 1-an~dri alladhin), dialectical order (for example, inna hddhdni /a-
sa}:tirdn), or otherwise. The only concern we see dominating the
establishment of the Qur 'anic text by the Companions of the Prophet is one
of strict literal fidelity to each fragment as it was originally set down at the
dictation of their Master, and then reread before him, to ascertain his
definitive approval. It is this absolute objectivity which remains eternally in
the Companions' honour.
People sometimes quibble at the case of Ibn Mas'Od or other collectors,
believing that this will enable them to broach the issue of the unanimity of
the Companions regarding the 'Uthmaru text. The truth is that none of the
Companions contested the precision of the published text. Although there
were other readings which individuals were certain had been authorized by
the Prophet, without being able to bring any objective proof for this, they felt
it important not to make themselves rivals. They did not wish to put these
readings in the place of the formulation unanimously recognized, but chose
rather to conserve them alongside the 'Uthmani text.
Thus we see Abu Musa, for example, recommending to his people that
they should not suppress anything to be found in his collection, and to
complete anything lacking therein with the aid of the 'Uthmani codex. 39
Similarly, when Ibn Mas'Od met with some of his dissatisfied followers, did
he not remind them of the validity of all the revealed variants? 40 Their
dissatisfaction, if indeed there ever was dissatisfaction,41 no doubt had a
double motive: to see this Companion deprived of the honour of being part
of the committee of censors, and to be thereby obliged to deliver his
manuscript for destruction. But this instinctive reaction could not be
sustained for very long.
Having already been absent on official business in Iraq for a long period
prior to the gathering of the recension, Ibn Mas'Od could not reasonably
demand that such an urgent matter be suspended until his return sine die, not
while other Companions also possessed documents rigorously collated and
sanctioned by the Prophet. As to his own manuscript, and whether he might
have inserted some private readings or some variants that had not been
unanimously attested to, it had to undergo the same process as the others of
its kind. 42 It ceased to be a definitive authority and became an object of
limited credit and personal responsibility.
24 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

If, at a time when there had not as yet been any incidence of attempted
alteration, the destruction of private manuscripts seems a little severe, it
nonetheless shows the breadth of the caliph's vision. It is to his far-
sightedness that Muslims owe the unity and stability of their holy Book
today. 43 Even if different systems of exterior signs were introduced later (by
Abii1-Aswad al-Duwali and his successors, Na$r bin 'A$$im, Yai:Iya bin
Ya'mar, I:Iassan al-Ba$ri and Khalil bin AI:Imad), the main body remains
untouched, defying the effects of time.
To this day, the existence in all copies, whether written or printed, of
superfluous letters, attached words and archaic spellings exclusive to
Qur 'anic writings, is eloquent testimony to the pious fidelity with which this
monument was transmitted from generation to generation.
 3
How the Qur 'anic Doctrine was Announced to
the World

The whole world knows what the Qur'anic doctrine we call Islam is, in a
general way, but too often this is understood in very superficial terms. Islam
is the name given to the religious, social and moral reform which, no sooner
was it born on the coast of the Red Sea at the beginning of the seventh
century of the Christian era, strode a march of victory towards north and
south, east and west, until, lo and behold, after a relatively short period, it
had established itself in half the then known world.
This event is one without historical precedent, and has never ceased to
both fascinate humanity and excite the curiosity of historians of customs
and religions. It is pointless to try to find a prototype for it in antiquity by
comparing it, as some do, with the conquests of Alexander; also a rapid
expansion, it is true, but one which brought with it no change to the ideas or
way of life of the peoples in its wake. At the first breath of Islam, all traces
of these customs would be obliterated.
We would not go so far as to suggest Alexander's influence to have been
absolutely pointless -he did blaze a trail to the East, studded with beautiful
cities, in which economic life became more prosperous - but it is no less
true that his efforts made no mark beyond urban limits. The mass of the
people, the peasants, of whom they say 'one has not truly conquered until
they are conquered', retained their own character; languages, customs,
political regimes and economic systems remained untouched. Even in the
towns, Hellenism as embodied in the administrative framework only
penetrated to any depth a small minority of the bourgeoisie.
Does one have to add that the Greek colonies were not long in falling into
the hands of other conquerors and that, under the Roman Empire, these

25
26 INTRODUCf!ON TO DiE QUR 'AN

towns fell into progressive stages of ruin? Just one or two well-known dates
suffice to bring home the ephemeral nature of Alexander's disparate edifice.
By some twenty years after the death of Alexander, around 301 BC, his
empire had been divided into three kingdoms. From here on, a progressive
mutilation took place: after fifty years Upper Asia was taken over by the
Parthians (250 BC); sixty years later, Asia Minor fell under Roman
domination (190 BC); another fifty years, and Palestine had become an
independent Jewish state (144-64 BC); towards the same date the
metropolitan centre itself (Greece in 146 BC and Macedonia in 142 BC) was
reduced to a Roman province; if the royalty of Egypt remained to one side
for longer and did not suffer the yoke of Rome until 31 BC, her political
decline had already begun after the first three Ptolemies (221 BC).
But the heart of the matter does not lie here. Let us leave aside the
material aspect of Alexander's civilization and look at events from an
ideological standpoint: it is undeniable that the Macedonian conqueror, far
from bringing with him a Greek ideology, purely and simply adopted the
current ideas of the conquered countries and affiliated himself with their
divinities.
During the two main periods of the Greek and Roman empires, generally
speaking, the philosophical and religious ideas which were flourishing at
this time in the East, and especially in Alexandria, did not contain any
Hellenic importation. On the contrary, they were essentially oriental
doctrines making use of a Greek vehicle to be conveyed into Europe under
the name of neo-platonism or Christianity. One could almost say that the
Orient conquered its conquerors in this respect.
When Islam arrived on the scene, not just the political and economic
fa~ade, but the very foundation of the human soul was changed in entire
peoples, almost overnight. Languages, thoughts, laws, aspirations, customs,
people's view of the world and of God, everything was transformed at a
stroke. 1 This conquest of the spirit not only entranced the souls which it
penetrated; it continued to gain new territory in every place where its
simplicity and primitive purity were displayed.
This statement hardly squares up with the widespread opinion, a thousand
times repeated, that Islam spread through the force of arms alone. Indeed,
the ascendancy which Islam maintains even at the present time is surely
tangible proof that it acts upon the spirit by virtue of an internal force, and
that it has a particular affinity with human nature and truth.
At one time, it is true, when antagonistic powers were pouring all their
hatred and violence into persecuting and torturing Islam's nascent doctrine,
Islam found herself obliged to react in order to put an end to an injustice
which had lasted long enough. Once resistance was declared, and
reactionary elements rose up from every part in an attempt to form a
 HOW THE QUR 'ANIC DOCTRINE WAS ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD 27

coalition against the new order, poised to supplant them, blows succeeded
blows, and time needed to pass before peace could be re-established. Yet an
investigation of this episode cannot lead us to the essential, or intentional,
factor that accounts for the spread of the Islamic message.
The first ten years of Muhammad's teaching do not only show us how the
simple exposition of the doctrine, in spite of all the obstacles, was able to
bring about new conversions every day. They also display with what valour
and to what extremes the Master and his disciples were prepared to endure
the mockery and insults of their compatriots, the isolation from all public
contact, sometimes even cruel torture and suffering:

... not he who is compelled while his heart is content with faith ...
16:106

... but when he is persecuted for the sake of Allah ...

29:10

About a hundred of the first Muslims, including some of the most noble,
like 'Uthman and the daughter of Abu Sufyan, Umm ijabiba, were
eventually obliged to seek refuge with the king of Abyssinia:

... those who flee after they are persecuted ...

16:110

The inhabitants of Yathrib (later called Medina) provide for us the most
striking illustration of the prodigious effect this peaceful call was capable of
producing: long before seeing Muhammad's face or hearing his voice, on the
basis of having simply heard the Qur'anic message via their pilgrims, the
Medinese Arabs welcomed Islam with such enthusiasm that there was no
family which did not count amongst its number several believers. What is
more, all the divisions and hostilities which had reigned in their midst for a
quarter of a century were suddenly extinguished as if by a Divine breath: 2

And He has united their hearts. If thou hadst spent all that is in the earth,
thou couldst not have united their hearts, but Allah united them ...
8:63

Those who had been relentless enemies became brothers:

... And remember Allah's favour to you when you were enemies, then He
united your hearts so by His favour you became brethren.
3:102
28 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

Islamic institutions which could not be openly performed in Mecca were

immediately, communally, and in broad daylight practised in Yathrib (hence
the Friday prayer led by Abu Amama a whole year before the Hijra).
Accordingly, nearly all of the faithful, all of whom had to a greater or lesser
extent been persecuted in Mecca, abandoned their homes and their
possessions, 3 and came to be received into this welcoming and hospitable
environment. Everything had taken place peaceably and with dignity, at
least on the part of the Muslims, and there was nothing to suggest a breakout
of violence.
Thus reassured about the fate of his disciples, Muhammad did not hasten
to join them. Regardless of the possible danger which menaced his person,
the Prophet did not wish to leave his position of duty without an express
authorization from revelation. Until that day he felt he should stay in Mecca
and continue to preach in his native country. So he remained alone with his
two friends, Abii Bakr and 'AIL
It was on the evening of the great plot hatched against his life that
Muhammad received the Divine order to leave; at the very hour the
perfidious project went into execution, the Prophet discreetly left town. One
of his two friends accompanied him, the other was entrusted with covering
their traces. But, having miraculously escaped from danger, should
Muhammad not have thought of wreaking vengeance upon the enemies who
had tried to kill him? Certainly not.
If we look at the stages of Muhammad's activity during the first year of
the Hijra and a good part of the second, we find his efforts devoted, not to
revenge, but to sacred and constructive works: the prescription of the fast,
the institution of the call to prayer, the construction of the mosque, and the
inner and peaceful organization of society. Everything seemed to indicate
that from that time onwards the Muslims were going to tum their backs on
their former territory- even in the direction of their prayer.
Then, towards the middle of the second year, the Muslims began to
intercept convoys of merchandise belonging to their former persecutors in
order to confront them. Whence this reversal, this sudden change of
attitude?
We cannot, and the impartial judgements of the orientalists agree on this
point, attribute this change to the personal psychology of the Prophet.
Belligerent measures were simply not a part of his character, quite the
reverse; the indulgence and solicitude he showed towards his adversaries
brought Qur'anic reproaches down upon him:

Ask forgiveness for them or ask not forgiveness for them. Even if thou ask
forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will not forgive them ...
9:80
 HOW THE QUR 'ANIC DOCTRINE WAS ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD 29

It is not for the Prophet and those who believe to ask forgiveness for the
polytheists, even though they should be near relatives, after it has become
clear to them that they are companions of the flaming fire.
9:113

In the Tradition there are preserved many accounts of Muhammad's acts of

clemency in the face of crimes committed both against him and against
those around him. 4
Some have tried then to explain this new orientation as the result of
pressure exerted upon the Prophet by his people, whose warrior spirit would
surely be their most essential characteristic. Yet scholars who have
penetrated more deeply into the Arab psyche find themselves unable to
support this hypothesis; on the contrary, they have shown to what extent the
spilling of blood provoked horror, even among desert Arabs. The Bedouin
do not seek war, they tell us, but if it is imposed upon them they will accept
it rather than shame and humiliation. Even during the frequent raids they
perpetrated upon one other, nomadic tribes took the utmost care to avoid
any bloody incident. 55 Thus, neither in the psychology of the people nor in
that of their leader do we find a satisfactory explanation for the new tum of
events.
We shall look next at historical fact. Surely something must have
occurred to bring about such a reaction? As a matter of fact, the Qur'an does
make us party to an extremely provoking scene. When the exodus took
place, the Prophet himself delayed his departure from Mecca until the very
last possible moment. One can be sure that he left behind no outstanding
matters needing attention, no possible hope of a last-minute convert in that
self-opiniated city. In truth, there were none.
Yet this is how the Qur'an makes us hear the anguished cry of the
Muslims left in Mecca, without support, suffering for their faith and calling
on the help of God against their oppressors:

Our Lord, take us out of this town, whose people are oppressors, and grant
us from Thee a friend, and grant us from Thee a helper!
4:75

Despite the absence of any further communication, the old seeds of teaching
and example eventually bore fruit. Faith came into being and, as it pulsated
with life, fierceness and cruelty were unleashed in an attempt to suffocate it,
choosing as always the most defenseless of victims.
Did the emigrants and their hosts, enjoying as they did full liberty of faith
and ritual, have the right to shut their eyes and remain indifferent to the fate
of their brothers? Could one reasonably, and without prejudice, deny truth
30 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

and virtue their right to be saved, even if one would thereby enable
despotism to take up arms?
Material help, however rightfully demanded, was not lightly undertaken
by the Muslims, at least not in its truly warlike form. It suffices for us to
consult our source of documentation par excellence, whose authenticity and
historical fidelity cannot be called into question by any scholar -the Qur'an.
There one can quite plainly see how the the 'liberated' hesitated in the face
of a military project to liberate the 'captives'. We see their hatred of war:

Fighting is enjoined on you, though it is disliked by you ...

2:216

their instinct for the conservation of life:

... Our Lord, why hast Thou ordained fighting for us? Wouldst Thou not
grant us respite to a near term? Say: The enjoyment of this world is short,
and the Hereafter is better for him who keeps his duty. And you shall not be
wronged a whit.
4:77

but also the particularly difficult circumstances which made warfare seem
almost absurd in their eyes.
To launch ourselves unexpectedly against an enemy that is already
marching on us and is vastly superior to us in numbers and equipment?

Indeed there was a sign for you in the two hosts (which) met together in
encounter - one party fighting in the way of Allah and the other
disbelieving, whom they saw twice as many as themselves with the sight of
the eye ...
3:12

'Would it not be better to content ourselves with some indirect measure of

reprisal, 6 something to alert the Qurayshites to our reaction and make them
decide to spare our brothers? It would be better to intercept our adversary's
merchant caravan than suffer the shock of his army!'

... and you loved that the one not armed should be yours ...
8:7

Such was the line of reasoning taken in the Muslim camp.

But the imperative of duty was there. The hour of supreme commitment
had sounded. The time had come for God to settle the debate between truth
and falsehood:
----------~~~~~~~~~~-~---~-

HOW THE QUR 'ANIC DOCI'RINE WAS ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD 31

That He might cause the Truth to triumph and bring the falsehood to naught
8:8

Man could do nothing but resign himself, in order that each one would know
why he should live or why he should die:

In order that Allah might bring about a matter which had to be done; that
he who perished by clear argument might perish ...
8:42

for his ideals, or for his idols:

Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight
in the way of the devil ...
4:76

Such were the circumstances into which flashed the first spark of the idea of
armed struggle.
During their time in Mecca, while instances of persecution remained
individual and sporadic, the Muslims were anxious to endure their wounds
courageously and avoid any violent reaction. But now that the pagan
aggression was becoming a systematic campaign, the faithful were first
authorized:

Permission (to fight) is given to those on whom war is made, because they
are oppressed ...
22:39

and then urged: 7

Fighting is enjoined on you ...

2:216

to defend themselves as a community, and, above all, to relieve those among

them who were without protection:

... the weak among the men and the women and the children ...
4:75

In all objectivity, we cannot reproach such a devout attitude, concerned

solely with self-defence.
Our next question, then, is whether Qur'anic legislation evolved as a
consequence of this situation. Did it extend the right of self-defence into the
arena of attack?
32 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

The western world seems badly informed on this point. It is generally

believed that the sacred Book gives Muslims the right, even the duty, to
employ arms, both in order to impose their doctrine and in order to
eliminate those who do not adopt it. To this concept the name holy war has
been given, a term which has been made to correspond with the Qur'anic
wordjihdd.
Yet the truth is that this generic term for 'effort' has nothing specifically
military about it; we find it used in the Meccan suras to designate a
constructive effort made to preach and persuade peacefully:

So obey not the disbelievers, and strive against them a mighty striving with
it.
25:52

also to signify a purely personal moral effort:

And those who strive hard for Us, We shall certainly guide them in Our
ways. And Allah is surely with the doers of good.
29:69

The term which properly signifies 'fight' is qital.

Furthermore, a quick glance at the text shows us quite plainly the
objective, the aim and the limits assigned by Qur'anic law to such a fight:

And fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you but be not
aggressive. Surely Allah loves not the aggressors.
2:190

But if they desist, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful ... if they desist,
then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors.
2:192-3

... if they withdraw from you and fight you not and offer you peace, then
Allah allows you no way against them. You will find others who desire to be
secure from you and secure from their own people. Whenever they are made
to return to hostility, they are plunged into it. So if they withdraw not from
you, nor offer you peace and restrain their hands, then seize them and kill
them wherever you find them. And against these We have given you a clear
authority.
4:90-1

We find the same distinction elsewhere:

 HOW THE QUR 'ANIC DOCTRINE WAS ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD 33

Allah forbids you not respecting those who fight you not for religion, nor
drive you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness and deal
with them justly. Surely Allah loves the doers of justice. Allah forbids you
only respecting those who fight you for religion, and drive you forth from
your homes and help (others) in your expulsion, that you make friends of
them; and whoever makes friends of them, these are the wrongdoers.
60:8-9

Indeed, even in Sural at-Bard' at, where the Qur'an is at its most severe
against the unfaithful, the hypocrites and the spineless, commencing as it
does with a solemn proclamation of the break with the polytheists, we can
see what care the text takes to exclude those who have not violated their
treaty from punitive measures:

Except those of the idolaters with whom you have made an agreement, then
they have not failed you in anything and have not backed up anyone against
you; so fulfil their agreement to the end of their term. Surely Allah loves
those who keep their duty.
9:4

The object of the fight to which the Qur'an urges its adherents is even
more closely defined in verse 13 of the same sura:

Will you not fight a people who broke their oaths and aimed at the
expulsion of the Messenger, and they attacked you first? Do you fear them?
But Allah has more right that you should fear Him, if you are believers.
9:13

It goes without saying that Muslims should:

... fight the polytheists all together as they fight you all together. And know
that Allah is with those who keep their duty.
9:36

But:

... So as long as they are true to you, be true to them. Surely Allah loves
those who keep their duty.
9:7

At no point in the Qur'an do we find the legitimization of initiated

violence. It describes only the reinstation of justice as adapted to the attitude
of the partners. What is more, the Qur'an enjoins the Prophet to faithfully
34 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR'AN

reassure even those who are not joined with the Muslims by any pact, yet
ask for protection: 8

And if anyone of the idolaters seek thy protection, protect him till he hears
the word of Allah, then convey him to his place of safety ...
9:6

All the responsibility for a war, then, falls on the person who strikes the
first blow. But how far does this responsibility extend? Is it a question of a
collective responsibility? We have shown elsewhere that the Qur'anic
principle of responsibility, moral as well as penal, is purely individual;9 and
that civil responsibility has a very strong tendency towards the same idea.
We could say as much about military responsibility.
When the Qur'an says 'fight against those who fight you', it is only
referring to those who can effectively enter into armed combat. Tradition
goes to great lengths to plainly establish this issue: women, children, old
people, the blind, the infirm, foreigners, peasants in their fields and hermits
in their cells are all granted immunity against hostilities. 10
Another restriction is the forbidding of all operations which would lead to
overall destruction, such as flooding or fire, and the Qur'anic commandment
that those who have ceased to fight should be pardoned, upheld by the
Prophet to the extent that he even forbade the pursuit of an enemy in flight.
What, then is the aim of this legislation? Simply to avoid one danger.
Islam wholeheartedly condemns the spirit of destruction and domination:

That abode of the Hereafter, We assign it to those who have no desire to

exalt themselves in the earth nor to make mischief And the good end is for
those who keep their duty.
28:83

It does not even wish to impose a universal ideology:

And if thy Lord had pleased, all those who are in the earth would have
believed, all of them. Wilt thou then force men till they are believers?
10:99

and, even if it did, this would be impossible to achieve.

Indeed, the founder of Islam should have had no illusions about human
possibilities, for the Qur'an fixed the limits on his perspectives. Can he
change the will of God if it is by a Divine decree that:

And if thy Lord had pleased, He would have made people a single nation.
 HOW THE QUR 'ANIC DOCTRINE WAS ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD 35

And they cease not to differ, except those on whom thy Lord has mercy ...
11:118-9

and that:

And most men believe not, though thou desirest it eagerly.

12:103

Islam has no wish to force consciences or to shackle freedom in matters

of faith:

There is no compulsion in religion ...

2:256

On the contrary, it is opposed to those who try to stifle freedom and put it to
harsh tests:

... Persecution is graver than slaughter. And they will not cease fighting
you until they turn you back from your religion, if they can ...
2:217

To break this fetter was the liberal, dispassionate intention that inspired the
warriors:

And fight them until there is no persecution, and religion is only for Allah
2:193

And fight with them until there is no more persecution, and all religions are
for Allah ...
8:39

Does this mean then that the salvation or damnation of others should
leave Muslims cold? This is the explanation some have tried to give for this
spirit of clemency towards people of other denominations. 11 But this, too, is
nothing but another way of misrepresenting the true character of Qur'anic
doctrine. One either has too much or too little proselytism; is either a fanatic
or indifferent.
In reality, the Qur'an does not fall into either of these extremes. It is a
duty to preach the truth and to exhort people to follow virtue:

And from among you there should be a party who invite to good and enjoin
the right and forbid the wrong. And these are they who are successful.
3:104
36 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

... and exhort one another to Truth, and exhort one another to patience.
103:3

and to do this energetically:

... strive against them a mighty striving with it.

25:52

But these exhortations must be made in the wisest, most persuasive, gentlest
manner possible:

Call to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue
with them in the best manner ...
16:125

One's duty in this area does not consist of constraint, but of the
demonstration of what one believes to be true. The other is then free to
believe or not believe, provided only that he or she allows those who do
believe the liberty to venerate their own ideal and give it the radiance it
deserves. The rest is each person's individual responsibility:

Their guidance is not thy duty, but Allah guides whom He pleases ...
2:272

... he who errs cannot harm you when you are on the right way ...
5:105

The legal principle which determines the relationship between the

Muslim community and other nations and faiths is generally summed up by
the word 'tolerance'. In certain respects, however, this term could be
considered as less than the truth.
First of all, people who do not adopt Islam but do submit themselves
peaceably to its civil law are not only tolerated, they are guaranteed respect
for their territory and its members (their persons, goods, religions and
customs). Furthermore, Islam takes it upon itself to assure such liberties to
these non-believers on the same level as it does to its own subjects.
Secondly, for those who neither accept the faith nor the law of the
Muslims, the Qur'an specifies no more than an inoffensive attitude. In return
it provides them the most generous treatment, founded at the same time on
justice and benevolence:

... show them kindness and deal with them justly. Surely Allah loves the
doers of justice.
60:8
 HOW THE QUR 'ANIC DOCTRINE WAS ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD 37

Positive resistance is only imposed in default of these three solutions of

religious community, social unity and good neighbourliness. When unbelief
strikes out against belief and tries to persecute and annihilate it en masse, is
it conceivable that religion should stand passively by, arms folded, watching
her own demise?
Whoever would claim another goal for this kind of fighting is asked to
give us an approximate number of the proselytes gained for Islam by such
severe methods. Very early on, the first Muslims had both types of
experience and stated that there was nothing more valuable to the faith than
the peaceful, free exchange of ideas. They understood this too well to then
try to impose their religion on others by force. During the truce of al-
I:Iudaybiyya, we are told, more people were converted thanks to the opening
of the frontiers than in all the preceding years taken together.
One could certainly suppose that some mistakes were made, and that,
moreover, they would be inevitable in periods of confusion; one could even
suspect there might have been some deviation of intent over subsequent
generations. But first let us listen to the assertions of a contemporary critic
who was not even in favour of Muslim rule. 12
'In spite of official obstacles put in the way of conversion,' he says, 13
'mass conversion took place'; 14 'Never had the Arab, in all the ardour of his
new-found faith, thought of extinguishing a concurrent faith in blood'; 15
Towards the Christians, as towards the Manicheans, the caliph never
allowed persecution. '16
Quite hypothetically, with the miseries to be deplored during the Islamic
conquests so relatively small and the operations so rapid, one sometimes
gets the impression that doors were already half-open, and the conquerors
had only to push them open. This speed, and the subsequent immediate
establishment of order and a reign of justice, saved many a mortal and
material loss. The Protestant Reformation, which was concerned only with a
few articles of Christianity, cost Europe more: a century and a half of
deplorable evils and grief.
An artificial construction, that might live for a moment by virtue of
acquired strength, will disintegrate as soon as the foreign elements which
contributed towards its building disappear. Now, what do we see today,
more than 12 centuries after the cessation of Islamic expansion?
The Islamic institution - spread among peoples of different race,
language, colour, climate, from China to Morocco, and from Lithuania to
Mozambique, representing more than a sixth of the world population, 17
exposed over the centuries to all the interior and exterior agencies of
destruction - has not lost very much on the surface, and certainly has lost
nothing at all of its depth. In spite of its political vicissitudes, Islam's
religious and moral edifice remains intact.
38 INTRODUCOON TO THE QUR 'AN

Islam is so solid that one could go so far as to say, 'there has not been a
single example since the beginning of the Exodus of a Muhammadan
converted to another religion', 18 or, at least, affirm with certitude that
Muslims are much less disposed to put aside their beliefs than practitioners
of any other religion. Would it not be underestimating the laws of the
psyche to simply attribute this undefecting attachment to a kind of atavistic
process? A simple constraint once exerted over their most distant ancestors,
the memory of which they now carry engraved on their very cerebral
structure?
We are forced to admit the existence of certain intrinsic qualities which
have allowed Islam such extension and such permanence, so far from its
cradle.
 Part Two
The Qur'an from its Three Main Aspects:
Religion, Morality and Literature

If therefore, far from any outside influence, the Qur 'an still has an amazing
effect on many minds, this must be because it presents a particular attraction
for man. It must adapt itself to their true manner of thinking and feeling,
answer their requirements of belief and action, and bring an exact solution to
the great problems which disturb them. In a word, it must be able to give
complete satisfaction to their need for truth, goodness and beauty, through a
Work that is at the same time religious, moral and literary.

39
 4
Truth, or the Religious Element

One of the major reasons that Islamic preaching has such power to inspire is,
in our opinion, because of the way it presents the truths of religion and
attempts to bring to a conclusion disputes on this subject.
The revealed religions, so-called, having once given a precise answer to
the two great theoretical questions which have divided and subdivided
philosophic thought - 'What is the origin of the world?' and Where is it
going?' - have built systems of cult and dogma on top of their responses.
These systems have varied from one epoch to another, and from one
community to another, and still change beneath our very eyes, not only in
their forms, but also in their fundamental principles.
By a kind of instinctive logic, man does not easily admit that one Divine
truth could contradict another. Can something that was yesterday declared to
be the truth for all eternity, tomorrow be declared outdated? Can it be
rejected and replaced by its opposite without disturbing our spirit and
leading us to suspect falseness in one affirmation or the other?
However superficial this might seem, whatever the experts settle on for
this or that idea will remain for the masses a sign of its truth. From this
angle, one could say that a doctrine has more of an edge over souls the more
authorities it rallies to uphold its system and thus augment people's
confidence in it. The disputes of teachers disconcert us and send us into
disarray; it is in their unanimity that we are able to find the balance and
interior repose necessary to us. How comforting it is to know that others
think exactly as we do, that the great minds of humanity meet, that those
who transmit the Word of God confirm each other and show solidarity. Does
not Moses ceaselessly refer back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Did not
Jesus come to confirm the previous prophets and laws?

41
42 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

With even more forcefulness and tenacity does the Qur'an insist upon this
issue. It categorically states, not only that all prophets constitute one
indivisible religious community under the aegis of the Lord:

Surely this your community is a single community, and I am your Lord, so

serve Me.
21:92

And surely this your community is one community, and I am your Lord, so
keep your duty to Me.
23:52

but that this unity in ancient times belonged to all men.

It was their successors who became divided from one another:

... And if Allah had pleased, those after them would not have fought one
with another after clear arguments had come to them ...
2:253

And (all) people are but a single nation, then they disagree.
10:19

either by forgetting one aspect of the Divine teaching:

... [they] neglect a portion of that whereof they were reminded ...
5:13

... they neglected a portion of that whereof they were reminded ...
5:14

or by presenting it wrongly:

... a party from among them indeed used to hear the word of Allah, then
altered it after they had understood it, and they know (this).
2:75

... they alter the words from their places ...

5:13

through their own ambition and self-interest:

... And a party of them surely conceal the truth while they know.
2:146
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 43

Those who conceal aught of the Book that Allah has revealed and take for it
a small price ...
2:174

Following its own inner logic, the Qur 'an does not define Islam as a
Muhammadan rival against the Mosaic or the Christian, disputing the
trustworthiness and truthfulness of the latter: to be Muslim means to belong
at the same time to Moses, to Jesus and to all the Divine messengers since
the creation of humankind. Islam puts past prophets side by side, accords
them the same respect and gives equal credence to their teachings. It makes
no distinction between them:

Or were you witnesses when death visited Jacob, when he said to his sons:
What will you serve after me? They said: We shall serve thy God and the
God of thy fathers, Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, one God only, and to
Him do we submit.
2:133

The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord,
and (so do) the believers. They all believe in Allah and His angels and His
Books and His messengers. We make no difference between any of His
messengers ...
2:285

Say: We believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us, and that which
was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes,
and that which was given to Moses and Jesus and to the prophets from their
Lord; we make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.
3:83

And those who believe in Allah and His messengers and make no distinction
between any of them, to them He will grant their rewards. And Allah is ever
Forgiving, Merciful.
4:152

Or rather, it emphasizes that we belong to God and should follow His Will as
it is manifested through their lips. 1
Accordingly, the Qur 'an calls for the cessation of schism and rivalry:

As for those who split up their religion and became sects, thou hast no
concern with them. Their affair is only with Allah, then He will inform them
of what they did.
6:160
44 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

He has made plain to you the religion which He enjoined upon Noah and
which We have revealed to thee, and which We enjoined on Abraham and
Moses and Jesus- to establish religion and not to be divided therein ...
42:13

After all, if the doctrine which a certain man has just preached were identical
to mine, there would be no reason for me to reject his words except egoism:

And when it is said to them, Believe in that which Allah has revealed, they
say: We believe in that which was revealed to us. And they deny what is
besides that, while it is the Truth verifying that which they have ...
2:91

jealousy:

Many of the people of the Book wish that they could turn you back into
disbelievers after you have believed, out of envy ...
2:109

or vanity:

And the Jews and the Christians say: We are the sons of Allah and His
beloved ones ...
5:18

The Qur 'an thus appeals for a return to the primordial unity - a union
which all good souls long for and cherish, the pronunciation of whose name
opens those hearts that are well-disposed to it - a first step, maybe, but one
on whose programme and method everything resides.
We believe that the starting point, the kernel around which the Qur 'an's
system of argument is organized, consists of the central idea of a
transcendent, all-powerful, all-beneficent Artisan, Who has created all things
in the world and on Whom everything depends.
The beauty of this central idea lies both in the fact that it fits perfectly
with the proposed concept of religious unity, schism only being able to arise
in a pluralistic situation:

Say: 0 People of the Book, come to an equitable word between us and you,
that we shall serve none but Allah and that we shall not associate aught
with Him, and that some of us shall not take others for lords besides Allah.
But if they turn away, then say: Bear witness, We are Muslims.
3:63
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 45

And argue not with the People of the Book except by what is best, save such
of them as act unjustly. But say: We believe in that which has been revealed
to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him
we submit.
24:46

and in its rising above all considerations of religious particularities.

The Qur 'an quite simply calls all men to the eternal truth, that which has
never ceased to be recognized, and is indeed easily recognizable to all: even
the pagan Arabs, who had lowered themselves to gross idolatry, did not any
the less recognize a supreme Deity, Creator of the universe and
Administrator of the celestial world:

And if thou ask them, Who created the heavens and the earth and made the
sun and the moon subservient? They would say, Allah ...
29:61

This recognition is not due to some residual vestige of the patriarchal faith of
Abraham and lsma'Il; it exists as a seed in the human spirit. All souls swear
to it before taking up their bodies:

And when thy Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their
loins, their descendants, and made them bear witness about themselves: Am
I not your Lord? They said: Yes; we bear witness ...
7:172

But this primordial monotheism, what the Qur'an calls the right religion, 2
was only a kind of theoretical view, enveloped and practically submerged by
an infinity of cults to inferior divinities:

And most of them believe not in Allah without associating others (with
Him).
12:106

God was only invoked in situations of grave danger:

He it is Who makes you travel by land and sea; until, when you are in the
ships, and they sail on with them in a pleasant breeze, and they rejoice at it,
a violent wind overtakes them and the billows surge in on them from all
sides, and they deem that they are encompassed about. Then they pray to
Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience: If Thou deliver us from this, we
will certainly be of the grateful ones.
10:22
46 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

and they only consecrated a tiny part of their offerings to Him:

And they set apart a portion for Allah out of what He has created of tilth
and cattle ...
6:137

Through their daily contact with the elements of nature, the pagan Arabs
could not prevent themselves from attributing some Divine power to the
stars:

And that He is the Lord of Sirius

53:49

and planets:

... Adore not the sun nor the moon, but adore Allah Who created them ...
41:37

before which they prostrated themselves.

Between God and man they instituted intermediary powers, capable of
bringing man closer to his Creator:

... And those who choose protectors besides Him (say): We serve them only
that they may bring us nearer to Allah ...
39:3

or of interceding in man's favour before God:

And they serve besides Allah that which can neither harm them nor profit
them, and they say: These are our intercessors with Allah ...
10:18

Thus the angels, which they took to be the daughters of God, were an
object of their adoration:

And they make the angels, who are the servants of the Beneficent, females
... And they say: If the Beneficent had pleased, we should not have
worshipped them ...
43:19-20

similarly statues:

... so shun the filth of the idols and shun false words.
22:30
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 47

and raised slabs of stone:

0 you who believe, intoxicants and games of chance and (sacrificing to)
stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only an uncleanness, the devil' s
work; so shun it ...
5:90

These symbols, which were meant to conceal hidden principles, or carry

invisible deities in their eyes, ended up by receiving the same veneration as
that Reality which they were meant to symbolize. Beneath the ultimate
creator God, the superstitious imagination invented, little by little, an infinity
of smaller gods for lesser affairs. How could this inveterate tendency to
anthropomorphize conceive of a King, without adding to Him aides and
collaborators, as worthy as the Creator of being adored?
Tradition has conserved a marvellous formulation of just such a
conception, where the created deities are at the same time possession and
associate of God the Creator. Pagan pilgrims used the following in their
invocations: 'I consecrate myself to You, 0 God! I consecrate myself to
You. You have no associate other than the ones over which You are absolute
Master - as much as You are over everything that depends on it. '
That all the gods should in the end be One would have seemed strange to
the pagan Arabs:

Makes he the gods a single God? Surely this is a strange thing.

38:5

even more so because they would never before have heard this unity of God
preached, either from amongst themselves or in the preceding revelation (the
Christianity that was introduced into Arabia from the north and the south by
certain refugee sects):

We never heard of this in the former faith: this is nothing but a forgery.
38:7

In spite of regional differences between the gods worshipped, there

was sufficient linkage between them for us to deduce that the Arabs did
practise a crude form of polytheism:

And when the son of Mary is mentioned as an example, lo! Thy people raise
a clamour thereat. And they say: Are our gods better, or is he? They set it
forth to thee only by way of disputation. Nay, they are a contentious people.
43:57-8
48 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

Even people who possessed their own holy Scriptures had somehow
managed to reconcile the unity of God the Creator with the plurality of the
worshipped gods.
The Qur 'an seized upon the first concept in order to destroy the second. It
takes up its adversaries on their own avowals to show them, if not their
absurdity, at least their ingratitude in perpetrating such confusion of thought:

0 men, serve your Lord Who created you and those before you, so that you
may guard against evil, Who made the earth a resting-place for you and the
heaven a structure, and sends down rain from the clouds then brings forth
with it fruits for your sustenance; so do not set up rivals to Allah while you
know.
2:21-2

And if Allah afflicts thee with harm, there is none to remove it but He; and if
He intends good to thee, there is none to repel His grace. He brings it to
whom He pleases of His servants ...
10:107

0 people, a parable is set forth, so listen to it. Surely those whom you call
upon besides Allah cannot create a fly, though they should all gather for it.
And if the fly carry off aught from them, they cannot take it back from it.
Weak are (both) the invoker and the invoked.
22:73

Thus the unity which the Qur 'an teaches is based on a pre-existing idea
which already had a place, buried beneath many conflicting theories, in
people's minds. Islam does not discover it, nor piece it together from several
fragments, but rather disengages it from the midst of chaos and returns it
once more to purity. The Qur 'an proceeds in this case by elimination, not by
addition.
As we intimated above, the power of a religious idea rests, not in its
originality, but in its having come from the origin. The further its roots go
back into the beliefs of our most distant ancestors, the more it inspires our
enthusiasm and attachment. That is why, in addition to the deductive
reasoning we have just indicated, the Qur 'an rests its doctrine of unity on the
prophetic tradition of all epochs:

... They said: We shall serve thy God and the God of thy fathers, Abraham
and Ishmael and Isaac, one God only ...
2:133

It is not meet for a mortal that Allah should give him the Book and the
judgement and the prophethood, then he should say to men: Be my servants
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 49

besides AllaN s; but (he would say): Be worshippers of the Lord because
you teach the Book and because you study (it).
3:78

Or, have they taken gods besides Him? Say: Bring your proof This [the
Qur'an] is the reminder of those with me and the reminder of those before
me ... And We sent no messenger before thee but We revealed to him that
there is no God but Me, so serve Me.
21:24-5

... [yours is] the faith of your father Abraham. He named you Muslims ...
22:78

And ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before thee: Did We ever
appoint gods to be worshipped besides the Beneficent?
43:45

Thus reason and tradition converge to establish the cult of the unique God
and refute idolatry and association in all its forms:

Say: Have you considered that which you invoke besides Allah? Show me
what they have created of the earth, or have they a share in the heavens?
Bring me a Book before this or any relics of knowledge, if you are truthful.
46:4

But how do we explain why such a rational, primordial proposition,

constantly renewed by positive teachings, vanished from the spirit of man
and ceded its place to totally opposing ideas? The answer is that man, by his
very nature, is moved to admire creative power, wherever it manifests itself.
The process then moves imperceptibly, with no clear separation of stages,
from admiration to adoration.
Thus, for instance, the sun which illumines us, heats us and gives us life;
the tree which shelters us and gratifies us with its fruits; the fountain which
spurts mysteriously in the middle of the rocks - all these silent, efficacious
natural powers are capable of captivating the spirit of the person who gives
them their attention.
And what about the extraordinary, supernatural wonders of a magician?
Led most often by the exterior senses, it is easy for intelligence to attribute
these phenomena to their immediate milieu, to attribute them to the object
which manifests them, as though it were a real, effective, autonomous
creature.
It is only through a deliberate, voluntary act of reflection that intelligence
is able to rise above the phenomenon before one's eyes, to view its origins;
to move from sensibility to intelligence. One of the first aims of the Qur 'an
50 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

is to encourage this act of reflection. It ceaselessly reminds us that no

creature, in heaven or on earth, is capable of emerging from nothingness
without God's creative act. Self-creation, or the creation of anything outside
oneself, is an impossibility:

Or were they created without a (creative) agency? Or are they the creators?
Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they are sure of nothing.
52:35-6

Do they associate (with Him) that which has created naught, while they are
themselves created? And they cannot give them help, nor can they help
themselves.
7:191-2

What is more, if a fly took something from the most powerful creature in
the world, he or she would be incapable of recovering it. Nothing but God
possesses the weight of an atom in the heavens or on earth, neither as His
partner nor as His helper:

Say: Call upon those whom you assert besides Allah; they control not the
weight of an atom in the heavens or in the earth, nor have they any
partnership in either, nor has He a helper among them.
34:22

No one but God can change the order of nature:

That was the way of Allah concerning those who have gone before; and
thou wilt find no change in the way of Allah.
33:62

... But thou wilt find no alteration in the course of Allah; and thou wilt find
no change in the course of Allah.
35:43

(Such has been) the course of Allah that has run before, and thou wilt not
find a change in Allah's course.
48:23

nor maintain it:

... And He withholds the heaven from falling on the earth except with His
permission ...
22:65
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 51

Surely Allah upholds the heavens and the earth lest they come to naught.
And if they come to naught, none can uphold them after Him ...
35:41

We call this constant order of things, proof against any human

intervention, the inexorable laws. This constancy, and all the laws of
causality, depend only upon one word from the Creator. If He wishes He can
make the rainwater salty and bitter, or make the sky fall upon the earth, or
make mankind disappear and put other creatures in its place:

... If He please, He will take you away and bring a new creation.
14:19

Who could arrest His arm if He wished to bring everything that lives on
earth to ruin?

... Say: Who then could control anything as against Allah when He wished
to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother and all those on the
earth? ...
5:17

God is not just the most mighty; He is the Almighty. The entire chain of
direct and indirect events is nothing but an instrument in the all-powerful
hand of the World Artificer:

Allah is the Creator of all things and He has charge over everything. His
are the treasures of the heavens and the earth ...
39:62-3

In the final analysis, God is the explanation for everything:

To thy Lord on that day is the driving.

75:30

Such language might tempt one to believe in absolute fatalism, where all
human intervention is in vain, and realms are entirely passive, all connection
with their causality disappeared. Yet such a conclusion, as well as
disconcerting reason and stifling knowledge, is in opposition t~ two groups
of Qur'anic texts: those which make a constant appeal to our moral efforts
and those which explain one physical or historical phenomenon by another.
The only tenable solution would seem to be one which allows to each of
these givens a defined scope: not to attribute to man and the world any
autonomous power, nor yet to condemn them to absolute impotence. This is
the golden mean at which the Qur 'an seems to want to place us.
52 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

If a series of phenomena are always produced in a regular, ordered

sequence, we have the right to suppose that they will produce themselves in
the same order in the future. Belief in a stable order in nature is
indispensable to life. But one should not believe that this stability resides in
the things themselves, independent of the Higher Spirit which governs and
coordinates them. Everything owes its existence, its continuance, its power
and its stability to the Divine Will.
The religious explanation of the world, far from showing a laziness of
spirit, proceeds from a higher intelligence than that of science. It allows for
scientific thought, encircles it, and passes infinitely beyond it. Metaphysical
need is not sated through thinking about immediate causes and their
intermediary stages; it can only find complete satisfaction by going back to
the beginning of beginnings, which explains all and which nothing can
entirely explain. The finite is marked out in a corner of the infinite.
Beyond certain limits, therefore, one should not marvel at the works of
man or the works of nature, however magnificent they may be. The power
through which the magician acts, limited as it is in time, space and effects, is
only a borrowed power, always subject to withdrawal by the Lender:

... There is no power save in Allah ...

18:39

... Thee do we beseech for help.

1:4

We have not properly understood the Qur'an if we interpret otherwise the

systematic refusal on the part of the Prophet to pass himself off as a maker of
miracles. Some have insinuated from this that he was not given any signs of
the divinity of his mission. Was it then arbitrarily, and without any proof,
that he imposed belief in his mission on mankind? Would that not be the
ultimate folly, or as good as?
The truth is that, in all the extraordinary circumstances which surround
prophets, establish their missions and assure their success, Qur'anic doctrine
never sees any action as purely and simply human. It is by the power of God
that such and such a marvel was accomplished by the lips or hands of His
apostles. They had no more right, nor choice, than those to whom they
preached to demand such an exchange of power. Noah and the former
prophets had already proclaimed this:

... Only Allah will bring it on you, if He please ...

11:33
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 53

... And it is not for us to bring you an authority, except by Allah's

permission ...
14:11

And when the Pharisees asked him to make them a sign in the sky, what else
could Jesus do but decline their request and go away? 3
God gives his credentials to whom He will, in the form that He wishes and
judges to be the most appropriate, in order to persuade the people of such
and such an era in history and such and such an epoch of humanity. Moses
throws his staff, and behold, to his surprise, it is transformed into a serpent,
gliding. 4 Jesus calls the dead man, and by the authority of God the dead man
comes to life: 5

... and when thou didst raise the dead by My permission ...
5:110

It happened in the same way for Muhammad, when the recitation of some
verses disarmed the most ferocious rebels and made them pass from spiritual
death to life:

0 you who believe, respond to Allah and His Messenger, when he calls you
to that which gives you life. And know that Allah comes in between a man
and his heart, and that to Him you will be gathered.
8:24

It is not Muhammad who opens closed hearts, nor is it he who makes the
deaf hear and the blind see:

So surely thou canst not make the dead to hear, nor canst thou make the
deaf to hear the call ... Nor canst thou guide the blind out of their error ...
30:52-3

It is by the will of God that all these benefits are accomplished:

Surely thou canst not guide whom thou lovest, but Allah guides whom He
pleases ...
28:56

Is he who was dead, then We raised him to life and made for him a light by
which he walks among the people, like him whose likeness is that of one in
darkness whence he cannot come forth? ...
6:123
54 INTRODUcrJON TO THE QUR 'AN

So whomsoever Allah intends to guide, He expands his breast for Islam, and
whomsoever He intends to leave in error, he makes his breast strait (and)
narrow as though he were ascending upwards ...
6:126

For everything depends absolutely on Him:

... nay, the commandment is wholly Allah's. Do not those who believe know
that, if Allah please, He would certainly guide all the people? ...
13:31

When a divided society, long consumed by hate and internal wars,

overnight became a closely bonded group of intimate friends, such an abrupt
mutation of souls was not due to the action of a man. Indeed, it could not be
achieved by all the terrestrial forces serried together; only God has power
over hearts and is able to unite them:

And He has united their hearts. If thou hadst spent all that is in the earth,
thou couldst not have united their hearts, but Allah united them ...
8:63

... And remember Allah's favour to you when you were enemies, then He
united your hearts so by His favour you became brethren ...
3:102

When faith finally triumphed over infidelity, and the weaker group
overcame the stronger, this was scarcely due to the heroic deeds of the
Prophet or the courage of the individual faithful: it was God Himself who
killed the adversary :

So you slew them not but Allah slew them ...

8:17

From one end of the Qur'an to the other, one finds the same explanation
for the miracles performed through the intermission of prophets, Muhammad
as much as the others. Whether a story from earlier days:

These are announcements relating to the unseen which We reveal to thee;

thou didst not know them- (neither) thou nor thy people- before this.
11:49

This is of the announcements relating to the unseen (which) We reveal to

 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 55

thee, and thou wast not with them when they resolved upon their affair, and
they were devising plans.
12:102

And thou wast not on the western side when We revealed to Moses the
commandment, nor wast thou among those present; ... And thou wast not
dwelling among the people of Midian ...
28:44-6

or a prediction for the future:

The Romans are vanquished in a near land, and they, after their defeat, will
gain victory.
30:2-3

or the unveiling of the secret of a trial in order to find the most just formula
by which to judge it:

Allah has ... taught thee what thou knewest not ...
4:113

These are thanks neither to the perspicacity of a prophet's intelligence:

... So when he told herofit, she said: Who informed thee ofthis? He said:
The Knowing, the One Aware, informed me.
. 66:3

nor the breadth of his mortal education. They are simply a result of the
intervention of Mercy, from which all creation, all knowledge and all
goodness proceed.
Through the idea of the potency of the Divine Attributes the Qur 'an thus
establishes the first part of its communal religious doctrine, there is only one
object worthy of our adoration, and goes on to construct the second - the
doctrine of the future life. God is not only the beginning, He is also the end:

He is the First and the Last ...

57:3

It is to Him that we shall return:

How can you deny Allah and you were without life and He gave you life?
Again, He will cause you to die and again bring you to life, then you shall
be brought back to Him.
2:28
56 INTRODUCf!ON TO THE QUR 'AN

in order to render an account of our deeds and receive retribution according

to our deserts:

And guard yourselves against a day in which you will be returned to Allah.
Then every soul will be paid in full what it has earned, and they will not be
wronged.
2:281

Here it is necessary to distinguish between two points: the survival of the

soul and the resurrection of the body. As far as the former is concerned, it
does not seem that the preaching of Islam met any considerable opposition.
The Qur 'an, which records with extreme fidelity all the objections raised by
its adversaries, only mentions one incident. The pagan Arabs already had a
vague, if rather superstitious, idea of some kind of life of the soul after death.
Pre-Islamic poetry gives us to understand that their thirst for vengeance led
them to believe in a fabulous entity which they called Hama. This kind of
double floated at night above its victim's sepulchre, crying, 'Give me to
drink! ' It kept on reappearing and imploring until satisfaction was extracted
for the crime perpetrated upon it. Prophetic tradition denied the existence of
such an entity, thereby confirming to us that it was indeed prevalent in pre-
Islamic society.
It was against the second proposition that the impious heaped their
objections and their sarcasm. Sceptics, too attached to their own everyday
experiences, did not find it easy to believe that a completely dissolved
human corpse could once again take on its integral form and begin to live
again. When we are bones and decayed particles, said the incredulous, shall
we then be raised up as a new creation?6 They declared that whoever
maintained such an assertion either had madness in him or had forged a lie
against Alldh.7 $o bring our fathers (back), if you are truthfu/. 8 There is
naught but our first death and we shall not be raised again. 9
The Qur 'an has a decisive argument against these facile reasonings,
elicited from the book of nature. It displays for us a thousand pictures in
which the magnificent power of God is manifested: God has drawn men
from the earth; to her He makes them return; from her He will make them
arise a second time:

From it We created you, and into it We shall return you, and from it raise
you back a second time.
20:55
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 57

Let anyone meditate a little on the successive forms that a human being takes
(and He created you in stages), from the first cluster of cells to the
marvellous form in which man is born:

And certainly We create man of an extract of clay, then We make him a

small life-germ in a firm resting-place, then We make the life-germ a clot,
then We make the clot a lump of flesh, then We make (in) the lump of flesh
bones, then We clothe the bones with flesh, then We cause it to grow into
another creation ... then after that you certainly die.
23:12-16

He brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the
living, and gives life to the earth after its death. And thus will you be
brought forth.
30:19

Would it not be easy for the Artisan who wrought the first creation to
recreate it?:

And He it is, Who originates the creation, then reproduces it, and it is very
easy to Him ...
30:27

The Qur 'an particularly draws our attention towards the seasons. Do we
not see how the earth, from being dry and sterile, becomes fertile?:

0 people, if you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then surely We

created you from dust, then from a small life-germ, then from a clot, then
from a lump of flesh, complete in make and incomplete, that We may make
clear to you. And We cause what We please to remain in the wombs till an
appointed time, then We bring you forth as babies then that you may attain
your maturity. And of you is he who is caused to die, and of you is he who is
brought back to the worst part of life, so that after knowledge he knows
nothing. And thou seest the earth barren, but when We send down thereon
water, it stirs and swells and brings forth a beautiful (growth) of every kind.
That is because Allah, He is the Truth, and He gives life to the dead, and He
is Possessor of power over all things.
22:5-6

Look then at the signs of Allah's mercy, how He gives life to the earth after
its death. Surely He is the Quickener of the dead; and He is possessor of
power over all things.
30:50
58 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

The sceptics will admit the possibility of new vegetal life, but say, how
can human life return after senses and consciousness have been severed from
the body? Yet he who reasons thus has only to refer to the everyday
alternation of sleep and waking. This offers us a kind of insight into the
succession of life and death:

And He it is Who takes your souls at night, and He knows what you earn by
day, then He raises you up therein that an appointed term may be fulfilled.
Then to Him is your return, then He will inform you of what you did.
6:60

Allah takes (men's) souls at the time of their death, and those that die not,
during their sleep. Then He withholds those on whom He has passed the
decree of death and sends the others back till an appointed time.
39:42

It is not therefore impossible, indeed it is strongly probable, that we shall

have another life. On what can we base our certitude? The Qur 'an. It not
only shows us that this is Divine Decree, an obligation which God has
imposed upon Himself:

And they swear by Allah their most energetic oaths: Allah will not raise up
him who dies. Yea! it is a promise binding on Him, quite true, but most
people know not.
16:38

but also one of the demands of supreme justice and the highest wisdom:

So that He might make manifest to them that about which they differ ...
16:39

... that every soul may be rewarded for what it has earned ...
45:22

Do you then think that We have created you in vain, and that you will not be
returned to us?
23:115

Does man think that he will be left aimless?

75:36

The two great propositions of the one and only religion which the Qur 'an
aims to re-establish are thus either truths already recognizable in themselves,
 TRUTH, OR THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT 59

or founded on self-evident principles. For a theoretical demonstration one

could not ask for a more pressing form of persuasion.
Even if this religious theme remains fundamentally unchanged, it has no
less undergone real progress in order to assume its Qur 'anic form. The
Qur 'an does not only administer its proofs in a manner to convince the most
demanding spirits and make the hardest hearts vibrate, stretch its
perspectives far and deep across the whole of the universe, celestial and
terrestrial, and draw its lessons from every aspect of creation, internal and
external.
The religious material itself, concerning the attributes of God and the
destiny of the soul, is more developed here than in any other source. There is
a quite particular purity which characterizes the sense of the Divine
manifested in the Qur 'an, distancing it from that materialistic
anthropomorphism into which the human imagination so easily falls. Finally
there is the pervasive power which deflects the listener from his material
cares, however strong they may be, and transports him or her, in one step, to
the sublime realm of the spirit. 10
 5
Goodness, or the Moral Element

But the human soul is not nourished by theoretical truths alone. Man does
not only require knowledge and belief; he demands a practical regimen, one
that can direct his activities from moment to moment, in his personal
behaviour, in his relationships with others, and in his dealings with God. The
final revelation provides this in the most detailed and precise manner, tracing
a determinable path for each branch of human activity.
It is not enough for a true believer to have an unshakeable faith in
revealed truths. One must also put oneself at the service of this faith, making
a gift of oneself and one's property:

The believers are those only who believe in Allah and His Messenger, then
they doubt not, and struggle hard with their wealth and their lives in the
way of Allah. Such are the truthful ones.
49:15

One must accomplish one's duty as a good believer and a good citizen, that
is to say adore God and do good:

They only are believers whose hearts are full of fear when Allah is
mentioned, and when His messages are recited to them they increase them
in faith, and in their Lord do they trust, those who keep up prayer and spend
out of what We have given them.
8:2-3

0 you who believe, bow down and prostrate yourselves and serve your
Lord, and do good that you may succeed.
22:77

61
62 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

Religion is dogma and law, belief and obedience:

The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord,
and (so do) the believers. They all believe in Allah and His angels and His
Books and His messengers. We make no difference between any of His
messengers. And they say: We hear and obey ...
2:285

To believe in transcendent truths and practise both personal and altruistic

virtues -this is the Qur'anic definition of goodness, in the full sense of the
word:

It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the
West, but righteous is the one who believes in Allah, and the Last Day, and
the angels, and the Book and the prophets, and gives away wealth out of
love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the
wayfarer and to those who ask and to set slaves free and keeps up prayer
and pays the poor-rate: and the performers of their promise when they
make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in the time of
conflict. These are they who are truthful; and these are they who keep their
duty.
2:177

Practical matters have great importance in the Qur' an; they feature
frequently and quite explicitly as a necessary condition for final salvation
and eternal happiness. Even where the Qur'an does not mention them in the
text, it is not difficult to imply their presence from the term mu' min
(believer), according to the definitions just cited.
Does this dual requirement not call for a certain order of precedence
between the two aspects? Hardly anyone would deny that the possession of
faith constitutes a sine qua non of salvation, but does the same apply to
observation of the law, and if so, up to what point?
Is a grave sin which is not repented of before death absolutely
unpardonable? Put another way, does such a sin irrevocably mean eternal
damnation (as the majority of Mu'tazilites believe) or temporary punishment
(as some Mu'tazilites believe); does the faith of the sinner, through the
mercy of God, automatically re-establish him (as pure Murji'ites believe); 1
has God the right to absolve certain sins for certain of the faithful in certain
conditions, without us ourselves being able to say which they should be (the
Ash 'arites' belief)?
Yet such a theological discussion, which bears on the secondary and
negative aspects of the problem - degree, duration, the certitude of Divine
chastisement for such and such a fault -leaves out not only moral and social
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 63

responsibility, but also, more importantly, the positive value of virtuous

action. It is by progress towards virtue that one ascends the scale of merit:

And for all are degrees according to what they do, and that He may pay
them for their deeds and they will not be wronged.
46:19

We do not intend to enumerate here the assemblage of precepts which

together make up the practical wisdom of the Qur 'an; 2 that would take us
outside the restricted terms of reference of this work. We shall content
ourselves rather with indicating certain aspects by which this teaching must
have taken hold of men's souls, as much by the material and content of the
doctrine as by the fashion in which it is presented.
Firstly the method.
Within each of us lies an innate moralist. However great the failings and
corruption into which we can fall, apart from in exceptional instances of
errors of conscience, we recognize, love and admire virtue per se in others,
even when we do not have the courage to elevate ourselves to that same
level. Though we ourselves may be drawn to do the very thing we reproach
in others, the spectacle of an unworthy attitude fills us with repugnance. We
hate our faults and, if we do not make a constant effort to correct them,
always try to exonerate ourselves. What man enjoys being considered a liar,
hypocrite, coward, trickster, drunkard, or such like?
It is upon this more or less universal feeling for the just and the unjust, the
good and the bad, that the Qur 'an most often leans in its teaching and when
defining its practical doctrine. Here, then, are certain formulae which the
Qur 'an uses to summarize and synthesize its moral message: the Prophet, it
says, enjoins them good and forbids them evil, and makes lawful to them the
good things and prohibits for them impure things; 3 Allah enjoins justice and
the doing of good (to others) and the giving to the kindred and He forbids
indecency and evil and rebellion; 4 Allah enjoins not indecency; 5 My Lord
forbids only indecencies, such of them as are apparent and such as are
concealed, and sin and unjust rebellion. 6
Rather than continuing with a string of citations, let it suffice that we note
that there are more than forty-five references in the Qur'an to a universal
moral conscience and to man's innate feeling for good and evil. 7
Since this natural sentiment is not always sufficiently awakened to ensure
universal submission to the rule, however, a complete method of education
cannot rest there. A careful teacher, wanting to make quite sure of the
efficacy of his instruction, must have recourse to another, no less powerful
way, independent of our individual consent.
64 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

Parallel to the moral sense and beyond it, the human soul is endowed with
intelligence and reason. Thus, in the absence of a vivid sense of good and
evil, there is always the concept of mutual duty, universally recognized as
such. The best means of awakening this concept, and of enabling it to
transcend opposing feelings, is to invoke in its support competent
recommendations -from wise men and saints of all generations.
Accordingly, a theme very dear to the final revelation is its linkage in one
body with the revelations which preceded it, its function in rekindling a light
which had over the centuries become pale. The principal duties of the
science of truth are presented by the Qur 'an as having been preached already
to the ancients.
Thus, all the messengers of God held up the scales of justice:

Certainly We sent Our messengers with clear arguments, and sent down
with them the Book and the measure, that men may conduct themselves with
equity ...
57:25

and all received the command to earn their living with honour, to worship
God and to practise virtue:

0 ye messengers, eat of the good things and do good ...

23:51

Prayer and the giving of alms were instituted by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob:

We revealed to them the doing of good and the keeping up of prayer and the
giving of alms ...
21:73

Isma'il:

And he enjoined on his people prayer and almsgiving ...

19:55

Moses:

... serve Me, and keep up prayer for My remembrance.

20:14

and Jesus:

... He has enjoined on me prayer and poor-rate so long as I live.

19:31
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 65

Fasting was equally prescribed to earlier peoples:

0 you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for
those before you, so that you may guard against evil.
2:183

while pilgrimage was first established by Abraham:

And proclaim to men the Pilgrimage ...

22:27

All the nations had their sacred rites:

And for every nation We appointed acts of devotion ...

22:34

To every nation We appointed acts of devotion, which they observe ...

22:67

Materialism, excessive love of the world, aggression and corruption were

condemned by Hud and Salin:

Do you build on every height a monument? You (only) sport.

26:128

Lot rose up against the debauchery of his people:

And obey not the bidding of the extravagant, who make mischief in the land
and act not aright.
26:151-2

Do you come to the males from among the creatures, and leave your wives
whom your Lord has created for you? Nay, you are a people exceeding
limits.
26:165-6

Shu'ayb against fraudulent commercial dealings:

Give full measure and be not of those who diminish. And weigh with a true
balance.
26:181-2

The sage Luqman vividly advised his son to exhort others to goodness and
prevent them from committing evil, while at the same time enduring the
66 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

hardships which would ensue from such a noble task. He enjoined gentleness
and modesty upon him:

0 my son, keep up prayer and enjoin good and forbid evil, and bear
patiently that which befalls thee. Surely this is an affair of great resolution.
And turn not thy face away from people in contempt, nor go about the land
exultingly. Surely Allah loves not any self-conceited boaster. And pursue the
right course in thy going about and lower thy voice ...
31:17-19

It is not by chance that Muhammad teaches the same law as his

predecessors. The Qur 'an lays this out in its address to the Muslims:

Allah desires to explain to you, and to guide you in the ways of those before
you ...
4:26

and in addressing the Prophet himself; having enumerated his predecessors,

the Divine messengers, it says:

These are they whom Allah guided, so follow their guidance ...
6:91

Indeed, we do not find a single moral precept reported in the Qur 'an as
having being taught by a previous prophet or sage, which is not then taken
up as a duty for the Muslim community.
So you want to extract from the Qur 'an the moral laws of Moses and Jesus
as rendered in the Holy Bible? You will find them, precisely conserved,
every nuance of style retained. To be sure, they are not given en bloc as they
are in the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount, but they are
present, distributed throughout the various Meccan and Medinan chapters.
For the most part, they are each given in the context of a sentence intended
to judge a given situation.
Apart from the choice of Sabbath day, which the Qur 'an considers a local
and conditional duty, the Qur 'an confirms the Ten Commandments:

The Pentateuch The Qur'an

You shall have no other gods. And thy Lord has decreed that you
serve none but Him ...
17:23

(among other passages)

 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 67

You shall not prostrate before any ... Shun the filth of idols ...
graven image. 22:30

You shall not take the name of thy ... He will call you to account for the
Lord God in vain. making of deliberate oaths ...
5:89

Make not Allah by your oaths ...

2:224

Honour thy father and thy mother. . .. do good to parents ...

17:23

Thou shalt not kill. ... and kill not your people ...
4:29

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Say to the believing men that they
lower their gaze and restrain their
sexual passions . . . and say to the
believing women that they lower
their gaze and restrain their sexual
passions ...
24:30-1

Thou shalt not steal. And (as for) the man and the woman
addicted to theft, cut off their hands
5:38

... a pledge that they ... will not steal

60:12

Thou shalt not bear false witness ... and shun false words.
against thy neighbour. 22:30

Thou shalt not covet another man's And covet not that by which Allah
property. has made some of you excel others
4:32

These are the foundations of the moral law, of which Jesus was to say that he
who suppressed the least important of the Commandments would be the least
important in the kingdom of heaven, yet he who observed them and taught
them to others would be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
But it would be an under-estimation of Moses' work to reduce it to these
elementary duties. If we look deeper into the Torah, we find other
commandments, scattered between Exodus 22-3, Leviticus 19-25 and
Deuteronomy 6. These take into consideration acts of heart as much as
exterior deeds, and anticipate the precepts of the Gospel:
68 INTRODUCf!ON TO THE QUR 'AN

The Pentateuch The Qur 'an

Thou shalt not spread false rumours, Those who love that scandal should
or calumny. circulate respecting those who
believe, for them is a grievous
chastisement in this world and the
Hereafter ...
24:19

... [do not] let some of you backbite

others ...
49:12

Thou shalt not join with the wicked help not one another in sin and
to do evil. aggression ...
5:2

Thou shalt not favour the poor in a 0 you who believe, be maintainers of
court case. justice, bearers of witness for Allah,
even though it be against your own
selves or (your) parents or near
relatives - whether he be rich or poor
4:135

You should help your neighbour. ... help one another in righteousness
and piety ...
5:2

You should treat the stranger ... be good to the parents and to the
amongst you as one of your own near of kin and the orphans and the
people. needy and the neighbour of (your)
kin and the alien neighbour, and the
companion in a journey and the
wayfarer and those whom your right
hands possess [slaves] ...
4:36

You will uphold the poor, brother or Who are constant at their prayer, and
stranger, who hold out their hands. in whose wealth there is a known
right for the beggar and the destitute.
70:23-5

Thou shalt not oppress the stranger or As above.

foreigner. 4:36

Thou shalt not afflict orphaned girls . . . Allah makes known to you His
or boys. decision concerning . . . the weak
among children, and that you should
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 69

deal justly with orphans ...

4:127

Therefore the orphan, oppress not.

93:9

Thou shalt not give false judgement. when you judge between people
... judge with justice ...
4:58

Thou shalt neither lie nor deceive. ... shun false words.
22:30

... Surely Allah loves not him who is

treacherous, sinful.
4:107

Thou shalt not take revenge. ... those who restrain their anger and
pardon men ...
3:133

Thou shalt not give short measure. Woe to the cheaters! Who . . . when
they measure out to others or weigh
out for them, they give less than is
due.
83:1-3

Thou shalt not bear any malice forgive us and our brethren who
against the children of your people. had precedence of us in faith, and
leave no spite in our hearts towards
those who believe ...
59:10

Be holy, saintly. ... Be worshippers of the Lord ...

3:78

... In [the mosque] are men who love

to purify themselves. And Allah
loves those who purify themselves.
9:108

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as ... [they] love those who have fled to
thyself. them ... and prefer (them) before
themselves, though poverty may
afflict them ...
59:9
70 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

Thou shalt love God with all thy Yet there are some men who take for
heart. themselves objects of worship
besides Allah, whom they love as
they should love Allah. And those
who believe are stronger in (their)
love for Allah ...
2:165

The most profound and most elevated teaching, however, is to be found in

the Sermon on the Mount: a veritable moral treasure which is of inestimable
value. Now, here again, the Qur'an acquits itself marvellously of its prime
mission as faithful guardian of all the sacred Books:

And We have revealed to thee the Book with the truth, verifying that which
is before it of the Book and a guardian over it ...
5:48

Still faithful to its favourite method, rather than accumulating all the
advice in one place, the Qur 'an prefers more often to point out each lesson as
it arises. Let us follow step by step the evangelical sermon and see how the
principles in it are confirmed in the holy Book of Islam.

The Gospel The Qur'an

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for The life of this world is made to seem
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. fair to those who disbelieve, and they
mock those who believe. And those
who keep their duty are above them
on the day of Resurrection ...
2:212

Fair-seeming to men is made the love

of desires, of women and sons and
hoarded treasures of gold and silver
and well-bred horses and cattle and
tilth. This is the provision of the life
of this world. And Allah - with Him
is the good goal (of life).
3:13

Blessed are they that mourn, for they And We shall certainly try you with
shall be comforted. something of fear and hunger and
loss of property and lives and fruits.
And give good news to the patient.
2:155
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 71

Blessed are the meek, for they shall And hasten to forgiveness from your
inherit the earth. Lord and a Garden, as wide as the
heavens and the earth; it is prepared
for those who keep their duty ... and
those who restrain (their) anger and
pardon men ...
3:132-3

Blessed are they which do hunger Or do those who do evil deeds think
and thirst after righteousness, for they that We shall make them as those
shall be filled. who believe and do good - their life
and their death being equal? Evil is
what they judge!
45:21

Surely they who are guilty used to

laugh at those who believe ... Surely
the disbelievers are rewarded as they
did.
83:29-36

Blessed are the merciful, for they Then he is of those who . . . exhort
shall obtain mercy. one another to patience, and exhort
one another to mercy. These are the
people of the right hand.
90:17-18

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they Save him who comes to Allah with a
shall see God. sound heart.
26:89

Whoever fears the Beneficent in

secret, and comes with a penitent
heart: Enter [Paradise] in peace ...
50:33-4

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they There is no good in most of their
shall be called the children of God. secret counsels except (in) him who
enjoins charity or goodness or
reconciliation between people ...
4:114

Blessed are they which are Or do you think that you will enter
persecuted for righteousness' sake, the Garden, while there has not yet
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. befallen you the like of what befell
those who have passed away before
you. Distress and affliction befell
72 INTRODUCflON TO THE QUR 'AN

them and they were shaken violently,

so that the Messenger and those who
believed with him said: When will
the help of Allah come? Now surely
the help of Allah is nigh!
2:214

You will certainly be tried through

your property and your persons ...
And if you are patient and keep your
duty, surely this is an affair of great
resolution.
3:185

Let us take our comparison further. When Jesus affirmed that he came not
to abolish, but to confirm the law, he spoke truth indeed. And when he said,
'You have learned that the following was said to the ancients ... but I say
this to you ... 'he must have meant to imply that he was continuing a process
of moral purification already begun, but with space for development and
improvement:

The Gospel The Qur'an

But I say to you that whosoever is . . . and those who restrain (their)
angry with his brother without a anger ...
cause shall be in danger of the 3:133
judgement: and whosoever shall say
to his brother, 'Raca' shall be in ... and whenever they are angry they
danger of the council: but whosoever forgive.
42:37
shall say, 'Thou fool' shall be in
danger of hell fire.

Leave there thy gift before the altar, The believers are brothers, so make
and go thy way; first be reconciled to peace between your brethren ...
thy brother, and then come and offer 49:10
thy gift.
... So keep your duty to Allah and set
aright your differences ...
8:1

And relate to them with truth the

story of the two sons of Adam, when
they offered an offering, but it was
accepted from one of them and was
not accepted from the other. He said:
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 73

I will certainly kill thee. (The other)

said: Allah accepts only from the
dutiful.
5:27

But I say unto you that whosoever Say to the believing men that they
looketh on a woman to lust after her lower their gaze and restrain their
hath committed adultery with her sexual passions . . . and say to the
already in her heart. believing women that they lower
their gaze and restrain their sexual
passions ...
24:30-1

And again, ye have heard that it hath And make not Allah by your oaths ...
been said by them of old time, Thou 2:224
shalt not forswear thyself ... ' ... But
I say unto you, 'Swear not at all ...
but let your communication be Yea,
yea; Nay, nay ...

You have heard that it hath been said, Lo! You are they who will love them
Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and while they love you not ...
hate thine enemy.' But I say unto 3:118
you, 'Love your enemies ... '

... do good to them that hate you, and And those who are steadfast seeking
pray for them which despitefully use the pleasure of their Lord, and keep
you and persecute you. up prayer and spend of that which
We have given them, secretly and
openly, and repel evil with good ...
13:22

... Repel (evil) with what is best ...

41:34

And if ye salute your brethren only, when the ignorant address them,
what do ye more than others? they say, Peace!
25:63

Allah forbids you not respecting

those who fight you not for religion,
nor drive you forth from your homes,
that you show them kindness and
deal with them justly ...
60:8
74 JNTRODUCfJON TO THE QUR 'AN

Give to him that asketh thee, and ... and gives away wealth ...
from him that would borrow of thee 2:177
tum not thou away.

Take heed that ye do not your alms Who (do) good to be seen.
before men, to be seen of them. 107:6

Pardon people their offences, for If you ... pardon an evil, Allah surely
your celestial Father will pardon thee. is ever Pardoning, Powerful.
4:149

They who pardon and overlook ...

24:22

Lay not up for yourselves treasures And you love wealth with exceeding
upon earth. love.
89:20

But lay up for yourselves treasures in Whoso desires the tilth of the
heaven ... Hereafter, We give him increase in
his tilth ...
42:20

No man can serve two masters: for Allah sets forth a parable: A man
either he will hate the one, and love belonging to partners differing with
the other; or else he will hold to the one another, and a man (devoted)
one and despise the other. wholly to one man. Are the two alike
in condition? ...
39:29

Take no thought for your life, what And many a living creature carries
ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; not its sustenance! Allah sustains it
nor yet for your body, what ye shall and yourselves ...
put on ... behold the fowls of the air: 29:60
for they sow not, neither do they reap

Judge not, that ye be not judged ... 0 you who believe, let not people
and why beholdest thou the mote that laugh at people, perchance they may
is in thy brother's eye, but be better than they; nor let women
considerest not the beam that is in (laugh) at women, perchance they
thine own eye? may be better than they ...
49:11

Give not that which is holy unto the And remind, for reminding profits the
dogs. believer.
51:55

Ask, and it shall be given you. And when My servants ask thee
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 75

concerning Me, surely I am nigh. I

answer the prayer of the suppliant
when he calls on Me ...
2:186

And your Lord says: Pray to Me, I

will answer you ...
40:60

Therefore all things whatsoever ye . . . aim not at the bad to spend

would that men should do to you, do thereof, while you would not take it
ye even so to them ... yourselves unless you connive at it
2:267

And let those fear who, should they

leave behind them weakly offspring,
would fear on their account; so let
them observe their duty to AlHih and
let them speak right words.
4:9

Enter ye in at the strait gate ... But he attempts not the uphill road;
and what will make thee comprehend
what the uphill road is?
90:11-12

Beware of false prophets, which And of men is he whose speech about

come to you in sheep's clothing, but the life of this world pleases thee, and
inwardly they are ravening wolves. he calls Allah to witness as to that
which is in his heart, yet he is the
most violent of adversaries.
2:204

In the course of this enumeration, we have omitted two articles of the New
Testament which seem to contradict the law of Moses. These concern
divorce and retaliation.
The Pentateuch appears to grant unbridled freedom to a husband who
wishes to repudiate his wife, on account of his finding something shameful
in her, or his feeling an aversion towards her. Yet the Gospel seems to
support the indissolubility of marriage, except in cases of infidelity.
Similarly, in sharp contrast to the Pentateuch's implacable demand for a
murderer's blood and for like reparation in return for every offence, are
Jesus' teachings concerning the duty of forgiveness and not resisting the
wicked. If we look at the letter of the law, then, Christianity would appear to
abolish laws which it recognizes as having been previously established.
76 lNTRODUCflON TO THE QUR 'AN

But if we look at matters more closely, we see that we have here nothing
more than two aspects, or two degrees, of one and the same eternal law, one
of whose poles is justice, and the other charity. Morality oscillates between
these two limits, unable to restrict itself to just one at the expense of the
other, or to escape its alternative.
To the person who wishes to exercise his rights, justice accords certain
human conditions beyond which one cannot pass; but there is no reproach
for the one who wishes generously to waive his due. Charity invites us to
such acts of generosity, though it does not of course mean to condone crime
or encourage vice. To disregard the possibility of making a benevolent
gesture is to lack moral sensibility, yet to make such a gesture at the expense
of other, more essential principles, is nonsensical. One has to decide
according to the merits and defects of the case, much as one's treatment of a
malady - by normal, moderate means, with delicacy and circumspection, or
using some more severe method - depends upon the gravity of the illness
and the condition of the patient.
In our opinion, one either has to mutually recognize and understand the
two sets of formulae from the Old and New Testaments in their alternation,
or admit that neither formula could stand independently, except for within a
restricted group of humanity or over a limited period in history. Now, while
proposing as an ideal model the indissoluble unity of our very first ancestors,
the Gospel seems to admit, we believe, the hard reality of those who do not
know how to settle things otherwise: 8

He saith unto them, 'Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered
you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.'
Matt. 19:8-11

The Torah, meanwhile, though it usually claims life for life and wound for
wound, often urges us to content ourselves with apprehending the offender,
and not pursue vengeance on our neighbour. 9 Thus the two holy Books
would appear to have each retained one half of the true moral formula,
leaving the other more or less implicit.
The Qur 'an takes it upon itself to give the entire formula as explicitly as
possible, without, however, forgetting to indicate the respective value of the
two poles:

And if you take your turn, then punish with the like of that with which you
were afflicted. But if you show patience, it is certainly best for the patient.
• 16:126
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 77

So much for retribution, then, and forgiveness. As to the right of divorce,

the Qur 'an explains what hurdles a man has to pass before he can think of
breaking this sacred union:

And if you wish to have (one) wife in the place of another and you have
given one of them a heap of gold, take nothing from it ... how can you take
it when one of you has already gone in to the other and they have taken
from you a strong covenant?
4:20-1

And if a woman fears ill-usage from her husband or desertion no blame is

on them if they effect a reconciliation between them. And reconciliation is
better ...
4:128

And if you fear a breach between the two, appoint an arbiter from his
people and an arbiter from her people ...
4:35

We need to read further to find out how many attempts at reconciliation

are necessary before a break can become final:

And the divorced women should keep themselves in waiting for three
courses. And it is not lawful for them to conceal that which Allah has
created in their wombs, if they believe in Allah and the Last Day. And their
husbands have a better right to take them back in the meanwhile if they wish
for reconciliation. And women have rights similar to those against them in a
just manner, and men are a degree above them . . . Divorce may be
(pronounced) twice; then keep (them) in good fellowship or let (them) go
with kindness. And it is not lawful for you to take any part of what you have
given them ...
2:228-30

0 Prophet, when you divorce women, divorce them for their prescribed
period, and calculate the period; and keep your duty to Allah, your Lord.
Turn them not out of their houses - nor should they themselves go forth -
unless they commit an open indecency. And these are the limits of Allah.
And whoever goes beyond the limits of Allah, he indeed wrongs his own
soul. Thou knowest not that Allah may after that bring about an event. So
when they have reached their prescribed time, retain them with kindness or
dismiss them with kindness, and call to witness two just ones from among
you, and give upright testimony for Allah ...
65:1-2
78 INTRODUCI10N TO THE QUR 'AN

In the end, however, doesn't someone who revokes a decision to separate

thereby efface his fault and bring Divine mercy down upon him?:

... then if they do go back, Allah is surely Forgiving, Merciful.

2:226

In Islam, then, divorce cannot be considered an ambivalent act, or one that is

absolutely permitted; the Prophet said, 'Among allowable things, the act
which God detests the most is the breaking up of a marriage. ' 10
Thus the Qur 'an explains and justifies the prophets by bringing together
and synthesizing their Works. In this unification of diversity, and in this
admission of varying degrees of merit to the very heart of moral law, we
believe we find one of the factors by which Islamic doctrine has been able to
extend itself through such a considerable part of humanity. Islam shelters
under one orthodoxy a diversity of thoughts, tendencies and natures, which
could not have been satisfied either by abstract, intransigent rigour nor by an
excessively inert tolerance.
In mentioning the Qur 'an's conciliatory methods, we broach the object
which is at the heart of its teaching. It is already remarkable for a work of
morality to gather together the wisdom of the ancients, and to present a
variety of lessons, disparate in age and sentiment, under the same light and
such that they appear to converge towards the same goal. But the Qur 'an
does not stop there.
The Qur 'an 's first aim is to safeguard and consolidate the moral
patrimony bequeathed by former revelations. It does, however, have another
mission, no less precious. In the words of the Prophet, it has to complete, to
finish off, and to crown the Divine edifice raised piece by piece by the
prophets before him. 11 In the words of the Qur 'an itself, it has to show man
how he should behave:

Surely this Qur' dn guides to that which is most upright, and gives good
news to the believers who do good that theirs is a great reward.
17:9

What then is new and progressive in the moral teaching of the Qur'an?
This can be gleaned from several brief remarks which strike the very soul of
an objective reader:

1) personal virtue
On the individual moral plane, the Qur 'an gives us at least one new
precept and one new principle. The precept is the abolition of alcohol and
the suppression of any intoxicating liquor:
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 79

0 you who believe, intoxicants and games of chance and (sacrificing to)
stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only an uncleanness, the devil's
work; so shun it that you may succeed. The devil desires only to create
enmity and hatred among you by means of intoxicants and games of chance,
and to keep you back from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will
you then keep back?
5:90-1

The principle, which we would like to underline here, concerns moral

intention.
In order to exhort his people, Moses made a vision flash before their eyes;
an extended view of the Promised Land, victory over their enemies, blessing
and abundance in all the domains of life around them. The coming of Christ
then marked a new era in the teaching. In the Gospel, the promised
happiness will barely take place in this world at all. The soul's sights should
from now on be turned away from the terrestrial world and raised towards
heaven.
Thus, using methods which are always constructive, never destructive, the
Qur 'an arrives at the crux of the matter: both promises, though solidly
maintained, are no longer presented as motives for action. The virtuous
man's goal should neither be the kingdom of heaven, nor the present world;
it should be ultimate Goodness, for one can go no higher. It is God Himself
Whom one should have in view when accomplishing His will:

... And whatever good thing you spend, it is to your good. And you spend
not but to seek Allah's pleasure. And whatever good thing you spend, it will
be paid back to you in full, and you will not be wronged.
2:272

And none has with him any boon for a reward, except the seeking of the
pleasure of his Lord ...
92:19-20

2) interpersonal virtue
Another new step is made concerning the moral rules which determine
peer relationships. Where the precepts of the Pentateuch and the Gospel
form a tree of virtue with leaves and branches, on Qur 'anic terrain this ever-
verdant tree flowers and bears fruit. To their treasure of justice and charity,
jealously preserved in the holy Book of Islam, it adds an excellent
augmentation on what one may call the 'ethical civilization'.
Thus it gives a veritable code of politeness:
80 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

And when you are greeted with a greeting, greet with one better than it, or
return it ...
4:86

0 you who believe, enter not houses other than your own houses, until you
have asked permission and saluted their inmates. This is better for you that
you may be mindful. But if you find no one therein, enter them not, until
permission is given to you; and if it is said to you, Go back, then go back;
this is purer for you ...
24:27-8

0 you who believe, let those whom your right hands possess [slaves] and
those of you who have not attained to puberty ask permission of you three
times: Before the morning prayer and when you put off your clothes for the
heat of noon, and after the prayer of night. These are three times of privacy
for you; besides these it is no sin for you nor for them [to enter] ...
24:58

There is no blame on the blind man, nor any blame on the lame, nor blame
on the sick, nor on yourselves that you eat in your own houses, or your
fathers' houses, or your mothers' houses, or your brothers' houses, or your
sisters' houses, or your paternal uncles' houses, or your paternal aunts'
houses, or your maternal uncles' houses, or your maternal aunts' houses, or
(houses) whereof you possess the keys, or your friends' (houses). It is no sin
in you that you eat together or separately. So when you enter houses, greet
your people with a salutation from Allah, blessed (and) goodly ...
24:61

0 you who believe, raise not your voices above the Prophet's voice, nor
speak loudly to him as you speak loudly one to another ... Surely those who
lower their voices before Allah's Messenger are they whose hearts Allah
has proved for dutifulness. For them is forgiveness and a great reward.
Those who call out to thee from behind the private apartments, most of them
have no sense. And if they had patience till thou came out to them, it would
be better for them ...
49:2-5

0 you who believe, when you confer together in private, give not to each
other counsel of sin and revolt and disobedience to the Messenger, but give
to each other counsel of goodness and observance of duty ... 0 you who
believe, when it is said to you, Make room in assemblies, make room ... And
when it is said, Rise up, rise up ...
58:9-11

and discretion:
----------------------------------------------------- -- -- - - --

GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 81

0 you who believe, avoid most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in some
cases is sin; and spy not nor let some of you backbite others. Does one of
you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? ...
49:12

and decency:

And say to the believing women ... they should not display their adornment
except to their husbands or their fathers, or the fathers of their husbands, or
their sons, or the sons of their husbands, or their brothers, or their
brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or those whom their
right hands possess [slaves], or guileless male servants, or the children who
know not women's nakedness ...
24:31

And (as for) women past child-bearing, who hope not for marriage, it is no
sin for them if they put off their clothes without displaying their adornment.
And if they are modest, it is better for them ...
24:60

0 wives of the Prophet, you are not like any other women. If you would
keep your duty, be not soft in speech, lest he in whose heart is a disease
yearn; and speak a word of goodness. And stay in your houses and display
not your beauty like the displaying of the ignorance of yore; and keep up
prayer, and pay the poor-rate, and obey Allah and His Messenger ...
33:32-3

0 you who believe, enter not the houses of the Prophet unless permission is
given to you for a meal, not waiting for its cooking being finished - but
when you are invited, enter and when you have taken food, disperse - not
seeking to listen to talk. Surely this gives the Prophet trouble, but he
forbears from you, and Allah forbears not from the truth. And when you ask
of them any goods, ask of them from behind a curtain. This is purer for your
hearts and their hearts ...
33:53

0 Prophet, tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of believers to
let down upon them their over-garments. This is more proper, so that they
may be known, and not be given trouble ...
33:59

3) and 4) collective and universal virtue

A salient point of Judaic moral law is the watertight barrier set up between
Israelite and non-Israelite. The benevolence encumbent upon an Israelite, if
82 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

not limited to his own people, certainly does not extend beyond his own
country (the stranger living alongside him):

Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou
shalt not lend upon usury ...
Deut. 23:20

Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy
brother thine hand shall release.
Deut. 15:3

... thou shalt not compel him [a Jew] to serve as a bondservant.

Lev. 25:39

Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour . . . Both thy bondmen, and thy
bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round
about you ... Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn
among you, of them shall ye buy ...
Lev. 25:43-5

Christian morality had the great merit of causing this barrier separating
man from man to fall:

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? ...
Matt. 5:46

Yet, on the other hand, it does not so clearly display the social cohesion and
sentiment of collective responsibility which the Hebrew texts reveal:

And thou shalt teach them [the Commandments] diligently unto thy children
Deut. 6:7

... So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
Deut. 13:5

Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes ... that the land ... spue you not out.
Lev. 20:22

Christian social virtue, as presented by the Gospels, is more inter-individual

than collective in the true sense of the word. In the past, community spirit
had had to serve the double purpose of self-perpetuation and self-
preservation, so to speak. In stretching beyond its own frontiers and desiring
to embrace humanity, Christian love erased this exclusivist attitude and
replaced it with a universal fraternity. It did not, however, insist hard enough
on consolidating the sacred bonds of community.
 GOODNESS, OR THE MORAL ELEMENT 83

Could one not, while in practical terms observing a cordial benevolence

towards the world, create in the midst of this great human family another
smaller family? One that would be more cohesive, and more conscious of its
own formation as an ensemble of little cells making up one organism within
this great body?
This happy marriage between universal virtue and collective virtue was
cemented by the Qur 'an. It teaches that there is fraternity in Adam in
addition to fraternity in faith:

The believers are brethren ...

49:10

0 mankind, surely We have created you from a male and a female, and
made you tribes and families that you may know each other ...
49:13

That diversity of religious feeling in no way excuses us from being

charitable and benevolent to others:

Allah forbids you not respecting those who fight you not for religion ... that
you show them kindness and deal with them justly ...
60:8

The Qur 'an also teaches that wickedness in those who do not share our
beliefs should not mean that we take on an aggressive attitude. Nor should it
prevent us from being just:

... And let not hatred of a people - because they hindered you from the
Sacred Mosque - incite you to transgress. And help one another in
righteousness and piety ...
5:2

... let not hatred of a people incite you not to act equitably. Be just; that is
nearer to observance of duty ...
5:8

Muslims are forbidden to lend to anyone on interest:

Those who swallow usury cannot arise except as he arises whom the devil
prostrates by (his) touch. That is because they say, Trading is only like
usury. And Allah has allowed trading and forbidden usury ...
2:275
84 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

And whoever is pious and just within the community must be the same
outside it:

... there is he who, if thou entrust him with a heap of wealth, would pay it
back to thee; and among them is he who, if thou entrust him with a dinar
would not pay it back to thee, unless thou kept on demanding it. This is
because they say there is no blame on us in the matter of the unlearned
people and they forge a lie against Alldh while they know. Yea, whoever
fulfills his promise and keeps his duty- then Allah surely loves the dutiful.
3:74-5

If, in certain cases, the Muslim has to have a particular reason to deliver his
brothers from captivity:

And a believer would not kill a believer except by mistake. And he who kills
a believer by mistake should free a believing slave, and blood-money should
be paid to his people unless they remit it as alms ...
4:92

in other cases, the liberation of a slave constitutes either an obligation

incumbent upon him:

... He will call you to account for the making of deliberate oaths, so its
expiation is the feeding of ten poor men with the average (food) you feed
your families with, or their clothing, or the freeing of a neck ...
5:89

or one of the most meritorious actions, which the Qur 'an does not cease to
eulogize:

... righteous is the one who ... gives away wealth ... and ... set[s] slaves
free ...
2:177

And what will make thee comprehend what the uphill road is? (It is) to free
a slave.
90:12-13

The idea of universal virtue, introduced by the Gospel, is thus extended

into the varied domains of life, and accordingly developed and refined. Does
this mean then that the Muslim community should let go its internal bonds in
order to lose itself in a sea of humanity? On the contrary, two important
commandments serve to remind the community of its role as a distinctive,
organic entity.
 GOODNESS, OR TilE MORAL ELEMENT 85

The first enjoins believers to present themselves as an indivisible group,

without schism or dissension, united around their ideal and behind their
leader:

And hold fast by the covenant of Allah all together and be not disunited ...
3:102

0 you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in
authority from among you ...
4:59

And obey Allah and His Messenger and dispute not one with another, lest
you get weak-hearted and your power depart; and be steadfast ...
8:46

Certain orientalists have amused themselves by depicting the Muslim as

'an intransigent individualist' who has never known 'the bond of
solidarity'. 12 Thus we find, for example: 13

The Muslim religion respects and consecrates individualism. It knows

nothing of the communion of souls in a large group. Shared actions, like the
Friday prayer, the ceremony at Arafat and feast-time prayer gatherings, are
individual acts accomplished by the faithful at the same time and in the
same place. They are not directed, ordered or harmonised group
ceremonies.

But anyone who has been present at a Muslim communal prayer gathering
will realize that nothing could be more untrue. Not at all are the faithful
scattered here and there in disorder, each one praying for himself, or mere
spectators while the guide undertakes the essentials of the ritual task quite
alone. Muslims at communal prayer are well arranged, in perfect order,
tightly packed. Elbow to elbow, rich next to poor, manager cheek by jowl
with his subordinate. All occupy the same position, the same direction, the
same words. Each prays for all:

Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help. Guide us on the right
path.
1:4-5

All those at prayer desire salvation, not for their present assembly alone, but
for all good servants of God, wherever they may find themselves.
This external harmony is, without doubt, a means of bringing about an
intimate communion of hearts. Islam is not just a religion; it is also a
brotherhood:
86 INTRODUCf!ON TO THE QUR 'AN

The believers are brethren ...

49:10

The b.adlth likens the solidarity of believers to the human body: all parts feel
the pain of a single organ and work together to defend it.
After all, the two essential duties- the twin duties, as Muslims call them-
whose omission calls down upon the miscreant the most severe censure, are
prayer and the paying of community tax. Here, among other instances, is
eloquent testimony of the spirit of solidarity in Islam.
The second commandment, which is of extreme moral importance, is the
universal duty to not allow evil to triumph amongst them:

And guard yourselves against an ajjliction which may not smite those of you
exclusively who are unjust ...
8:25

Thus they must mutually encourage each other to truth and virtue:

... exhort one another to Truth, and exhort one another to patience.
103:3

Then he is of those who believe and exhort one another to patience, and
exhort one another to mercy.
90:17

To commend to his co-religionists what is right and just, and to forbid any
incorrect attitude, is every Muslim's right, be he great or small; indeed it is
his duty. The salvation of our fellow beings, no less than their material good,
should not leave us indifferent. Together we should all collaborate in making
virtue and piety reign in our midst:

... And help one another in righteousness and piety ...

5:2

The Qur 'an places such value on the practice of this moral solidarity that
it highlights it as the distinguishing feature of the most meritorious nation
that ever existed:

You are the best nation raised up for men: you enjoin good and forbid evil
and you believe in Allah ...
3:109
---------------------- -

GOODNESS, OR TilE MORAL ELEMENT 87

5) international and inter-confessional virtue

There is another chapter in Islamic morality which is quite new to Islam.
Neither Judaism nor Christianity had any occasion to undertake relations
with opposing states at the time of their founders. We find Jesus' quite
pacific and localized teaching on the one hand, and, in total contrast on the
other, Moses' struggle against neighbouring nations which were quickly
exterminated. Yet the situation was quite other for Muhammad. Over 12
years he was in constant communication with other nations and other
religions. Sometimes these were hostile, sometimes peaceful.
These particular circumstances, which made of the spiritual and moral
guide a diplomat and army leader, necessitated moral legislation on the
conditions governing war and peace. We find the basic principles of this
legislation in the Qur 'an. Thus, for instance, the principle whereby legitimate
war is defined as that which is undertaken in self-defence:

And fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you but be not
aggressive ...
2:190

and which must cease as soon as the aggression of the enemy is ended:

... So if they withdraw from you and fight you not and offer you peace, then
Allah allows you no way against them.
4:90

And if they incline to peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in Allah ...
8:61

Similarly, the principle which makes any agreement sacrosanct, however

unfair it may seem; a treaty that has been concluded must be loyally and
piously respected, even if it is disadvantageous to the Muslims:

And fulfill the covenant of Allah, when you have made a covenant, and
break not the oaths after making them fast, and you have indeed made Allah
your surety. Surely Allah knows what you do. And be not like her who
unravels her yarn, disintegrating it into pieces, after she has spun it
strongly ...
16:91-2

Even if an adversary begins to betray a pact, a Muslim cannot attack him

deceitfully, without warning. He must first denounce the alliance in such a
fashion that each is clear about where he stands: 14
88 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

And if thou fear treachery on the part of a people, throw back to them (their
treaty) on terms of equality. Surely Allah loves not the treacherous.
8:58

Further to all of this are the regulations established by l:wdith. For this tide
of humanity, these managed to considerably attenuate, if not eliminate, any
regrettable consequences of their behaviour.
-----------------------------------

6
Beauty, or the Literary Element

As we have said before, in the depths of the human soul there exists a kind
of inner viewpoint by which true can be discerned from false, and good
from evil, in whatever form they present themselves, provided only that they
are seen clearly and coolly.
Penetrating spirits and well-disposed souls ask no more from a new
doctrine than that it should fulfill for them the double condition of teaching
the truth and exhorting to virtue. Without necessarily being attracted by its
outer envelope, they will quickly uncover the kernel of a new doctrine and
recognize its value. The Emperor Heraclius' ignorance of the Arabic
language did not prevent him from judging the Prophet's message in the
light of certain moral criteria estimated by him as necessary and sufficient
to establish the divinity of a mission. 1
But it is not like this for the ordinary man. We are more attracted by
charm of form than by permanence of content, and will tum away from a
new thing if it is indifferently clothed. We often judge things quickly, by
appearances, before knowing what they really are.
Sensibility precedes logic with us. Yet through the intermediary of the
first we can be brought to examine the second. Literature brings precious
help to science and wisdom, in order to assure the triumph of the truth and
the virtue they preach.
In this respect, Islamic doctrine leaves nothing to be desired. It gives
entire satisfaction by its outer form, for anyone listening to its language, as
well as by its depths. The Qur'an, its vehicle, was and still remains the
pinnacle of the Arabic word. The beauty of its style is universally admired.
If one considers in abstract the literary qualities which it unites, one could
even say that it represents the ideal of what a work of literature should be.

89
90 INTRODUCTION TO Tiffi QUR 'AN

Let us say straight away that the beauty of Qur'anic language is sublime
and majestic, not seductively entrancing; it seizes the heart rather than
flattering the ear; gives rise to admiration not enchantment; amazes rather
than excites; and arouses pleasure through repose not movement.
In the golden age of Arab eloquence, when language reached the apogee
of purity and force, and titles of honour were bestowed with solemnity on
poets and orators in annual festivals, the Qur'anic word swept away all
enthusiasm for poetry or prose, and caused the Seven Golden Poems hung
over the doors of the Ka'ba to be taken down. All ears lent themselves to
this marvel of Arabic expression.
Its phonetic substance far removed both from the softness of the language
spoken by the sedentary peoples and the crudity of the nomads, uniting in
golden mean the gentleness of one and the firmness of the other, forming a
harmonious sonority, a charm dreamed of by all.
The arrangement of its syllables more sustained than prose, yet less
rigorous than poetry, giving enough variety during the course of a verse to
sustain the interest of the listener, but maintaining sufficient homogeneity to
prevent its general sense from being broken by pauses between chapters. 2
Its vocabulary chosen from among the most common words, yet with no
lapses into banality, and from among the most noble, while rarely
committing the error of obscurity.
Endowed with an admirable economy of language, through which the
smallest number of words are used to render the richest ideas, usually
unexpressible without resorting to long, complicated sentences.
From this purity of expression, this extreme density of style, free of any
superfluous term yet often very elliptic, one experiences such stunning
clarity that the least instructed man of the people can say to himself, 'I have
very well understood.' But at the same time there are such depths, such
flexibility, such undertones, radiating from all its aspects like the multiple
facets of a diamond, that all the sciences and arts of the Islamic world draw
their eternal rules and principles from it.
It is often remarked upon that all men, distinguished or vulgar, superficial
or insatiable searchers, rediscover themselves there. It is as if each formula
matches each person according to his capacity. And all this on subjects
which did not even figure among the themes of pre-Islamic literature, and
which had rarely been touched upon by poet or orator except in the vaguest
terms. Indeed, one can affirm without hesitation that, from the linguistic
point of view, the Qur'an created a language as well as a style.
But that which seems truly superhuman to us is that the Qur'an is able to
side-step what is a normal psychological law: logic and sensibility usually
function in alternation and in inverse proportion, with the plenitude of one
 BEAUTY, OR THE LITERARY ELEMENT 91

entailing the temporary eclipse of the other. With the Qur'an we witness
constant cooperation between these two opposing states, across all subjects.
Beneath the continuous musicality which forms an even cloak over a
diverse field of discourse, we can see words in their true meanings. Whether
in a narrative context or as a line of reasoning, a legal or a moral ruling, the
words act with a force that is at the same time didactic, persuasive and
emotive. They appeal to heart and reason in almost equal proportions. What
is more, while acting upon our various faculties, the discourse itself
maintains, undisturbed throughout, its stunning gravity and powerful
majesty.
We make haste to leave this subject now, for, without the verification
with the text we have carried out elsewhere and cannot repeat here, 3 such an
abstract enumeration of qualities has no real sense or value. Moreoever, a
pure Arab, with the instinct for language in his blood, does not need analysis
in order to appreciate the inimitable character of Qur'anic expression. He
seizes by intuition what is here disengaged by the slow and discursive
process of reasoning, and feels its celestial origin as it pierces his heart and
dazzles his eyes.
The unbelievers of the time of the Prophet, immediately aware of this
phenomenon, found themselves at a loss to explain it and called it magic.
Even in our age, despite the passage of time, the inter-mingling of races and
the adulteration of linguistic instincts, Arabs of all religions recognize the
distinctive nobility which characterizes the Qur'anic text. This
distinctiveness is not only in relation to the generality of Arabic literature,
but also in relation to the words of the Prophet himself, themselves
renowned for their eloquence.
We possess thousands of examples of the Prophet's own speech; some,
like the lfadith al-/jk, the result of prolonged, month-long meditatio11, others
instances of revelation that were not included in the body of the Qur'an. The
revealed text is instantly recognizable, like a ray of sunlight against the light
of candles. One immediately perceives a special tone, which does not seem
to originate from man, and which could be nothing other than Divine breath.
Before leaving this chapter, we would like to elucidate on a point which
has escaped not only the orientalists, but also certain eastern scholars: the
manner in which the Qur'an deals with many different subjects in the same
sura.
Unable to see at first glance any overall unity or natural liaison between
topics, some have regarded the Qur'an as nothing more than a chaotic and
formless assemblage of disparate ideas, put together willy-nilly with no care
for logic. Others have thought to attempt to justify this disparity as a device
to relieve the boredom of uniformity and the mournful effect of monotony,
both of which are repugnant to the Arab ideal of literature.
92 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

Some have tried to compensate for a lack of overall organization by

identifying a poetic unity to each sura, something it is impossible to render
in translation. Yet others, indeed the majority of orientalists, have attempted
to exonerate its author, saying that the Qur'an was given in isolated
fragments out of sequence. They then attribute its incoherence to its
compilers; it was they who brought together this unhappy mixture and
reassembled the broken pieces by stringing them together into chapters.
But none of these explanations seems satisfactory to us. Tradition
establishes the fact that the suras as we read them today received their titles
and places during the lifetime of the Prophet, and there could only be an
intrinsic defect, which the alleged explanations are unable to explain, if it
were indeed the case that the unity of a sura consisted of nothing but a
sequence of letters and sounds clothing a fundamental dispersion, leaving
ruptures of logic in the progression of ideas, and abrupt transitions from
subject to subject.
If one wishes to appreciate the beauty of a design, one cannot look at just
one small part taken out of context, where perhaps neighbouring colours
may appear to jar. It is necessary to stand back, enlarge one's field of vision
to take in the whole, in one all-embracing view. Only then will one be able
to see the symmetry of parts and the harmony of composition hidden
therein. This too, then, is how one should envisage the study of each chapter
of the Qur'an if one is to judge it properly.
During our time at Al-Azhar, we tried to apply this rule to the study of
one Medinan sura (al-Baqara) and two Meccan suras (Yunus and Hud), not
chosen for any reason other than their being prescribed on the syllabus.
Well! We discovered more than we were looking for. We were looking to
discover whether there was a logical sequence to the chain of ideas. To our
astonishment, what emerged was a clearly delineated and organized plan,
consisting of an introduction, a development and a conclusion.
Thus, in an small number of verses at the beginning of the sura, the main
lines of the subjects which it proposes to treat are indicated; the order of
development then ensues in such a manner as to ensure not only that each
part should not encroach on the next, but also that each parcel should find a
definite place within the ensemble; finally comes the conclusion,
corresponding exactly to the introduction.
If one considers the innumerable gaps between revelations and the
extremely fragmentary manner in which the Qur'an was revealed, taking
into account the fact that these revelations generally arose in answer to
particular situations that had to be dealt with, one finds oneself wondering at
what stage the task of putting the suras into their places was undertaken.
 BEAUTY, OR THE LITERARY ELEMENT 93

This question poses something of a dilemma, because whether one

supposes that this was undertaken before, or after, the entire Qur'an had
been revealed, one would assume that it would be arranged either
chronologically, according to the sequence of appearance, or logically,
according to the themes treated. The variegated aspect which the suras in
fact offer us answer to neither rationale or organization, being neither
simple nor natural.
This, however, brings us to conceive of a more complex plan, one which
would have had to have been determined beforehand, even before the
appearance of the text into the consciousness of the Prophet. Though we
may initially feel dissuaded from such a hypothesis, thinking that it would
be rather bold, if not absurd, to wish arbitrarily to establish a priori a
predetermined order for discourses pronounced over a period of 20 years
and connected with a thousand and one circumstances that could not have
been foreseen or foreseeable, tradition supports us in this strange
hypothesis.
Tradition tells us that, as and when it emerged, each fragment of the
Qur'an, large or small, was allocated to one of the incomplete chapters, and
to a determined place within that chapter, with each fragment numbered
according to its place, in an order that was not always chronological. Once it
had been given a place it was to remain there, never to be transferred nor
reworked. There must therefore have been not only a plan for each sura, but
also an overall arrangement for the Qur'an, a plan according to which each
new revelation was immediately slotted into place.
The manner of composition of the Qur'an, then, is absolutely unique.
Never was a work, literary or otherwise, constructed in such a way. One
could compare it to the process by which numbered pieces from an old,
dismantled building are reconstructed in the same form as before in another
place. How otherwise can we explain its immediate and systematic
classification into various chapters, simultaneously brought to completion?
The filled and unfilled pigeon-holes of this work must have constituted a
single whole in the mind of the Author.
If a man wished to establish such a plan, what historical guarantee could
he have of future events, their legislative requirements, the solutions
necessary for them, the sentences in which they should be couched and their
place in one chapter rather than another? And how could these sparse
morsels, brought together with no retouching, soldering or evident joints, in
spite of their natural variety and being scattered over a historical period -
how could they form an organic body answering to the exigences of
cohesion and beauty? Such an ambitious project could surely only proceed
from a chimerical dream or a super-human Power.
94 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

In other words, if ruptures of logic or hiatuses in rhetoric would be the

inevitable expected result if such a complicated and puzzling plan were
devised by a human, does it not then follow that the success of such a plan
presupposes the intervention of a transcendent Power with the capacity to
establish such coordination? What creature could direct events so exactly
that such an enterprise could succeed? Or how could such a work of art
result from a series of chance events? Given such conditions, the logical
unity and literary cohesion of Qur'anic sura is, in our opinion, the miracle of
miracles.
The principle of Qur'anic unity has already been proclaimed by
innumerable competent authorities, among them Abu Bakr al-Naysaburi,
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, AbO Bakr Ibn al-'Arabi, Burl)an al-Din al-Bika'i,4 and
AbO lsl)aq al-Shatibi. In order to verify it by means of a few samples, we
could do no better than to refer to our study described above.
That these samples could serve as an exact model for the rest I cannot
assert, for that would be to answer an empirical question with an a priori
judgement. It is not inconceivable that in some chapters it would be more
difficult to distinguish the principal idea, the way that related ideas are
linked to each other and the kernel of the argument. Alternately, one might
not know the particular circumstances which determined their association in
thought. Furthermore, the density and richness of Qur'anic expression
allows several points of reference to be established in each piece, with a
multitude of possible linking threads. This means that different
commentators will explain differently the links between the parts.
In one way or another, however, regardless of whether or not we know it
precisely and whether or not the Prophet himself knew it precisely, there
must have existed some sort of pre-determined plan.
Those who are not concerned with uncovering an organic plan in the text
can readily admire another kind of plan, namely that of the stylistic order.
Fragments destined to abut on each other are shaped to fit one next to the
other, with no apparent discrepancy or fissure, regardless of the diversity of
their subjects and the distance between the times of their appearance.
Our admiration reaches its peak, however, when we realize that these
same fragments followed a very different lay-out when they first appeared.
Let us follow through from beginning to end the gradual stages of the
Qur'anic revelation during its 23 years.
From prophecy to preaching: Read,5 to Arise and warn. 6
From private initiation to solemn preaching:

Therefore declare openly what thou art commanded, and turn away from
the polytheists.
15:94
 BEAUTY, OR THE LITERARY ELEMENT 95

From a call addressed to close relatives, And warn thy nearest relations, 1
to one which would spread through the entire city, And thy Lord never
destroyed the towns, until He had raised in their metropolis a messenger,
reciting to them Our messages, 8 then to the surrounding towns, that thou
mayest warn the mother of the towns and those around her,9 and finally to
all mankind, We have not sent thee but as a mercy to the nations. 10
From the institution of basic foundations (the Meccan sitras) to their
application (the Medinan sitras).
From the stigmatization of drink, They ask thee about intoxicants and
games of chance. Say: In both of them is a great sin and (some) advantage
for men, and their sin is greater than their advantage, 11 to its formal
prohibition, 0 you who believe, intoxicants and games of chance and
(sacrificing) to stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only an
uncleanness, the devil' s work; so shun it that you may succeed. 12
From endurance, Hast thou not seen those to whom it was said: Withhold
your hands, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, 13 to resistance, And
fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you but be not
aggressors. Surely Allah loves not the aggressors/ 4 and so on.
But from this entire process it is perhaps sufficient to retain two dates, the
first and the last. The first is the Day of the Cave, when Muhammad was
warned that he was to receive a Divine teaching:

Read in the name of thy Lord who creates - creates man from a clot. Read
and thy Lord is most Generous, Who taught by the pen, taught man what he
knew not.
96:1-5

whose heavy weight he would have to bear:

Surely We shall charge thee with a weighty word.

73:5

The last is the day of the farewell pilgrimage, when it was announced to
him that his mission was completed and that he had nothing further to
accomplish on earth:

This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favour
upon you, and chosen Islam as your religion.
5:3

After this there was no delay before he was recalled.

96 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN

To conclude, then, everything developed according to a detailed plan of

education and legislation conceived, from the very beginning and in its
entirety, by the Inspirer. That these same texts, which in chronological order
formed an impeccable pedagogical plan, should then immediately be taken
out of their historical sequence, in order to be allocated and grouped into
various defined frameworks of unequal size; and that from this
predetermined dispersion a work should appear, destined to be read and
composed of completely integrated sections, with each having a logical
literary cohesion no less excellent than the overall line of argument: in this
double arrangement we have a scheme which could not have proceeded
from mere human knowledge.
 Part Three
The Origin of the Qur 'an

The study of the sources of a work would normally precede that of its
contents, but in the case of the Qur 'an we are forced to deviate from this
rule. For not only does the concept of the Qur 'an's Divine origin constitute
part of its doctrine, it is at its very fundament.
From beginning to end, the Qur 'an speaks to the Prophet, or speaks of
him, but never does it allow him to express his own thoughts. It is God
throughout Who expresses Himself, dictates, pronounces edicts, relates or
warns. Time and again we find ourselves reading such phrases as o Prophet,
o Messenger, We reveal to thee, We send thee, transmit this, recite that, do
this, do not do that, they will say to thee, answer them and so on. Even
where the text does not explicitly have a didactic approach towards the
Prophet, for instance in the formula to be recited at prayer, the Fdtiha,
everything indicates that such an approach is intended.
But why can we not attribute Qur 'anic language and its expressed ideas to
the person who enunciates them; his own thoughts, or a reproduction of what
he has picked up naturally from his ambience? How can we come to see this
person as a simple receptacle, drawing his work from an exterior super-
human Entity? Such an assertion will unfailingly disconcert people, for it
would appear to contradict the laws of psychology, at least in their ordinary
manifestations. But Muhammad was definitely not the first to have posed
the problem of revelation.
Yet Muhammad was even more modest in this respect than Moses. The
latter, as the Qur'an confirms, received the Pentateuch through direct
communication with the Eternal. For Muhammad, however, the Qur'an is
the word of a celestial messenger, intermediate between God and himself:

97
98 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR-'AN

Surely it is the word of a bountiful Messenger, the possessor of strength,

established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne, one (to be) obeyed,
and faithful.
81:19-21

Nonetheless, despite this difference, each makes reference to the

Supernatural.
Even for those who admit the principle of revelation in general, it is quite
legitimate for them not to accept it in a specific case until all other
possibilities for a natural explanation have been exhausted. To accept the
immediate Divine origin of a phenomenon would be a final recourse;
science's humble admission in default of finding any other cause.
Let us, then, give a brief outline of the argument which can be derived
from the marvel that is Qur'anic style in favour of the Book's divinity.
Simply ask yourself if the ideas which it contains can be explained by
anything other than revelation.
Throughout the ages, there has been no lack of research into this subject.
And one ought to mention, to the credit of the Qur 'an and the }Jadith, that
there we can find, faithfully recorded and in great detail, all the hypotheses
of this kind put forward by the Prophet's contemporaries. These hypotheses
exhaust not only all the likely solutions, but also the absurd ones, which one
will always find, invented by a spirit of mockery in order to hold a new
enterprise up to ridicule, however serious that enterprise might be, and
however crucial to humanity. Thus one could say that modem research can
only develop or repeat in one form or another the strivings of bygone days.
The aim of the third section will be to chronologically examine these
different explanations in their present form. We shall therefore divide them
into two groups: those that refer to the time before the Hijra, and those that
follow it.
 7
Meccan Sources of the Qur 'an

The most simplistic of the theories seek to uncover in the restricted area of
the Hejaz, if not in the natal town of the Prophet itself, all the practical
elements of Qur 'anic doctrine. Ernest Renan supplies us with a typical
example of this kind of approach in his article 'Mahomet et les Origines de
11slamisme '. 1
The French scholar offers us a picturesque view of Arabia in the sixth
century. In place of the idolatrous people we all know, he describes for us a
people who knew neither variety nor plurality in God, who had always
conceived of Him as one who did not beget others and was not Himself
begotten. 2
Though Renan is right to underline the refined literary spirit and vivid
sense of reality of this race, he leaves other, less honourable characteristics
unmentioned. Hence, instead of an arrogant, debauched group of
materialists, little concerned with speculation about the higher truth, he
presents us with a society bubbling over with religious fervour. He has all
religions and all civilizations meeting there, and tells us that everybody
'discussed religion'. 3 He would have us believe that Muhammad followed
rather than perpetrated the religious trends of his time.
Yet the Qur 'an itself provides us with a faithful picture of contemporary
Arab life, and the scenario it paints for us is quite different. We have already
seen the tissue of superstition with which the Arabs swathed their primitive
monotheism. Their social and moral aspects, however, were no less
deplorable. Thus we find infanticide:

They are the losers indeed who kill their children foolishly without
knowledge ...
6:141

99
100 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

prostitution:

... And compel not your slave-girls to prostitution when they desire to keep
chaste ...
24:33

and incest:

And marry not women whom your fathers married ... This surely is indecent
and hateful; and it is an evil way. Forbidden to you are your mothers, and
your daughters, and your sisters, and your paternal aunts, and your
maternal aunts, and brother's daughters and sister's daughters ...
4:22-3

Extortion of dowry:

And if you wish to have (one) wife in the place of another and you have
given one of them a heap of gold, take nothing from it ... And how can you
take it when one of you has already gone in to the other and they have taken
from you a strong covenant?
4:20-1

or a woman's inheritance:

0 you who believe, it is not lawful for you to take women as heritage
against (their) will. Nor should you straiten them by taking part of what you
have given them, unless they are guilty of manifest indecency ...
4:19

Similarly, we find evidence of the oppression of orphans:

... you should deal justly with orphans ...

4:127

cupidity, negligence of the poor and contempt for the weak:

Nay, but you honour not the orphan, nor do you urge one another to feed
the poor, and you devour heritage, devouring all. And you love wealth with
exceeding love.
89:17-20

Even the famous Arab virtue of muruwwa (hospitality, generosity) the

Qur 'an portrays for us as displaced charity, tarnished with the vices of
prodigality and ostentation:
 MECCAN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 101

And those who spend their wealth to be seen of men and believe not in Allah
nor in the Last Day ...
4:38

In short, it was a life of manifest error,4 of ignorance. 5 The pagan Arabs may
have retained certain of the aspects of patriarchal religion in their practices,
the rite of pilgrimage for example, but these were riddled with error and
superstition:

They ask thee of the new moons. Say: They are times appointed for men,
and (for) the pilgrimage. And it is not righteousness that you enter the
houses by their backs, but he is righteous who keeps his duty ...
2:189

And when you have performed your devotions, laud Allah as you lauded
your fathers, rather a more hearty lauding ...
2:200

Amongst this mass of ignorant and misguided people there stood out a
tiny elite. Known in the tradition by the name }Janif, they did not follow the
multitude in their thinking. It is this small group which Renan took as
representing the spirit of the age. Yet we know that they were in fact
exceptions, who could be numbered on the fingers of both hands.
We have only to consult pre-Islamic literature to realize that most people
remained impervious to such concerns. At the annual fair of 'Uka~. for
example, the assembly did not debate religion, but worldly glory. Each tribe
showed off its poetic genius and invoked past and present knightly exploits.
Likewise, in the celebrated Golden Odes 'hardly a single religious thought'
is mentioned. 6
And what was the actual doctrine of this elite of reformers, Muhammad's
predecessors? Absolutely nothing, or as good as nothing. Their souls were
dissatisfied with the polytheism and cruel, lax customs of their co-citizens,
and they aspired to a healthy and holy religion which they tried to find
outside this framework, but they had no precise conception of this religion. It
could not be said to foretell, even from afar, the doctrine of the Qur'an. Zayd
bin 'Amr bin Nufayl, the most steady and independent amongst this group,
solemnly avers that he does not know in what manner God should be
adored. 7
All that can be deduced from the example of the }Janifs, as Renan himself
realized, is that there was 'a kind of uneasiness and vague sense of
expectation' in this period, which manifested in these 'few privileged souls
as presentiments and desires'. 8 These men used words such as 'God', 'cult',
102 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

'prophets', 'books ' and 'paradise' without point; these words did not
correspond in their spirit with any clear and distinct formulation.
If we wish, without leaving the birthplace of Islam, to speak of a religious
system that may have been arrested in its growth, Sabaeanism, rather than
l:lanifism, should be our focus. Did the term Sabaean in the Qur 'an refer to a
more refined sect of paganism (the Sabaeans of l:larran claimed to belong to
Sabi, son of Seth, to profess the latter's religion and to possess his book in
Syriac) or to the Judaeo-Christian sect also known as the Mandeans,
followers of John the Baptist? Or were they perhaps pagans disguising
themselves under the ambiguous title of Christians?
The question is a controversial one. Al-Fayyfimi, for one, goes for the
latter definition in his Arabic dictionary al-Mi~bd/J al-Munlr. In any case,
two considerations compel us to put aside the second hypothesis: firstly the
discrepancy between the roots ~-b-' and s-b-IJ,, and secondly that the IJ,adith is
conspicuously silent concerning the Sabaean doctrines of emanation and
incarnation, although the fundamental and principal practices attributed to
the Sabaeans are well identified and refuted in the Qur 'an and IJ,adith.
Some of these ideas and practices had been adopted by the Qurayshites,
and were so widespread that it is difficult to isolate them from the general
current of paganism then abounding. Thus, for example, the divinity of
angels and stars and their influence over terrestrial events;9 the allocation of
the lion's share of their sacrifices to the infernal powers, rather than to
God; 10 the associatory formula of invocation which they used during their
pilgrimage; 11 and so on.
However, certain other of their ritual or customary practices differ from
both pagan and Muslim usage. For the Sabaeans, the pilgrimage was directed
to the Iraqi town of I:Iarran, and not to the Ka'ba; their sacrifices had to be
burned in their entirety, not eaten; 12 they forbade bigamy; and they did not
practise circumcision. 13 Even their prayers were obviously those of a cult
directed to the heavenly bodies: enacted three times a day and coinciding
exactly with the rising, the apogee and the setting of the sun, they were quite
the opposite of the Islamic prescription.
Pure or gross, superstitious, sceptical or critical, the paganism of the Hejaz
certainly cannot account for the origin of the Qur 'an. Let us leave this area
and look elsewhere. Perhaps the Judaeo-Christian milieux will bring some
light to bear on the question.
We shall not expatiate upon the story of the Christian monk, Bab.ira, who,
tradition tells us, met Muhammad at the age of 12 during his journey into
Syria with his uncle. Good sense precludes our taking this fleeting encounter
as a source of instruction, for either we regard the account as legendary, or
we take note of the facts related therein. That is to say the interview took
place before the company of the whole caravan, Muhammad was the one
 MECCAN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 103

who was interrogated, not the one who listened, and after his interrogation
the monk concluded with a prophecy about the future mission of the young
man. The idea that Muhammad learned anything from the monk is refuted by
the account itself. 14
Should we linger any longer to examine another hypothesis of a similar
nature? We are told, for instance, that, lodging 'in the out-lying area' of
Mecca, 15 were small-time adventurers, Romanies, Abyssinians, 'wine-
sellers' and other 'riff-raff'. We are told that it was 'in the taverns that the
Gospel was proclaimed to uncouth souls'. 16 So would it be there that
Muhammad would have had contact with religious ideas? We are left with a
vague statement, and given no documentation to support it.
We have several reasons, anyway, for not taking the possibility or
fruitfulness of such contact seriously. In the first place, Muhammad's early
movements are well known to us, and thoroughly demarcated by history. He
was in solitude, shepherd of a flock; he was involved in full-scale trading
ventures, as part of a caravan; and finally he played his part in noble society,
amongst the leaders. Hence neither his customs, nor his birth, nor his
successive occupations could lead one to imagine the Prophet in low dives.
In the second place, such contact would have been useless: not only did
these frustrated souls knew their religion imperfectly ,17 but, as the Qur 'an
itself argues, their foreign tongue would create a natural barrier between
them:

And indeed We know that they say: Only a mortal teaches him. The tongue
of him whom they hint at is foreign, and that is clear Arabic language.
16:103

And finally, if this were a possible source of information, would it not

have been more natural and more within the scope of his adversaries to use
this fact to scotch his ambition, instead of taking up arms at Medina, as we
see happening later?
We prefer to speak of a much vaster and more cultivated milieu which
could have contributed its ideas and religious practices to the formation of
Islamic doctrine. We have seen that, during his youth, Muhammad had
occasion to go to Syria on business from time to time and probably, too, to
the Yemen: the journey of the winter and the summer. Now, we know that
the Ghassanids of Syria and the Bani1-I:Iarith of Najnln in the Yemen had
embraced Christianity, quite apart from the Jewish tribes of Medina and
Khaybar which Muhammad would not have had contact with until later,
after the Hijra.
As an intelligent observer, attentive by virtue of his vocation to moral
matters, the Prophet would surely have been struck by the delicate customs
104 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

and healthy ideas held by these societies, compared to those of his co-
citizens, against whom he was so often indignant. Goldziher, among others,
certainly believes so. The Hungarian author estimates that it was the contrast
between the life and customs of his compatriots and the vivid impressions
which he must have received in the course of his travels which gave him the
first impulse towards reform. 18
But will this explanation help us in resolving our problem? First of all, did
Muhammad penetrate as far as the Christian territories proper? Certain
writers doubt it very much, given the absence in the Qur 'an of any mention
of Christianity's exterior traits (though it does speak with more
understanding of the profound spirit of oriental Christianity) in sharp
contrast to the contemporary Arab poets who did visit these countries. 19
Other writers go even further, assuring us that the caravans undertaken by
the Prophet did not take him beyond Siiq Hubasha in the Tihama, or Ghorash
in the Yemen. 20
Let us suppose ourselves in contact with the Christianity of those days and
try to imagine whether he would have been enchanted by it. Let us consider
some remarks from Christian authors. First of all, Sale: 21

If we read ecclesiastical history in detail, we see that, even from the third
century, the Christian world was . . . disfigured by the ambitions of the
clergy, by schisms, by controversies over the most absurd futilities, by
endless disputes, divided and subdivided within themselves. The Christians
... were so taken up with them, that it was as if they were vying with each
other in malice, hate and mischievousness ... They had in a certain sense
chased Christianity from the world through their continual controversies on
the question of how to interpret its doctrine. It was in these dark centuries
that most of the superstitions and corruptions of the faith were not only
perpetrated, but established . . . After the Council of Nicaea, the Oriental
Church found itself tom apart by the disputes of the Arians, the Sabellians,
the Nestorians and the Eutichians ... The clergy ... took it into their heads
to give protection to army officers and under this pretext justice was sold
publicly, and all types of corruption were encouraged. In the Western
Church, the dispute between Damascene and Ursitan about the episcopal
chair of Rome became so heated that they even resorted to violence and
murder . . . That these dissensions arose was principally the fault of the
emperors, in particular Constance . . . Though they were yet worse under
Justinian ... who believed that it was no crime to condemn a man to death
for having different sentiments from his own. This corruption of custom and
doctrine, amongst princes as much as amongst the clergy, was necessarily
followed by a general depravity of the people. The sole goal of people from
all conditions of life was to obtain money, by whatever means, and to
dissipate it in luxury and debauchery.
 MECCAN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 105

Then Taylor, who writes in his Ancient Christianity: 22

What Muhammad and his caliphs met in every direction ... was superstition
so abject, idolatry so gross and shameful, ecclesiastical doctrines so
arrogant, religious practices so dissolute and puerile, that strong-spirited
Arabs felt themselves freshly inspired, like the divine prophets, to condemn
the errors of the world ...

Furthermore, one historian-monk, describing the sufferings inflicted by the

Persians on the Palestinian people at the time of Muhammad, did not hesitate
to blame on the wickedness of the Palestinian Christians God's sending the
cruelty of the Zoroastrian persecutor against them. And, talking of the same
period, Mosheim drew up a comparative picture between the latter-day and
the first Christians and concluded that, during the seventh century, the true
religion had been buried under a mass of senseless superstitions, and was
incapable of raising its head? 3
One could imagine that these works were written with a view to
commenting on one extremely precise Qur'anic verse in Sural al-Md'ida.
This verse alludes to a certain distancing between Christianity and the then-
contemporary Christians, and announces that the schism resulting from this
alienation will last until the Day of Resurrection:

And with those who say, We are Christians, We made a covenant, but .they
neglected a portion of that whereof they were reminded so We stirred up
enmity and hatred among them to the day of Resurrection. And Allah will
soon inform them of what they did.
5:14

And did the converted Arab Christians behave themselves better than the
original Christians? No. Indeed, in spite of their conversion, the Christian
Arab tribes of pre-Islamic Syria did not desist from any of their pagan
habits; 24 and 'Ali could say of the Taghlib that the only thing they took from
Christianity was the habit of drinking wine?5 Huart concludes: 26

However seductive the idea might be that the practice of Christianity in

Syria deeply affected the soul of the young reformer, it would have to be
repudiated in the face of the uncertainty of any historical foundation to it.

Such, then, is the vivid spectacle which offered itself to our observer.
Everywhere he went he met aberrations to be rectified, deviations to be
brought back to the straight path. Nowhere did he see a firm moral and
religious model on which he could have based his reform work. The
106 IN1RODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

materials he found will without doubt have given him something to

demolish, hardly building blocks with which he could construct.
Let us now widen the field of our investigation beyond the concrete and
visual world to the oral and literary milieu. If example had nothing to teach,
maybe scholarly learning did, but whence could this learning have come, and
through what medium?
The first possibility which comes to mind is that Muhammad could have
derived his teachings from reading earlier revelations, Judaeo-Christian or
otherwise. 27 But did Muhammad know how to read and write?
The Qur 'an tells us not. Indeed, it describes his illiteracy as one of the
proofs of the divinity of his source of instruction. For not only was the
Prophet ummi (unlettered, uneducated), of an ummi people:

Those who follow the Messenger-Prophet, the Ummi ...

7:157

Certainly Allah conferred a favour on the believers when he raised among

them a Messenger from among themselves ...
3:163

He it is Who raised among the illiterates a Messenger from among

themselves ...
62:2

and not only did he, as Sprenger points out,28 belong to a pagan people which
had never before received any revelatory scriptures. The Qur 'an affirms in
clear-cut terms that Muhammad didst not recite before it any book, nor didst
thou transcribe one with thy right hand?9
Muhammad's enemies themselves must certainly have recognized the
Prophet's lack of education, for, wishing to explain the source of his
knowledge of ancient history, they did not say that he must have written it,
but that he must have had it written:

And they say: Stories of the ancients, which he has got written, so they are
read out to him morning and evening.
25:5

two very different forms which certain orientalists have confused with each
other. 30
Even supposing that the Prophet could read, there is yet another
insurmountable obstacle: at that time there was no Bible in Arabic, neither
an Old nor a New Testament. 31 Such foreign language documents were the
monopoly of bilingual sages, who kept them preciously guarded. The Qur 'an
 MECCAN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 107

describes them as so avaricious of their knowledge that they would hardly

concede to show a few sheets of the Pentateuch, taking great precautions in
such instances to hide the rest of it:

... you make it into (scattered) papers, which you show and you conceal
much ...
6:92

At Medina, it denounced their other means of dissimulation:

And there is certainly a party of them who lie about the Book ...
3:77

Woe! then to those who write the Book with their hands then say: This is
from Allah; so that they may take for it a small price ...
2:79

In any case, history gives us no suggestion of any contact between the

Prophet and the learned world before the Hijra. If one wishes to rely on
uncontrolled generalities, one could doubtless assume the existence of such
relations, opening the door to all kinds of speculation; but as soon as one has
to be more precise, this all of a sudden seems blatantly anachronistic. 32
So Muhammad could not have derived his religious ideas from Biblical
texts, directly or through the methodical instruction of competent teachers.
But is it not possible that he could have found them in the work of Arab
poets, be they Judaeo-Christian or assimilated?
First of all, the Qur 'an presents us with a Prophet so unfamiliar with
poetry that he considers it a game not meet for him:

And We have not taught him poetry, nor is it meet for him ...
36:69

But, had that not been the case, what kind of teaching could Muhammad
have culled from this kind of literature?
Certain poets, al-A'sha for instance, depicted the customs and religious
practices of the Church, notions of which no trace can be found in the
Qur 'an. They particularly concentrated on the imbibing of wine, which, far
from borrowing, the Qur 'an dealt a definite blow against. So the Qur 'an
cannot be linked with this kind of poetry.
Yet there is another genre of poetry which is almost entirely devoted to
religious ideas. Our most striking example is the verses of Umayya bin
Abi 1-Salt. His two favourite themes seem to be the description of future life
and accounts of religious antiquity, often couched in the same terms as the
108 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

Qur'an. Why should we not see in them, then, the model on which the
Qur'an was framed?
If we could establish the necessary conditions for making such an
alignment, this would in fact be a most precious discovery, freeing us, once
and for all, of the burden of giving supernatural explanations. We could say
that the authors who saw the verses ofUmayya as the linkjoining the Qur'an
to the Bible surmised correctly. 33
The first step necessary for us to uphold such a thesis would be the
establishment, or postulation, of the authenticity of the verses in question.
We do not intend to stir up difficulties on this point. Although our suspicions
may be raised by literary collectors like I:Iammad and Khalaf al-A}Jmar, who
fabricated verses and ascribed them to the ancients, mixing them in with
their own, it would be excessively mistrustful to extend such behaviour into
all Arab poetry in general, or all pre-Islamic poetry in particular.
Textual authenticity alone is not sufficient to establish one text as the
original among two similar works: it must also be proven to be the anterior.
This problem is historically insoluble in the context of the verses of Umayya
and the Qur'an. Not only were Muhammad and Umayya contemporaries,
and almost the same age, but Umayya continued to compose for about eight
years after the last verse of the Meccan suras, in which certain resemblances
with the verse of Umayya are to be encountered, had been revealed. It
would, at the very least, be rather rash to maintain that his were the first in
date.
Furthermore, Umayya never took it upon himself to be an original, nor did
he pride himself on prophetic inspiration; he often admitted his deceit, and
his regrets, in regard to this subject. This leads one to believe that he was
drawn to make a pastiche, in a spirit of rivalry.
Muhammad, in contrast, always maintained in the most solemn manner
that he did not gain his teaching from any man. Consider the enemies of the
Prophet, always on the lookout for the slightest vulnerability they could use
in their attacks on him, to turn him into a laughing stock. Would it not have
been easier for them to point the finger at him for obviously plagiarizing
such recent writing, than to direct their reasoning in all directions, trying all
kinds of hypotheses and going as far as madness itself, in at attempt to
explain the Qur'anic phenomenon?
Whence we conclude, if not with certainty, at least with a feeling of very
great probability, that it was the Qur'an which served as the basis for the
literature of its time, as it certainly was to do in the epoch which followed it.
And we do not wrong the poetic art if we state that, in contrast to the
Qur'an, it does not guarantee the exclusivity of its sources. The poet is not so
much concerned with the truth of the idea which he puts forward, as with the
attractiveness of the form in which it is presented. He is free to seek his
 MECCAN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 109

materials wherever he may find them: in the wisdom of the ancients or the
moderns, in the facts of experience or in popular opinion, in sentiments or in
absurd imaginings.
Now an internal critical faculty shows us in the verses of Umayya the
presence of an entire range of different sources. Huart himself remarked
upon it. Thus when the poet talks of hell, he borrows the language of the
Bible; when he describes paradise, he uses Qur'anic terminology; when he
speaks of sacred history, he has recourse to popular legend and to myth,
where the same character is sometimes presented as a man, sometimes as an
animal or a plant.
A final category remains in our exploration of possible exterior sources -
popular culture.
We do not wish to go so far as to deprive the youthful Muhammad of any
knowledge-by-hearsay of all preceding religions. It would seem to us
untenable to pretend that he lived in splendid isolation, more ignorant than
his own people, and these people do appear to us through the Qur 'an as
possessing some notion of previous revelations.
For example, they demand from the Prophet signs of divinity similar to
those which his predecessors had brought:

... so let him bring to us a sign such as the former (prophets) were sent
(with).
21:5

contrast his doctrine of unity with what they understand of the last teaching
that was revealed:

We never heard of this in the former faith: this is nothing but a forgery.
38:7

and compare the cult of Jesus with that of their own idols:

And when the son of Mary is mentioned as an example, lo! thy people raise
a clamour thereat. And they say: Are our gods better, or is he? They set it
forth to thee only by way of disputation. Nay, they are a contentious people.
43:57-8

It is easy to imagine that other elements of biblical knowledge were

popularly disseminated, thanks to the mixture of religions that the Peninsula
offered. However, several factors prevent us from giving too great a rein to
our imagination: the lack of propaganda, and the dissimulation of the
religious leaders; the rarity, the scattered nature, and above all the ignorance
of those who converted; the racial prejudice of the ancient Arabs, and their
110 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

lack of interest in questions that did not touch directly on their own
immediate affairs or their own history; the absence in their literature, apart
from one exception, of any religious themes.
It is very revealing to look at how much the attention of even those who
had travelled and learned more was drawn to things unconnected with
religious matters. Accordingly, al-Na<;lr bin al-l:liirith, when he wanted to try
to compete with Qur 'anic recitations, recounted to his audience the legends
of the ancient kings of Persia and the exploits of its heroes, Rustam and
Isfandiyar, not the history of patriarchs and prophets. 34 And what does the
poet al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani sing about in his poetry? King Solomon, Huart
informs us. 35 It was always the glamour of worldly life that attracted them.
Faced with the effective silence of history on the degree of bookish
knowledge this illiterate and indifferent people actually possessed,· all that
one can reasonably attribute to them are the rather vague and rudimentary
notions discussed above. These could not throw much light on the origin of
the Qur 'an: neither its range, its precision, nor its profundity.
It is, in fact, inconceivable that these people of the time of ignorance
could have shared to any degree the intellectual baggage of its few learned
men. At no time in history, even with the most civilized and educated
peoples, do we see such a rapprochement between the profane and the
competent. Only he who possesses its secret can speak with exactitude and
certainty about the atomic bomb; others can only eternally repeat its name,
never knowing its formula. But this is a deductive piece of reasoning, valid
only in the absence of any positive information.
The Qur 'an itself does not remain silent on the novelty of its teaching to
the Arabs, including the Prophet himself. Many times, in mentioning such
and such episode of sacred history, it will state that Muhammad, no less than
his own people, was not at all familiar with this history before he became
acquainted with his mission:

This is of the tidings of things unseen which We reveal to thee. And thou
wast not with them when they cast their pens (to decide) which of them
should have Mary in his charge, and thou wast not with them when they
contended one with another.
3:43

These are announcements relating to the unseen which We reveal to thee;

thou didst not know them- (neither) thou nor thy people- before this ...
11:49

We narrate to thee the best of narratives, in that We have revealed to thee

this Qur' dn, though before this thou wast of those unaware.
12:3
 MECCAN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN Ill

This is of the announcements relating to the unseen (which) We reveal to

thee, and thou wast not with them when they resolved upon their affair, and
they were devising plans.
12:102

If it were otherwise, what answer would he have heard from his adversaries?
Even supposing that certain details had infiltrated popular belief, could
Muhammad so naively have given credence to the authority of the masses,
when he had always shown himself as mistrustful of the learned?
And to which one current idea in that Babylon of religions would he have
accorded the most credence; the pagans, the Sabaeans, the Magi, the Jews,
and the Christians each presented truth in their own fashion. How would he
have come to a firm conclusion amidst these contradictory statements?
Indeed, if he had wished to tell us what each community, each sect, and each
branch of each sect professed, what a monstrous mixture we should have had
in the Qur 'an:

And if it were from any other than Allah, they would have found in it many a
discrepancy.
4:82

Here it seems necessary to bring in a new factor: the personality

coefficient.
One could suppose that during his brief retreats just before the first
inspiration, or even during the pastoral solitude of his youth, this 'dreamer'
might have dedicated himself to deep meditation on the real truth of such
matters, and having reflected, made his choice.
A distinction must be made here between two domains of human
knowledge: the empirical and the rational. Human history will not .bend to
our logic; there are absurdities in history which contradict our reasonings.
Muhammad could not have discovered through turning in on himself that
such and such an event happened at such and such a date. It is precisely the
parallelism between sacred history in the Qur 'an and the preceding
scriptures that most often prompts the search for possible means by which
such concordance could have been effected.
Since rational meditations have no effect on the empirical plane they are,
without doubt, an excellent medium for the unveiling of eternal truths. What
is the impact of pure reason on matters of religion? Very limit<~d, one must
admit. Of course, it does serve to expose falsity, stupidity, the folly of
idolatry and superstition. But once these extravagances have been
eliminated, what is to be built in their place? No doctrine has ever been
founded on negative notions alone.
112 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

At this first stage, Muhammad must have found himself in the same
position as the l)anif, that is to say, perplexed and anguished. At least, that is
what the Qur 'an leads us to believe. It describes him as heavy-hearted on the
eve of the revelation, groaning as if weighed down by a crushing burden:

Have We not expanded for thee thy breast, and removed from thee thy
burden, which weighed down thy back?
94:1-3

We freely grant that the first stage of this research was covered fast, and
the most fundamental truths soon, even early, uncovered. But to know God
the Creator is not everything there is to religious knowledge in the Qur 'an,
and the path to this knowledge is very long and tortuous, if not completely
closed to human intelligence.
By what illumination did Muhammad discover the incalculable Divine
Attributes, the relationship between God and the visible and invisible
worlds, the destiny which He reserved for man after death, without ever
falling back on any previous truth but at the same time maintaining a striking
concordance with the given facts of the scriptures as preserved by the
learned?
It is clear that pure intelligence, unguided by positive teachings, is
incapable of advancing with such a sure and clairvoyant step along this path.
And the Qur 'an confirms this truth with relation to our current case,
declaring that when Muhammad was taken over by the revelation, he knew
nothing of faith or scripture, quite apart from the diverse aspects of
legislation contained in the Qur 'an, be they moral, social or ritual.
In what ways should a cult to God be established? What is the best code
of conduct for the individual, for society and for humanity? Of all this
Muhammad was ignorant. Would he have known how to guide others in
religious matters when he did not know how to guide himself?:

And find thee groping, so He showed the way?

93:7
 8
Medinan Sources of the Qur 'an
Whether a change of milieu and contact with
peoples possessing scriptures had any effect on the
conduct of the Prophet or his teaching

After the rapid tour of the horizon we have just completed, which ended
everywhere in a negative result, we might be tempted to immediately go on
to our conclusions, were it not for the fact that there was a change in the
course of the Prophet's mission.
This change does not come about at the beginning of the revelatory
period, and that is why we have dealt with the Meccan phase as a whole,
making no distinction between the time before and during revelation.
Though, since it is a matter of trying to find a human origin for the Qur 'an
we ought to have, and still should, set aside the possibility that the Qur 'an is
a self-originated phenomenon.
But putting this argument to one side for the time being, we can state that
during the first half of Muhammad's mission, that is to say during his
sojourn in Mecca, not only did the conditions of his surroundings remain
unchanged, but the possibility of his having access to exterior information
tended to diminish.
As soon as the Prophet launched his first message, he emerged into
history proper. More and more were his steps counted, his relations with
others observed, and, while the opposition and the persecution steadily
increased, so did his independence, his conviction and the tone of authority
in his teaching.
Given the extreme dearth, if not the total lack, of usable sources during
the pre-Hijra period, the hypothesis that Muhammad may have received

113
114 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

instruction from a human source now tends to be pretty much abandoned

after the Hijra.
With the Hijra, however, a considerable change did take place:
Muhammad was transported from a pagan, ignorant and hostile environment
to a welcoming, friendly atmosphere, surrounded by strong and devoted
disciples. Furthermore, from this point on he was in contact with an
organized religious community in possession of a sacred Book, namely the
Jews of Medina. Would there not be in this new era and this new
environment fruitful ground for historical research and doctrinal
rapprochement?
Let us consider first of all the general disposition of the Qur 'anic spirit,
even well before the Hijra, to see whether it would have truly seen this new
environment as representing revealed virtue and, in consequence, worthy of
emulation.
It is strange to observe the striking contrast between the Qur 'anic .attitude
towards the Judaic world, and its attitude towards Christians. When it speaks
specifically about Christians, if it does not exactly praise them:

... and thou wilt find the nearest in friendship to the believers to be those
who say, We are Christians ...
5:82

it at least accords blame in a relatively attenuated tone:

And with those who say, We are Christians, We made a covenant, but they
neglected a portion of that whereof they were reminded so We stirred up
enmity and hatred among them to the day of Resurrection ...
5:14

It is not the same when it turns to the Jews of the time, or the People of
the Book in general. To the Qur 'an, these are no longer people who follow
the revelation, but rather they are satanically inspired:

By Allah! We certainly sent (messengers) to nations before thee, but the

devil made their deeds fair-seeming to them. So he is their patron to-day ...
16:63

Alluding to the torture by fire in the ditch, which the Jews of the Yemen
had inflicted upon Christians, it takes the side of the latter, pronouncing this
crime a premeditated attack against true belief:
 MEDIN AN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN ll5

Destruction overtake the companions of the trench! -the fire fed with fuel-
when they sit by it. And they are witnesses of what they do with the
believers. And they punished them for naught but that they believed in Allah
85:4-8

Later, in Medina, not only does the Qur'an maintain this position; it
increases its condemnation. Those who have received the Pentateuch and
cultivated the letter of the law, it proclaims, do not observe it with faith:

The likeness of those who were charged with the Torah, then they observed
it not, is as the likeness of the ass carrying books ...
62:5

They practice usury and take advantage of all kinds of illicit means of
gaining wealth:

And for their taking usury - though indeed they were forbidden it - and
their devouring the property of people falsely ...
4:161

Thanks to a religious illusion, they allow themselves to corrupt and lie:

Woe! then to those who write the Book with their hands then say, This is
from Allah; so that they may take for it a small price ... And they say: Fire
will not touch us but for a few days ...
2:79-80

They believe that they cannot be held to any kind of justice, nor do they have
any obligation towards other communities:

... and among them is he who, if thou entrust him with a dinar would not
pay it back to thee, unless thou kept on demanding it. This is because they
say there is no blame on us in the matter of the unlearned people ...
3:75

Is it not astonishing to suppose that these people whom the Qur 'an judges
so severely could serve as a model, or a source of instruction? Nonetheless,
however illogical this hypothesis may be, it ought not prevent us from
examining its argument.
An a priori judgement can be contradicted by facts, and one must
welcome with gratitude all serious research that has for its aim the disclosure
of an unknown corner of the truth. Doubt as method (Descartes) is, in our
eyes, a salutary principle, as indispensible to faith as it is to knowledge.
116 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

After all, what is the good of having a faith built upon moving sand? Error
and its favourite stronghold, the prejudiced, are every sincere conscience's
biggest enemy: it must always be sought out and chased away, even if it is
concealed behind truths which would seem to be sufficiently demonstrated.
When we see the moon changing phases according to its position in
relation to the sun, we judge correctly that it is from the sun that it gains its
light. Should we judge the Muhammadan revelations in the same way, when
we see them evolve, modify themselves or retract in relation to their contact
with the intellectual environment of Medina? That is what several European
authors have tried to establish.
Without searching too deeply, most of them have been struck by two
general aspects that they have regarded as incompatible with the divinity of
the message. Their greatest argument centres around the belligerent attitude
that was adopted in Medina, which seemed to be an about-turn in
comparison with the previous period. When one adds to this the polygamy of
the Prophet near the end of his life, Islamic morality in its final phase is
totally ruined in their eyes; though they may well recognize the highest value
in the suffering, persecuted, emergent Islam at Mecca and its pacifist,
monogamous founder, they are unable to look without horror at 'his hands
steeped in blood, surrounded by his cortege of women'.
The basis of argumentation easily discernible beneath the impressionistic
style of these Christian authors cannot be taken seriously, for if they argued
otherwise it would destroy part of their own faith in the final biblical
teaching of Christ. This double argument must needs be invoked in its
defence. Does it not, then, proceed from sentiment rather than from rigorous
reasoning?
We have already sufficiently demonstrated the real position of Qur'anic
law regarding the first argument above. 1 There is therefore no need to repeat
it here.
As for the second argument, it hardly touches upon the object of our
study, which is the Qur 'an, and not the person of the Prophet. But, seeing as
the Book does shed some light on the private life of its Messenger, we shall
demonstrate what it shows.
From the Qur 'an we can reconstruct an intimate portrait of the Prophet
through the following qualities: sensibility, will and faith.
By his very nature he was, of course, a human being like his predecessors:

And We sent not before thee any but men to whom We sent revelation; so
ask the followers of the Reminder if you know not. Nor did We give them
bodies not eating food, nor did they abide.
21:7-8
 MEDIN AN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 117

Like everyone else, he had to feed himself and try to earn a living:

And We did not send before thee any messengers but they surely ate food
and went about in the markets ...
25:20

He had wives and children, like several of the others:

And certainly We sent messengers before thee and appointed for them wives
and children ...
13:38

and he was not above the simple appreciation of human beauty:

It is not allowed to thee to take wives after this, nor to change them for
other wives, though their beauty be pleasing to thee ...
33:52

But since we are agreed on defining morality here -control over his own
desires rather than insensibility - we must bring in a second factor: will. In
this respect we see Muhammad capable of such strong abstention that he
absolutely forbids himself things that are permitted, simply in order to avoid
misunderstanding:

0 Prophet, why dost thou forbid (thyselfj that which Allah has made lawful
for thee?
66:1

Thus it was that 'A 'isha said that no one had such mastery over his senses as
he had?
Finally, the Prophet submitted himself absolutely to the Divine
commandments. This transcended his personal views and tendencies. Let us
cite, in order of occurrence, the Qur 'anic rules which first of all laid down
the categories of women whom he could marry:

0 Prophet, We have made lawful to thee thy wives whom thou hast given
their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesses, out of those whom
Allah has given thee as prisoners of war, and the daughters of thy paternal
uncles and the daughters of thy paternal aunts, and the daughters of thy
maternal uncles and the daughters of thy maternal aunts who fled with thee;
and a believing woman, if she gives herself to the Prophet, if the Prophet
desire to marry her ...
33:50
118 INTRODUCf!ON TO THE QUR 'AN

and then, at a given moment, formally forbade him to undertake a new

marriage, however much he wished to, or to substitute other wives for the
ones he had.
These regulations culminated in the case of the divorced wife of the
Prophet's adopted son Zayd, the only marriage specifically mentioned in the
Qur'an:

And when thou saidst to him to whom Allah had shown favour and to whom
thou hadst shown a favour: Keep thy wife to thyself and keep thy duty to
Allah; and thou concealest in thy heart what Allah would bring to light, and
thou fearedst men, and Allah has a greater right that thou shouldst fear
Him. So when Zaid dissolved her marriage-tie, We gave her to thee as a
wife, so that there should be no difficulty for the believers about the wives of
their adopted sons, when they have dissolved their marriage-tie. And
Allah's command is ever performed.
33:37

We see Muhammad trying to avoid this union, but having it imposed upon
him by Qur 'anic law in order to put an end (not only by teaching, as the
Prophet had wanted, but also by example) to the pagan regime of adoption,
by virtue of which the adopted son was made an entirely legitimate son. We
could literally call this a duty marriage, contracted despite the strongest of
feelings against it.
When we examine the circumstances under which the Prophet's other
marriage contracts took place, we find that most were imposed, certainly not
by such necessary legislation, but by other, more human considerations. To
console and honour the widow of a martyr, for instance, or of someone who
died while emigrating with his companions; in several instances to cement a
co-tribal union by the bond of sacred parenthood; to create a favourable
atmosphere when captives of an entire tribe were freed, after having already
been in the hands of the Muslims, in the light of their new relationship with
the Prophet; and so on.
But one does not have to be an erudite historian in order to be able to
appreciate the moral character of a man who passed his youth in absolute
chastity then, once married, observed the most loyal monogamous state for
30 years, and who finally took a second wife at the age of 55. 3 If one
considers, moreover, Muhammad's occupations and preoccupations, his
responsibilities and his very varied concerns, both public and private, his
leading the five prayers from dawn to night, teaching the Qur 'an, distributing
the communal alms, resolving disputes, receiving delegations, corresponding
with kings and governors, commanding expeditions, constituting the law,
founding an empire - basically, to concern himself with everything - and on
 MEDIN AN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 119

top of that his keeping vigil at night, prostrate, on his knees, or standing,
regarding the heavens, one is led to think that motives other than self-
gratification must have been behind the institution of polygamy.4
Certain orientalists have taken their research into the sacred text of Islam
further than these popular objections against war and polygamy. They
believe they have found a radical difference between the two periods in the
Qur 'anic teaching.
In Mecca, the Judaeo-Christian stories in the Qur 'an remained 'in a
sketchy state'. 5 It was at Medina that the first encounters with the Jews
enabled Muhammad 'to familiarize himself with the history of Abraham and
the genealogical relationships with Isma'il and the Arab people'. 6 He had
'lived first of all under the agreeable illusion that his preaching, his Qur 'an,
corresponded completely with the holy Books of the Jews and Christians.
The sharp opposition of the Jews of Medina convinced him to the contrary. '7
Similarly, in the beginning the prayer took place twice a day, morning and
evening. At Medina a third was added, that of the afternoon, 'evidently in
order to imitate the customs of the Jewish community. '8 The day of 'Ashura'
was instituted for the same reason, as was the orientation of the prayer
towards Jerusalem, 9 both concessions which were later to be retracted
because of the hostility of the Israelites. 10 Thus, ritual reflected political
change. 11 Even the concept of God was modified under the influence of the
bellicose attitude of the Medinan period: 'His sternness against hardened
mischief-makers was combined with His quality of mercy. ' 12
Let us go back to the beginning and see whether there is any substance to
these observations.
As regards the Judaeo-Christian stories in general, we are afraid to say
that we have found nothing which could justify, either remotely or directly,
such a remark. A simple consultation of the text reveals quite the contrary: it
is in the Meccan suras that we find laid out in their smallest detail the
diverse episodes of Biblical history .13 All that was left to the Medinan period
was the task of drawing lessons from these, often from the briefest of
allusions.
As regards the particular question of Abraham, I do not know of another
people with such a pronounced taste for the science of genealogy as the
Arabs. Their members tenaciously kept the succession of their ancestors
alive in their memories, often as far back as 20 generations. Is it likely that
such a people lived in ignorance of their origin until the last moment? If the
existence in their midst of the temple of the Ka'ba, parts of which carried the
names of Abraham and Isma'il, did not constitute for them a living and
permanent witness of their link with these glorious names, they must have
known through the Jews who were their neighbours for several centuries
before the Hijra.
120 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

In any case, the Qur 'an does not appear to have awaited Muhammad's
transfer to Medina in order to establish this link - the Meccan suras already
mention it:

[Abraham said] Our Lord, I have settled a part of my offspring in a valley

unproductive of fruit near Thy Sacred House, our Lord, that they may keep
up prayer ...
14:37

More than that, they enjoin the Prophet to follow the l:lanifite confession of
Abraham:

Then We revealed to thee: Follow the faith of Abraham, the upright one;
and he was not of the polytheists.
16:123

And did the attitude of Islam with regard to the preceding religions evolve
in its new residence? Here again we have recourse to the text.
In the Meccan suras, the Qur 'an constantly calls to witness the people
who have knowledge of the Scriptures:

... Say: Allah is sufficient for a witness between me and you and whoever
has knowledge of the Book.
13:43

We see it make a stand against those possessors of Scripture who have

followed Satan and allied themselves with him:

By Allah! We certainly sent (messengers) to nations before thee, but the

devil made their deeds fair-seeming to them. So he is their patron to-day ...
16:63

At Medina he maintains his position with regard to the scholars whose

knowledge he always takes as witness, though a certain number amongst
them do not wish to bear this witness:

... And those who have been given the Book certainly know that it is the
truth from their Lord ...
2:144

Those whom We have given the Book recognize him as they recognize their
sons. And a party of them surely conceal the truth while they know.
2:146
 MEDIN AN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 121

In both of these cases, the Qur 'an makes a clear distinction between the holy
Books and the scholars who follow them faithfully on the one hand, and, on
the other, those who call themselves Jews or Christians but follow nothing
other than their own desires.
As far as the number of Muslim prayers is concerned, we must say that in
all the Muslim works which we have been able to consult, we have nowhere
found any indication of such an evolution. It is regrettable that the Western
critics do not tell us from which sources they have derived this idea.
According to all the information at our command, Muslim prayers numbered
five from the very first hour of their institution at Mecca. The Prophet
established them thus with all the necessary precision, and the Qur 'an makes
brief reference to them in several places:

So glory be to Allah when you enter the evening and when you enter the
morning. And to Him be praise in the heavens and the earth, and in the
afternoon, and when the sun declines.
30:17-18

... celebrate the praise of thy Lord before the rising of the sun and before its
setting, and glorify (Him) during the hours of the night and parts of the day,
that thou mayest be well pleased.
20:130

And keep up prayer at the two ends of the day and in the first hours of the
night ...
11:114

Keep up prayer from the declining of the sun till the darkness of the night,
and the recital of the Qur' an at dawn ...
17:78

Perhaps a misunderstanding slipped into the minds of these authors through

an inadequate interpretation of the word duliik in the last of these passages?
As for the day of 'Ashiini', to which the Qur'an does not allude, we know
from the traditionists that the Qurayshites practised the fast on this day
before the advent of Islam, and that the Prophet himself observed it before
the Hijra. 14 We know, furthermore, that this observance remains
recommended by the ftadlth. 15 To say that the Prophet took. his original
decision in order to imitate the Jews, and then reversed this decision because
of political changes, would be to make statements that do not fit the facts.
And as for the qibla, while it is true that the believers briefly, at the
beginning of the Hijra, turned to Jerusalem to perform their prayer, it would
be anachronistic to suggest that the hostility of the Jews somehow caused
122 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

this direction to be replaced by that of the Ka'ba. Hostilities did not

commence until 625, while the definitive regulation of the qibla took place
in 623. Moreover this replacement is sufficiently explained in the Qur'an:

The fools among the people will say: "What has turned them from their
qiblah which they had?" Say: The East and the West belong only to Allah;
He guides whom He pleases to the right path ... We shall surely make thee
master of the qiblah which thou likest; turn then thy face towards the
Sacred Mosque ...
2:142-4

All that now remains is the Qur 'anic concept of God. Reference to the text
will show us whether the God of Islam changed, as far as the Qur 'an's
representation of Him is concerned, between the pre- and post-Hijra periods.
The Qur'an always speaks of God as universal Retributor for the good as
much as for the bad, and the Meccan suras accordingly furnish us with both
modes of retribution:

... Surely thy Lord is Quick in requiting (evil), and He is surely the
Forgiving, the Merciful.
6:166

... And surely thy Lord is full of forgiveness for mankind notwithstanding
their iniquity. And surely thy Lord is Severe in requiting.
13:6

The suras revealed at Medina, just as much as those at Mecca, begin with In
the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. It is hence patently
unnecessary for us to set out to prove that the love of God for those who
were charitable, just, patient and pure, and His hatred for the unjust, the
proud and the unfaithful, are presented without change in the two periods.
What does deserve to be contradicted is the specific remark put forward
by our critics, for it is, in fact, in the Meccan suras that the God of battle
appears the most frequently. It is here that we find the histories of a
transgressing antiquity, and the terrible punishments undergone as a
consequence: they act as a constant, implicit warning to towns in the process
of taking the same path.
Furthermore, if we examine the text more closely, we can see that the
struggle ordained against the aggressors at Medina was no less than the
execution of an explicit ultimatum already given at Mecca:
 MEDIN AN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 123

What do they wait for, then, but the like of the days of those who passed
away before them? ...
10:102

And say to those who believe not: Act according to your power, surely we
too are acting; and wait, surely we are waiting (also).
11:121-2

And there is not a town but We will destroy it before the day of Resurrection
or chastise it with a severe chastisement. That is written in the Book.
17:58

Underlying this last objection, as at the origin of so many others, is an

error we would like to talk more about: the idea which is often formed of the
notion of naskh (abrogation) in Islam. 16 This notion was sometimes seen by
the Islamicists as the retraction of an order, sometimes as the discovery of a
truth previously unknown. Yet neither the one nor the other definition
correspond exactly to what is really intended.
In the realm of knowledge, there is never, nor could there ever be, an
abrogator or an abrogated in revealed doctrine: yesterday's truth could not be
yesterday's mistake. For then 'abrogation' would mean 'knowledge recently
acquired', which would be an impiety if applied to God, not to say an
absurdity.
But in the practical domain there have been abrogations, as much at the
heart of one faith as from one faith to another - You have been told such; I
say to you such and such other. In what sense should we understand such a
change? For a law to be abrogated, must it have been inimical or badly
conceived in the first place?
Though such thinking is admissible in our human institutions, it certainly
is not when it is a matter of Divine law. God never goes back on His
decisions, and He does not change His mind. Both the rule whose
application He causes to cease and that which He substitutes for it carry the
stamp of sanctity. Each of them is the imposition of wisdom for the time for
which they were made. Whether it is a matter of progress or regression, of
indulgence or severity, it is not in the concept of Legislator that the change
resides; but in changing historical circumstances and the subsequent need for
varied solutions.
Sometimes, the text which establishes the first measure expressly carries
the title of 'provisional law':

... But pardon and forgive, till Allah bring about His command.
2:109
124 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

... call to witness against them four (witnesses) from among you; so if they
bear witness, confine them to the houses until death takes them away or
Allah opens a way for them [through new legislation].
4:15

but, more often than not, this classification is implied. One does not realize it
until the other law has followed. This could give the impression of an
improvised solution, but in reality everything was planned in advance and
exactly scaled to fit determined eventualities:

... And We did not make that which thou wouldst have to be the qiblah but
that We might distinguish him who follows the Messenger from him who
turns back upon his heels ...
2:143

We would all agree that a good legislator would not treat men in their
transitional phase in the same manner that he would when their evolution
was complete. On the contrary, just like a doctor, he would change their
regimen according to the development of their aptitude and capacity for
assimilation. Far from being a fault, this progression in doctrine and
legislation is the most appropriate method for forming clear, mature souls,
disciplined nations and solid customs.
The observations by European authors we have just examined have as
their central objective the need to prove, by internal analysis of Qur 'anic
teachings, the existence of borrowings from religious documents in Medina.
The only way they could have succeeded in this aim would have been
indirectly, establishing a connection between the information the Prophet
had, and that possessed by people of the Scriptures.
But why should we not take the direct route, and put our finger on the
person or persons from whom Muhammad could have sought instruction?
No historian aware of his responsibility to objective knowledge has dared to
do it, but how could it be that, living amongst them, this man could have had
no contact with Jewish savants? What was their attitude towards him?
The Qur 'an tells us, and divides them into classes.
The majority, already hostile long before Muhammad's arrival in their
territory, not only hid their knowledge from him, but on many occasions
tried fruitlessly to deceive him and lay traps for him. Sometimes, through the
mediation of their co-citizens, they asked him awkward questions about
revelation:

And they ask thee about the revelation. Say: The revelation is by the
commandment of my Lord ...
17:85
 MEDIN AN SOURCES OF THE QUR 'AN 125

or historical mysteries like the Seven Sleepers. 17 At other times they

demanded of him that he cause a book written in heaven to descend upon
them; and they denied certain articles of faith which figured in their
scriptures, but they did not keep unless they were challenged and shown up
for their fraud:

All food was lawful to the Children of Israel, before the Torah was
revealed, except that which Israel forbade itself Say: Bring the Torah and
read it, if you are truthful. So whoever forges a lie against Allah after this,
these are the wrong-doers.
3:92-3

And how do they make thee a judge and they have the Torah wherein is
Allah's judgement? ...
5:43

Hence we see a far from benevolent attitude on the part of people one might
have thought able to initiate the Prophet.
But a certain number of Israelite scholars did come, free of racial
prejudice and irrespective of personal ambition, to listen to the teaching of
the Prophet and examine his face. Recognizing it immediately by certain
precise signs contained in their Books, they bore witness to him of the
divinity of his mission:

Those to whom We have given the Book follow it as it ought to be followed.

These believe in it ...
2:121

Those whom We have given the Book recognize him as they recognize their
sons ...
2:146

Those who follow the Messenger-Prophet, the Ummi, whom they find
mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel. He enjoins them good and forbids
them evil ...
7:157

And when Jesus, son of Mary, said: 0 Children of Israel, surely I am the
messenger of Allah to you, verifying that which is before me of the Torah
and giving the good news of a Messenger who will come after me, his name
being A/:lmad. But when he came to them with clear arguments, they said:
This is clear enchantment.
61:6
126 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

The most famous name in this group is 'Abd Allah bin Sallam, and the
circumstances in which he testified very edifying. This man, who had been
recognized by the Jews as the most learned and virtuous amongst them up
until that point, was immediately disowned by them upon the declaration of
his conversion. 18
Between these two categories of hostility and submission, history leaves
no place for 'friendly teachers'. To say that Muhammad might have got his
instruction from 'AbdAllah bin Sallam would not only require altering the
story as given, reversing the roles of master and disciple; it would at the
same time be an evident anachronism. 19 All the substance of scriptural truth
was given and specified at Mecca, before these people even had the
opportunity to 'see the face of the Prophet'. 20 And a large part of the several
complementary episodes invoked at Medina are connected with Christian
truth, which the Jews do not recognize.
From this point onwards, resemblances between Qur 'anic exposition and
Judaeo-Christian teachings are accumulated in vain, 21 not so much useless,
as literally fabricating arms given by the Qur 'anic thesis itself:

And surely the same is in the Scriptures of the ancients. Is it not a sign to
them that the learned men of the Children of Israel know it?
26:196-7

Surely this is in the earlier scriptures, the scriptures of Abraham and

Moses.
87:18-19

But there still remains a vast difference between self-admitted concordance

and borrowings.
 Conclusion

We have examined in the light of the facts the hypothesis of a human origin
for Qur'anic doctrine. We have pursued its founder the length of his double
career, secular and sacred. We have looked at the town of his birth and his
final residence; his journeys and his relationships; his capacity to read and
the availability of documents.
All the means of investigation that we possess are unable to convince us
with any authority of the existence of straightforward physical means
through which Muhammad could have had such contact with holy doctrines.
Even if we persuade ourselves to exaggerate his personal knowledge through
hearsay, or augment the effects of the influence of his environment, these are
not sufficient explanation for the extremely extended and precise detail of
the colossal religious, historical, moral, legislative and cosmological work
which is the Qur 'an.
On the contrary, along with the prodigious phenomenon of inspiration, the
Qur 'an shows us the veritable whirlpool that took place in Muhammad's life,
turning him from man to Prophet. Here we have two lives clearly separated:

Say: If Allah had desired, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He
have made it known to you. I have lived among you a lifetime before it ...
10:16

Everything we know of Muhammad's secular career is reduced to one

essential truth:

And surely thou hast sublime morals.

68:4

During his youth, his biographers tell us, he was known by the name
Trustworthy, a man faithful and honest. In his daily occupations he never

127
128 INTRODUCflON TO THE QUR 'AN

allowed himself a dishonest act, nor did he participate in an idolatrous cult.

Even his enemies avow that he never lied: the most solemn testimony we
possess was made by the chief of the opposing faction, Abo Sufyan, who
was only to embrace Islam two years later. The Roman emperor Heraclius
concluded of him, If he does not lie to men, he is incapable of lying about
God.'
But apart from these, and other similar, practical characteristics, no light is
shed on any prior doctrinal knowledge, nor on a sense of prophetic vocation.
Muhammad did not know what a scripture was, nor the meaning of faith. He
was as unfamiliar with sacred history as his people:

This is of the tidings of things unseen which We reveal to thee. And thou
wast not with them when they cast their pens (to decide) which of them
should have Mary in his charge, and thou wast not with them when they
contended one with another.
3:43

These are announcements relating to the unseen which We reveal to thee;

thou didst not know them - neither thou nor thy people - before this ...
11:49

And thou wast not at the side of the mountain when We revealed to Moses
the commandment ...
28:44

He did not expect to play the part of one inspired by God:

And thou didst not expect that the Book would be inspired to thee, but it is a
mercy from thy Lord ...
28:86

He did not even know how to guide himself:

And find thee groping, so He showed the way?

93:7

Could the Prophet have tried to enquire into the laws of nature, or asked
himself questions about them? Maybe, but his answers could not have
transcended the vague notions one might call natural religion. True
knowledge and precise information in every domain would only be received
by him, drop by measured drop, over a space of 23 years.
Everyone knows that the Qur'an appeared in a way that was fragmentary,
intermittent and instantaneous. We can attach a more or less precise date to
each transmission, and Muhammad's contemporaries were very often
 CONCLUSION 129

present, first of all as eye-witnesses to the exterior signs of the mysterious

phenomenon of inspiration, and then as listeners of the admirable Text
which issued forthwith.
It was for Muhammad a lived experience, never provoked: something he
allowed to take place in complete passivity. He could neither escape from it
nor prepare himself to receive it when he had need.Z
It is here that one should seek the true source of his instruction. Each
lesson was for him a new and unedited chapter for his store of knowledge, a
lantern whose rays were extinguished just where the vibrations of the text
stopped. Beyond this light, the Prophet had ordinary human capacities. He
modestly and loyally put a great big question mark before the past, the
future, everything that was impenetrable to the light of healthy human
intelligence.
Whence did this inspiration gush forth? Was it not from the depths of his
own soul?
Facts prove the contrary. First of all, the ideas transmitted by these
inspirations generally took on an empirical or supra-rational character; thus
they were excluded from the domain of pure intellect, as they were from
sentiment limited to its ordinary resources. But what is more remarkable, and
makes a striking contrast with the inspirations of poets and philosophers, is
that it was not a question of ideas welling forth, it was pure phonetic
audition. Not only did the ideas not precede the words; they were not even
concomitant.
For the Prophet himself, this auditive phenomenon was initially somewhat
disconcerting. Wishing to capture an elusive discourse which he was to
transmit in its entirety to his people, he felt himself obliged to repeat it to
himself, word for word, as it was being received. Indeed, he did not cease to
use this procedure until he was given a formal instruction to desist, and a
guarantee that God would teach and explain it to him:

Move not thy tongue therewith to make haste with it. Surely on Us rests the
collecting of it and the reciting of it. So when We recite it, follow its
recitation. Again on Us rests the explaining of it.
75:16-19

On Us rests the explaining is a phrase which needs underlining, because it

means that we are dealing here with textual inspiration, pure and simple.
Moreover, it is well known what an infinitely pious attitude the Prophet
always maintained towards the revealed Text, and with what conviction he
held it to be the word of God. It is inconceivable that he might have made
the slightest change in it:
130 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

... Say: It is not for me to change it of my own accord ...

10:15

If he wished to interpret it, he did so in the manner of a commentator on a

text not his own. Compare:

Ask forgiveness for them or ask not forgiveness for them. Even if thou ask
forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will not forgive them ...
9:80

with:

It is alike to them whether thou ask forgiveness for them or ask not
forgiveness for them- Allah will never forgive them ...
63:6

We see him tremble at the idea of attributing to God anything, however

slight, that He has not said:

And if he had fabricated against Us certain sayings, We would certainly

have seized him by the right hand, then cut off his heart's vein. And not one
ofyou could have withheld Us from him.
69:44-7

He felt himself surrounded by celestial guardians, attentive observers of his

attitude towards his mission:

Except a messenger whom He chooses. For surely He makes a guard to go

before him and after him that He may know that they have truly delivered
the messages of their Lord ...
72:27-8

It is not true that the Qur 'an reflects the personality of the Prophet. Far
from it. Most of the time it passes him by in silence, and treats him as a total
abstraction. When it does mention him, it does so to judge, direct or
dominate him.
His joys and daily sufferings - the deep grief he felt at the death of his
children or friends, the Year of Mourning in which he lost his wife and uncle
and with them all the moral support which had sustained him during his
preaching campaign- do we see the slightest echo of these in the Qur'an?
But as soon as his life is concerned with a matter of moral conduct, we see
him in the grips of its legislative authority, as a subjected soul, the one often
opposing itself to the other as intransigence versus clemency, extreme
frankness versus timidity, patience versus impatience.
 CONCLUSION 131

And it is not rare for Qur 'anic teachings to contain severe reproaches for
the slightest deviation on the part of the Prophet in relation to the ideal
proposed: 3

It is not fit for a prophet to take captives unless he has fought and
triumphed in the land. You desire the frail goods of this world, while Allah
desires (for you) the Hereafter ...
8:67-8

Allah pardon thee! Why didst thou permit them until those who spoke the
truth had become manifest to thee and thou hadst known the liars?
9:43

It is not for the Prophet and those who believe to ask forgiveness for the
polytheists, even though they should be near relatives, after it has become
clear to them that they are companions of the flaming fire.
9:113

He frowned and turned away, because the blind man came to him. And what
would make thee know that he might purify himself, or be mindful, so the
Reminder should profit him?
80:1-4

As soon as he is not in possession of an order or a precise teaching from

this Source, the Muhammad we see in the Qur 'an is by nature timid:

... Surely this gives the Prophet trouble, but he forbears from you ...
33:53

sensitive to what is being said of him:

... and thou fearedst men, and Allah has a greater right that thou shouldst
fear Him ...
33:37

hesitant, consulting his companions about matters:

... So pardon them and ask protection for them, and consult them in
(important) matters ...
3:158

observing complete abstention in matters of the slightest doubt:

132 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

0 Prophet, why dost thou forbid (thyself) that which Allah has made lawful
for thee? Seekest thou to please thy wives?
66:1

avowing ignorance of his own destiny, as of those of others:

Say: I know not whether that which you are promised is nigh or if my Lord
will appoint for it a distant term.
72:25

Say: I am not the first of the messengers, and I know not what will be done
with me or with you. I follow naught but that which is revealed to me ...
46:9

But as soon as Muhammad is illuminated by this mysterious voice, he

transmits this Message with the authority of a master whom nothing in the
world can bring down. He takes on the role of universal precepter, for the
instructed as much as for the ignorant:

... And say to those who have been given the Book and the Unlearned
(people): Do you submit yourselves? If they submit, then indeed they follow
the right way; and if they turn back, thy duty is only to deliver the message
3:19

Long before the Hijra, the Prophet declares it an essential part of his
mission to bring enlightenment to the people of Israel, and to all the nations
who had already received a Divine message. He is charged with telling them
the truth on the subjects of their disputes:

And We have not revealed to thee the Book except that thou mayest make
clear to them that wherein they differ ...
16:64

Surely this Qur' an declares to the Children of Israel most of that wherein
they differ.
27:76

In pronouncing his judgements, he never beats about the bush. Direct,

with a firm and undeviating step, he cleaves and decides:

... be steadfast as thou art commanded, and follow not their low desires,
and say: I believe in what Allah has revealed of the Book, and I am
commanded to do justice between you ...
42:15
 CONCLUSION 133

In this disengaged, decisive attitude we see no trace of mere eclecticism,

nor of cold, calculating intelligence, capable of today rejecting what it
adopted yesterday, tomorrow demolishing what it built today. Beyond his
unbending resolve we easily discern a force quite other than that of
personality. That is why the Prophet shows an imperturbable countenance in
the face of the powers of the world, and throughout the crucial hours of his
life, absolutely confident of the Divine presence and His solicitude:

... he said to his companion: Grieve not, surely Allah is with us ...
9:40

That is why, while the sceptics retreat, the Prophet, infinitely sure of the
divinity of his mission, voluntarily exposes himself and those close to him to
the consequences of the mubahala (ordeal), that solemn prayer when the
chastisement of God is called down upon liars: 4

... then let us be earnest in prayer, and invoke the curse of Allah on the
liars.
3:60

Thus it is that, in the presence of an infinite number of sufficiently

tangible proofs, Christian seekers of impartial truth recognize in the Arab
Prophet a sincerity which is both communicative and psychologically
extremely convincing. 5
It could be argued, however, that this psychologically convincing sincerity
is not necessarily the result of true veracity, or the active Power behind the
revelations. The inspired person could, in fact, be the victim of unconscious
illusion: he could suddenly see ideas and expressions he believes to be
totally new surging into his spirit, when in reality he is doing no more than
remixing old material that has lain dormant and forgotten in his soul; newly
acquired knowledge could seem in his eyes to be the stuff of inspiration,
give rise in him to the same conviction as his personal inspirations, without
him giving attention to their true origin.
But these illusions and weaknesses of memory are symptomatic of a more
or less abnormal mental state. From the double aspect of both subject and
object, this is far from applicable in the present case.
From the point of view of the object, therefore, and inasmuch as history
can enlighten us on this point, we would be dealing either with a work
derived from popular sources or with vague and contradictory rumours. But
neither of these can explain the single-minded integrity of the line taken by
the Qur'an, or its trenchant and decisive progression.
134 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

As for the subject, there is no indication that Muhammad suffered from

the slightest mental failing. Quite the contrary. We can do no better here than
to record the statement of Renan (without, however, adopting his
conclusion): 6

Never was a head more lucid than his; never did a man have better
command over his thought than he.

It is true that subjectivity is unable to distinguish between the state of

waking and of sleeping: dreaming or awake, one is equally convinced that
one is exercising one's senses and being confronted by reality. But it is
through the confrontation of the facts of the two systems, by the degree of
their concordance or discordance, that one can judge with certitude their
objectivity.
Having had experience of the two states, Muhammad speaks to us, wide
awake, of his double contact with the visible and the invisible, with matter
and spirit. For him it was an experience that he lived, a thousand times
repeated and verified. Not only did he hear in all clarity the word of God as
revealed, but he saw it with his own eyes; sharply, in its majestic form:

Surely it is the word of a bountiful Messenger, the possessor of strength,

established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne, one (to be) obeyed,
and faithful. And your companion is not mad. And truly he saw himself on
the clear horizon. Nor is he niggardly of the unseen. Nor is it the word of an
accursed devil.
81:19-25

and several times:

By the star when it sets! Your companion errs not, nor does he deviate. Nor
does he speak out of desire. It is naught but revelation that is revealed-
One Mighty in Power has taught him, the Lord of Strength. So he attained
to perfection, and he is in the highest part of the horizon. Then he drew
near, drew nearer yet, so he was the measure of two bows or closer still ...
Do you then dispute with him as to what he saw?
53:1-12

How, indeed, can one contest a man healthy in body and spirit as to what he
saw?
To be sure, we spectators cannot reconstruct the experience of the subject
and live what he has lived. However, we do have a means of verification to
help us realize whether we are dealing with hallucinatory exaltation, a
pathological phenomenon 'with which solitary superhumans are struck', 7 or
 CONCLUSION 135

whether it is the very voice of truth which inspires him. To do this, we must
not investigate his affirmation and his conviction, but the very content of his
teaching.
Here then are three samples:

1) religious, moral and historical truths

We have been able to see by the example of moral precept that neither a
personal enthusiasm, nor a vague and indirect knowledge of the holy Books,
would have been capable on their own of assuring that the Arab Prophet
would be in perfect concordance with his predessors.
One could suggest that he constantly had the Biblical text before his eyes,
or that he had learned it by heart, in order to have drawn upon the necessary
teaching for each occasion:

And thus do We repeat the messages, and that they may say, Thou hast
studied; and that We may make it clear to a people who know.
6:106

Besides its essential identity, we have also noted an independence of tone

and manner in the presentation of the Qur 'anic lessons. It would be of great
interest to establish an analogous parallelism in the subjects of Divine
attributes, angels, prophets, or life after death ... but this goes beyond the
restricted framework of our Introduction.
Let us content ourselves by saying that, where the two religious
monuments, the Bible and the Qur'an, treat the same subject matter,8 the
common foundation bespeaks itself in a striking identity, with differences
only in certain secondary details. Most of the time, the Qur 'anic expose is
distinguished by its sobriety, and its more accentuated orientation on the side
of the religious lesson to be derived from each recitation. In his 'Analogies
et Divergences entre les Ugendes de la Bible et du Koran', Jules David was
able to write: 9

The foundation is the same, the differences only in form, or certain

insignificant details.

We shall not label as divergences certain additions or omissions, silences

here, more or less developed mentions there. In our eyes, what is deserving
of this name are the oppositions and contradictions. Such divergences thus
defined are extremely rare and often wide open to interpretation.
The sceptics fixate on certain trifling differences, on the grounds of which
they reject everything else, but logic demands of us a very different attitude.
While accepting the sincerity of all the reporters worthy of credit, we must
136 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

stop at the divergent points, either to suspend judgement, or to look for an

order of importance which would lead us to lay more credence on one than
another.
The same procedure which is used to reconcile, or arrange in a hierarchy,
the four Gospels, should be applied to the ensembled religious heritage
which the messengers of God have left us. All, for us, are saintly and holy.
In spite of the distance which separates them in time and space, in spite of
their differences in language and racial source, they are evidence of the same
experience of the Divine. The concordance of their testimony about what is
essential should open the eyes of the profane to the truth of the teachings
which describe to us the true nature of the supreme Reality under its various
aspects.

2) scientific truths
But, in its exhortations to faith and virtue, the Qur 'an does not draw its
lessons from traditional teachings and past events alone. It also points to
permanent cosmological events: it calls our attention to the positive,
immovable laws, not simply for their own interest, but with the aim of
bringing the Creator to mind. We would maintain that the formulations
describing them correspond exactly with the most up-to-date information
held by the sciences.
Such, for example, as the innermost source whence the generative element
of our being spurts forth:

He is created of water pouring forth, coming from between the back and the
ribs.
86:6-7

the different phases of our formation within the mother:

... We created you from dust, then from a small life-germ, then from a clot,
then from a lump of flesh, complete in make and incomplete, that We may
make clear to you. And We cause what We please to remain in the wombs
till an appointed time, then We bring you forth as babies, then that you may
attain your maturity ...
22:5

And certainly We create man of an extract of clay, then We make him a

small life-germ in a firm resting-place, then We make the life-germ a clot,
then We make the clot a lump of flesh, then We make (in) the lump of flesh
bones, then We clothe the bones with flesh, then We cause it to grow into
another creation ...
23:12-14
 CONCLUSION 137

the number of shadowy hollows in the depth of which this creation is

brought about:

He created you from a single being, then made its mate of the same (kind)
... He creates you in the wombs of your mothers- creation after creation-
in triple darkness ...
39:6

the aquatic origin of all living beings:

... And We made from water everything living ...

21:30

the formation of rain:

Allah is He Who sends forth the winds, so they raise a cloud, then He
spreads it forth in the sky as He pleases, and He breaks it, so that you see
the rain coming forth from inside it ...
30:48

the cycles of the heavens and the earth:

... He makes the night cover the day and makes the day overtake the night,
and He has made the sun and the moon subservient; each one moves on to
an assigned term ...
39:5

the sphericity of the latter being incomplete towards the poles:

See they not that We are visiting the land, curtailing it of its sides ...
13:41; 21:44

how the course of the sun runs toward its apogee:

And the sun moves on to its destination ...

36:38

the fashion in which animal societies in general live in a collectivity no less

coherent than human communities:

And there is no animal in the earth, nor a bird that flies on its two wings,
but (they are) communities like yourselves ...
6:38
138 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

the description of the life of bees in particular:

And thy Lord revealed to the bee: Make hives in the mountains and in the
trees and in what they build, then eat of all the fruits and walk in the ways
of thy Lord submissively. There comes forth from their bellies a beverage of
many hues, in which there is healing for men ...
16:68-9

the duality of sex in plants and other creatures of the world:

Glory be to Him Who created pairs of all things, of what the earth grows,
and of their kind and of what they know not!
36:36

And of everything We have created pairs that you may be mindful.

51:49

fertilization by the wind:

And We sent the winds fertilizing ...

15:22

and so on. 10

3) prevision
Beyond these established truths, the Qur 'an also announces events to
come. We see these take place punctually as predicted.
Thus the Qur 'an foretold the three changes of attitude of its adversaries
(first unfavourable, then conciliatory, and finally hostile) and the successive
vicissitudes which they would experience in line with their attitude (famine,
prosperity and then defeat):

So wait for the day when the heaven brings a clear drought, enveloping
men. This is a painful chastisement. Our Lord, remove from us the
chastisement- surely we are believers. When will they be reminded? And a
Messenger has indeed come, making clear; yet they turned away from him
and said: One taught (by others), a madman! We shall remove the
chastisement a little, (but) you will surely return (to evil).
44:10-15

This defeat, which they would experience at Badr in the second year of the
Hijra, was announced several years before the Hijra and was to take place
simultaneously with that of the Persians by the Romans:
 CONCLUSION 139

The Romans are vanquished in a near land, and they, after their defeat, will
gain victory ... And on that day the believers will rejoice in Allah's help ...
30:2-5

One particularly curious fact about this battle, predicted right at the
inception of Islam, was the sabre-blow that Walld bin al-Mughira would
receive on his nose, leaving a scar to cause his compatriots hilarity for the
rest of his life:

We shall brand him on the snout.

68:16

It is unnecessary for us to mention the desperate conditions in which the

Qur 'an affirmed not only its imminent triumph and the permanence of its
doctrine:

... Then as for the scum, it passes away as a worthless thing; and as for that
which does good to men, it tarries in the earth ...
13:17

but the immediate spread of the empire of youthful Islam over the world:

Allah has promised to those of you who believe and do good that He will
surely make them rulers in the earth as He made those before them rulers,
and that He will surely establish for them their religion, which He has
chosen for them, and that He will surely give them security in exchange
after their fear ...
24:55

and the impotence of all the armies of the earth which would try to annihilate
it:

Surely those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (people) from the
way of Allah. So they will go on spending it, then it will be to them a regret,
then they will be overcome ...
8:36

Moreover, it does not omit to foretell the future of each of the two
religious communities which preceded it. Both the perpetual state of schism
in Christianity:

And with those who say, We are Christians, We made a covenant, but they
140 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

neglected a portion of that whereof they were reminded so We stirred up

enmity and hatred among them to the day of Resurrection 0 0 0

5:14

and the dispersion of the Jews over the earth, their persecution in one place
or another until the end of the world, and their constant need of an ally:

And when thy Lord declared that He would send against them to the day of
Resurrection those who would subject them to severe torment And We 0 0 0

divided them in the earth into parties 0 0 0

7:167-8

Abasement will be their lot wherever they are found, except under a
covenant with Allah and a covenant with men 0 0 0

3:111

Also the superiority of the Christians over the Jews right up to the day of
Resurrection:

When Allah said: 0 Jesus, I will 0 0 0 clear thee of those who disbelieve 0 0 0 to
the day of Resurrection 0 0 0

3:54

and many other instances. 11

So, past, present, future, all in the order of reality adapts to and confirms
the world of ideas. What should one conclude from this? Either that both are
one, or that there is a pact with providence, and it watched over the giving
out of teaching to safeguard it from all error, or that God is deceiving us and
giving all the signs of truth to shine in favour of a liar, without giving us the
necessary light to uncover his imposture.
But the value of the Qur'an is not only in what it says, it is also in what it
abstains from and in what it omits to say. Beyond the science which it
reveals it places a zone which is off bounds, impenetrable to our enquiries,
reserved for Divine knowledge alone. Has anyone ever succeeded in
penetrating it with sure steps? X-rays are discovered in vain, they are still
powerless to unveil for us with absolute certainty the form, colour and sex of
a child in the depths of its mother:

0 0 0 He knows what is in the wombs 0 0 0

31:34

However many meteorological offices we set up, their predictions always

remain in the realm of probability. And what is the soul? The final word of
 CONCLUSION 141

philosophy on this subject has been, and will always remain, What do I
know?:

And they ask thee about the revelation. Say: the revelation is by the
commandment of my Lord, and of knowledge you are given but a little.
17:85

It is not enough to say that the Qur 'an is an encyclopaedia of the

knowledge of its times. All times have their illusions which they hold to be
definitive truths, whose errors are not established until afterwards, but in its
trajectory across knowledge, the Qur 'an does not falter. The truths which it
advances are, and will always be, unbeatable and unbeaten:

Falsehood cannot come at it from before or behind it ...

41:42

Not only does it not fall into the hereditary mistakes of antiquity or
Arabia; at the same time it does not linger over mean, plain details which
carry the terrestrial imprint of its environment.
In his Berceau de l' Islam a Ia Veille de l' Hegire, Lammens expresses
regret that the Book did not furnish any usable details that would help in the
description of the climate or weather of its country, while it goes into
ecstasies over the stars, the mountains, the clouds and other ordinary
phenomena whose marvels it points out. 12
But this is, in our opinion, proof that the Qur 'an is not simply a local
work. The truths which it teaches are those which any person is capable of
seizing and drawing moral benefit from. This is why it is exalted beyond
geographical particularities, racial or otherwise. This is why it generally does
not name the people and places of which it speaks, and only retains the
lessons necessary to educate humanity. Its transcendent tone is a proof
unique to itself.
Certainly Qur 'anic doctrine took flight in Arabic and was diffused in the
first place amongst Arabs, but it was. destined for the whole universe:

... that he might be a warner to the nations.

25:1

It is naught but a Reminder to the nations.

38:87

And it is naught but a Reminder for the nations.

68:52
 Notes

Preface
1 In the opinion of the translator, there is still no one completely satisfactory
translation of the Qur 'an into English, nor indeed can there be into any language,
since it is untranslatable. The three translations most valued by English readers
would appear to be: A.J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Oxford, 1964), whose
poetic quality and use of 'high English' capture the exaltation of the Qur 'an's sacred
language; Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur' an (Lahore, 1975), which provides a useful,
literal translation; N.J. Dawood, The Koran (Harmondsworth, 1956), which gives a
sound overall view, a good sense of the interconnection between verses (often
lacking in more literal translations), and gets to the heart of the logic behind a line of
argument, even if precision sometimes suffers as a consequence.
For the purposes of this work, we have used the translations of Maulana
Muhammad Ali, The Holy Qur' dn, Arabic text, English translation and commentary
(Ohio, 1995).

Part One
Chapter One
1 It is known that the Prophet always refrained from tracing his genealogy
beyond 'Adnan; we even know that he accused those genealogists who ventured to
do so of imposture. If we are to believe a tradition attributed to Ibn 'Abbas [see al-
Nabahani, Anwar al-Mu}:zammadiyya (Beirut, 1312 AH), p 18], there were said to be
'30 unknown generations' between 'Adnan and Isma'il; this would make Isma'il the
51st ancestor of Muhammad. But since it is generally acknowledged that the era of
Abraham was somewhere between the twentieth and eighteenth century BC, there
would have to have been at least 2260 years between Isma'il and 'Abd Allah, the
father of Muhammad (supposing that Isma'Il was born in 1720 BC and 'AbdAllah
in 540 BC). Now, it is clear that the 51 generations alluded to in this tradition could
not have filled this interval, unless we allow 44 years for each generation (instead of
33 years, which is the average).
2 Although all are unanimous in designating a Monday in the second quarter,
tradition hesitates between the 8th, lOth and 12th of the month. In his Memoire sur
le Calendrier Arabe avant 1'/slamisme (Paris, 1858), p 38, the Egyptian astronomer

143
144 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

Mahmoud Pacha al-Falaki places the birth of the Prophet precisely at 9 Rabi' al-
Awwal, which he calculates as corresponding with 20 April in the Julian calendar, in
accordance with the opinion of Silvestre de Sacy.
If one is aware of the fact that, with the Arabs, the determination of the first day
of the month does not generally follow the astronomical conjunction of the moon
with the sun, nor even the possible visibility of the crescent, but depends upon a
factor that varies considerably according to local meteorological conditions, that is,
the first effective appearance of the crescent after sunset, one can easily understand
the hesitation between these various dates on the part of the ancient biographers.
As to the correspondence between the lunar and solar dates, the French historian
Caussin de Perceval gives us a rather different figure. Starting from the hypothesis
that the Arab calendar had begun to fall out of phase some time before the Prophet's
birth, and that this did not come to an end until the intervention of the latter, this
eminent historian believes that he can demonstrate that the birth of the Prophet took
place on 29 August 570 AD. See Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur l'Histoire des
Arabes (Paris, 1847), Vol1, p 283.
3 Ibn Hisham, Slrat al-Rusul (Cairo, 1929), Vol1, p 115
4 The word fudul signifies, literally, intervention by good works. This Meccan
confederation aimed to uphold the weak, render justice to the oppressed, and assure
intertribal peace against the attempts of anyone who tried to violate it.
5 Later, at Medina, the Prophet had another child, Ibrahim, by Mary the Copt. In
his turn, the boy died several months before the death of his father. See al-Falaki,
Memoire, p 7.
6 Al-Bukh:lri, Kitdb al-Adab (Cairo, 1239 AH), bk 18, relates two discussions
on this subject, the first having as its proponent al-Aqra' bin I:Iabis. Seeing the
Prophet embracing al-I:Iasan, his grandson, this man of the Tamimi tribe made the
following remark: 'I have ten children and I do not embrace one of them.' The
Prophet replied, 'God does not show mercy to him who does not have it himself.'
In the second account, another Bedouin (probably Qays bin 'Assim) cried, 'You
embrace little children! We never do that.' To this the Prophet replied, 'What can I
do for you, since God has deprived your heart of all human feeling?' See Perceval,
Essai, Vol 3, p 336
7 Al-Bukh:lri 's version does not say how long this devotional retreat lasted. It is
only stated that, in his isolation, Muhammad gave himself up to spiritual exercises
for several nights, and whenever his provisions were exhausted he went to fetch
replenishments from his family in town. Ibn lsl)aq maintains that this intermittent
retreat lasted a month.
8 Note that the very tenor of these phrases, which constitute the first outpouring
of the Qur'anic revelation, demonstrate sufficiently that it is announcing a form of
knowledge not yet acquired, which is about to be imparted thanks to the bounty of
the Creator. It is clear that the expression would have been quite different if this
inspiration had been the end result of long and mature meditations, as some have
tried to explain it.
9 Ntimils means Divine law.
10 Hijra refers to emigration, or a voluntary withdrawal determined by
involuntary causes. We know that at a certain point in his mid-career, Muhammad
 NOTES 145

had to go into exile, on the eve of a plot to be carried out on his life. He settled in
Medina where he arrived at the beginning of Rabi' al-Awwal (on the 2nd, 8th or
12th of the month, according to various writers. Relying on numerous documents,
al-Falaki has pronounced his support for Monday the 8th, corresponding to 20
September 622 AD).
We must not forget, however, that the Muslim era takes its point of departure not
from the very day of the Emigration, but from the lunar year in which this event
took place, which began two months and several days before, on the first of
Mubarram (15 or 16 July 622). Given that the lunar year is only 355 days long, and
that in consequence 33 lunar years are equivalent to roughly 32 solar years, the
following formulae suffice in order to convert a Hijra date (H) into a Christian (C),
or vice versa:
H + 622 - H = C and C - 622 + C-622 = H
33 32

11 In an article entitled 'Age de Mohammed', Journal Asiatique Mar/April 1911,

Pere H. Lammens claims that the Prophet was younger by ten years, without giving
any positive proof to support this claim. His only argument is that it seems
extraordinary that a man having passed the age of 50 should have the energy
required to create such a new existence.
On the admission of the Prophet himself: 'I was born during the time of the just
reign of Chosroes. When Chosroes perished there was no Caesar after him. ' Against
the authentic testimony of his companions, Mu'awiya, Ibn 'Abbas and 'A 'isha, and
against the concordant historic facts found in the various annals, whether European,
Persian or Hebrew, Lammens takes pleasure in opposing them with certain remarks
collected from an anonymous work, plus certain contradictory apocryphal traditions,
and ends by questioning not only this particular matter, but also the authenticity of
the entire life of the Prophet and everything connected with it.
If we are to believe Lammens, dates, facts, personages and almost everything in
the most authentic traditions are suspect, recorded according to predetermined
calculations or by the demands of exegetic or lexicographic formulae or a desire for
symmetry. Equally, the entire world of orientalism has been following a false path
because of the Arab historians. Has knowledge much to gain from this negative, or
might we even say, destructive, contribution?
What is more serious with Lammens is not only the humorous tone of his work,
where at every step irony pierces through an irremediable, ill-founded scepticism,
but also his impartiality in applying this Pyrrhonist attitude. No sooner is it a matter
of an unfavourable opinion of the Prophet, be it even the most gratuitous or absurd,
then his scepticism is transformed into a convinced certitude. Hence it is nothing
less than a hostile parti pris, which does not blush to talk in the name of the critic,
and against logic itself.

Chapter Two
1 In fact this order is not strict. There are some exceptions in each category,
which means that a deeper reason behind the arrangement is discernible.
2 Thus the second sura is the first after the Fati/:za and is the longest in the book,
taking up 40 pages in the average edition.
146 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

3 With the exception, perhaps, of the final verse of Sural al-nisd', whose
revelation a little before the death of the Prophet gave no indication to the
Companions as to where it should be placed: they are said to have purely and simply
added it to this sura since it concerns a similar subject.
4 see Rustlifdiini, Tdrikh al-Qur' an wa' 1-Massdhi/(1323 AH), pp 26-7
5 With this document in mind, Leblois has written: 'Who would not wish that,
after the death of Jesus, one of his immediate disciples had not taken it upon himself
to put down his teachings into writing?' [Leblois, Le Koran et Ia Bible Hebraique, p
47, n 5].
6 c.f. al-Zinjani, Tdrikh a/-Qur' an (Cairo, 1935), p 17
7 c.f. al-Suyiili, Itqdnfi 'U/Um al-Qur' an (Cairo, 1344 AH), Vol1, p 58
8 Thus, for example, we find in Ibn Mas'iid 's copy against the words of the text:
(intermediate prayer), this explanation: = (the afternoon prayer), or: (which is the
afternoon prayer).
We do not wish to discuss whether this definition is correct in itself, for the
question is an extremely controversial one amongst the Companions. But, even
admitting with al-Bara' that this definition was there in the early phase in place of
the present phrase, and that it was later abrogated and replaced by the present one, it
is never juxtaposed against it in the recited text - indicative of this very controversy
over its interpretation.
Ibn al-Anbari relates that during the course of the consolidation of the first
recension, ijaf~a asked for the insertion of this explanatory phrase into the text; but
since she could not attest to its authenticity her father, 'Umar, categorically opposed
her request [c.f. al-Suyiiti, Durr al-Manthllr (Cairo, 1314 AH), Vol1, p 303].
9 Thus we find in the recension of Ubayy, apart from the canonical sllras, the
two famous prayers called qanllt.
10 Apart from the personal copy belonging to 'Uthman, most of the traditionalists
are in accordance in saying that five manuscripts were destined for the following
five towns: Mecca, Medina, Basra, Kufa and Damascus. But Abii I:latim al-Sijistani
mentions two other copies for the two provinces of Yemen and Bahrain [c.f. Ibn Abi
Dawiid, Kitab al-Massdhif(Cairo, 1936 AH), p 74].
11 For instance, the word tdbllt which at Medina was written tabllh has kept its
Meccan spelling.
12 Malik, Muwatta' (Cairo, 1349 AH), Vol1
13 NOldeke, Geschichte des Korans (Leipzig, 1909-1938), Vol2, p 93
14 c.f. Mirza Alexandre Kazem, Journal Asiatique, Dec 1843. The only
difference, therefore, is in the way in which the Qur 'an is divided into sllras, and
their numbering. Moreover, any more radical difference only exists in theory among
these doctors. In fact, their copies differ in no way from those of the Sunnites. If
there are certain mullahs fanatic enough to mention certain words supposed to have
been omitted by 'Uthman, they nonetheless do not allow themselves to insert them
into their own copies, since they have not been sanctioned by the legitimate imam.
The same is true, and with even stronger reason, of the apocryphal passage which
Garcin de Tassy published under the title of 'Observations sur le Chapitre Inconnu
du Koran' [Journal Asiatique, Jul/Aug 1904], whose 'trial' Mirza Alexandre Kazem
 NOTES 147

has undertaken. This scholar has shown in fact that not only is this so-called sura not
traceable in the Qur 'ans of the Shi'ites, but that neither is there mention of it in their
traditional polemic works. The very title, two lights, applied to Muhammad and 'Ali,
and according to Tiisi did not appear among the Shi'ites earlier than the seventh
century AH. Moreover, it suffices to read this piece, which is nothing more than a
mediocre compilation of words and expressions taken from the Qur 'an, to see the
shocking contrast that it presents with the elegance and harmony of Qur'anic style.
C.f. also Noldeke, Geschichte, Vol2, pp 107-112
15 Leblois, Le Koran, p 54
16 Muir, Life of Mahomet, cited in Barthelemy-St-Hilaire, Mahomet et le Koran
(Paris, 1865), p 33
17 Does the word sab'a here really signify the number seven? Or does it mean an
indeterminate number, a multitude? The question is controversial. Whatever the case
may be, these 'seven readings' should not be confused with the 'seven readers'
chosen by Ibn Mujahid. There is no reason, either, to bring these two groups into
correspondence, as Jeffrey suggests in the Arabic preface of the Ma$$al)if, p 8. In
any case, Ibn Mujahid was often reproached for his choice of seven [c.f. al-Suyiiti,
ltqan, p 49; NOldeke, Geschichte, p 50; Tahir, Tibyan li-ba'4 al-Mubal)ith al-
Muta'allaqa bi' 1-Qur' an (Cairo, 1934), p 81], as being susceptible to making people
believe that every reading attributed to these authorities would be considered as
canonical and vice versa; thus, only a methodical critique is capable of unravelling
the true from the false. Contrary to the opinion of Jeffrey (ibid) this critique should
be applied consistently to the Seven, the Ten, the Fourteen and every other source of
variant.
18 al-Suyiiti, Itqan, Vol1, p 57
19 c.f. al-Suyiiti, ltqan, p 50; Baqillani, Inti$$ar, quoted by Tahir, Tibyan, p 73
20 c.f. al-Suyiiti, /tqan, p 50; Ibn l:lajar, quoted by al-Zinjani, Tarikh, p 44
21 Ibn Abi Dawiid, Ma$$al)if, p 36
22 c.f. al-Zinjani, Tarikh, p 16
23 c.f. Tahir, Tibyan, pp 39-40; Ibn Abi Dawiid (Ma$$a/)if, p 54) expresses the
same opinion.
24 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', in Ibn Abi Dawtid, Ma$$a/)if, p 1
25 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', pp 9-10
26 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p 6
27 c.f. Jeffrey, 'Introduction', compare p 5 with p 7
28 c.f. Jeffrey, 'Introduction', compare p 6 with p 212
29 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p 8
30 c.f. Jeffrey, 'Introduction', compare p 8 with p 21
31 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p x; p 9; p 23
32 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p 8
33 c.f. al-Bukhari, Kitab Fa4a'il al-Qur' an, bk 3; Ibn Abi Dawud, Ma$$al)if, p 25
34 Noldeke, Geschichte, Vol2, p 91
35 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p 15
36 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p 15
148 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

37 Take, for example, the so-called codex of Ibn Mas'iid. On this subject Ibn
lsbaq (cited by Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p 23, n) tells us that of the numerous copies
of this codex, no two were identical. Similarly, Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist (1872), says
that, contrary to what has often been said, he saw one such copy where the first sura
was to be found.
38 Jeffrey, 'Introduction', p 24
39 c.f. Ibn Abi Dawiid, Massal;if, p 35
40 Ibn Abi Dawiid, Massal:tif, p 18
41 c.f. Schwally, in Noldeke, Geschichte, Vol2, p 92
42 see above, the case of 'Umar, p 16, and that of l:lafsa, p 142
43 What is more, he did not do it on his own initiative, or without consulting the
people. In a discourse recognized by critics of J;adlth as authentic, and where the
piety of the third caliph is strongly defended by his successor, he declared that this
rigorous measure was taken by common agreement with all the Companions present.
'If 'Uthman had not done it,' 'Ali adds, 'I myself would have done it.' [c.f. Ibn Abi
Dawiid, Massdl;if, p 12, p 22]

Chapter Three
1 In order better to grasp the contrast between this revolution and other historical
conquests, one would do well to read: Jouguet, L'lmperialisme Macedonien et
I' Hel/enisation de !'Orient (Paris, 1926) and Gautier, Moeurs et Coutumes des
Musulmans (Paris, 1931), Vol3.
2 Lammens, Berceau de l'Islam ala Veille de l'Hegire (Rome, 1914), p 265
3 Qur'an 59:8
4 Thus he showed mercy to the Qurayshite emissary who came to assassinate
him after Badr; to the Jewish woman who tried to poison him at Khaybar; to another
who, during the Emigration, brutally jostled his eldest daughter, Zaynab, then
pregnant, causing her to miscarry. We see this indulgence in the way he treated
those who sought to defame his innocent wife, 'A 'isha. One admires above all his
infinitely pacific and generous conduct during and after the conquest of Mecca [c.f.
Barthelemy-St-Hilaire, Mahomet, pp 125-130].
5 c.f. Lammens, Berceau, p 247
6 We know that at the time of their exile the Muslims had left their property and
riches in the hands of their persecutors:

Those who are driven from their homes without a just cause ...
22:40

We could, then, surely, allow them the right to partially indemnify themselves
through the merchandise of the latter. This is what Saint-Clair Tisdall calls the
expeditions for pillage [Original Sources of the Qur' an (London, 1905), p 276].
7 The changing of this authorization into a commandment occurred in conditions
so unfavourable that one cannot see one's way to affirming with Saint-Clair Tisdall
that 'Qur 'anic law was modified proportionately to the military successes of
Muhammad' [Sources, p 279]. The author has made other mistakes in the same
chapter, firstly in reversing the sense of Qur'an 2:217 which condemns all hostility
 NOTES 149

during the sacred month [c.f. Sources, p 276] and secondly by taking the means of
repression instituted against the terrorists:

The only punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and
strive to make mischief in the land is that they should be murdered, or crucified, or
their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides, or they should be
imprisoned ...
5:33

for a new form of warfare, constituting a third stage in this evolution [c.f. Sources, p
277].
8 Having arrived thus far, and having systematically omitted to mention
passages limiting the right to have recourse to force, Saint-Clair Tisdall is obliged,
in order to measure with his conclusions, to replace this verse, which talks of the
order to give hospitable protection to neutrals, by omission points.
9 see Draz, La Morale du Koran, chapters 2, 4 and 5
10 However, if it were really a matter of fighting against a religion, would it not
be the religious person who would have to be chosen as a target?
11 c.f. Gautier, Moeurs et Coutumes des Musulmanes (Paris, 1931), p 209
12 Gautier, Moeurs
13 The author doubtless alludes to land taxes. In fact, historians report that the
caliphs held great store by the fact that these taxes should be much less heavy for the
native peoples than for the conquering Muslims. Thus, for example, 'Umar II
ordered the Governor of Egypt to impose on each Muslim property-owner 40 dinars
and on each Copt property-owner 20 dinars [c.f. Ibn Taghribirdi, Nujum al-Zdhira,
Vol 1, p 238, cited by Salama, Enseignement Islamique en Egypte (Cairo, 1939), p
xiv]
14 Gautier, Moeurs, p 217
15 Gautier, Moeurs, p 207
16 Gautier, Moeurs, p 208
17 According to the most recent statistics (1983 ), even at their most modest, the
Muslim world now accounts for one quarter of the total population.
18 Porter, 'Discours Pre liminaire sur la Religion des Mahometans ' (French
translation), in Du Ryer, Al-Coran, Preface

Part Two
Chapter Four
1 c.f. Qur'an 2:133 and 3:84
2 Qur'an 30:30
3 Matt. 16:1-4
4 Qur'an 20:20
5 c.f. Matt. 12:28:

I cast out devils by the Spirit of God

6 Qur'an 17:49
150 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

7 Qur 'an 34:7

8 Qur 'an 44:36
9 Qur'an 45:35
10 read, for example, suras 13, 20, 39, 40, 41, 42, or passages like 2:255-260,
3:190-195,4:77-79, 5:109-end, 6:95-104,58:7, 59:21-end

Chapter Five
1 This position is held by an infinitely small minority of oral commentators,
whose historicity is doubtful, as is the precise sense of their doctrine [al-Razi,
Mafdtih al-Ghayb, al-ma'ruf bi' l-Tafsir al-Qur' dn (Cairo, 1278 AH), Vol 1, p 407].
In origin the verb arja'a, a term taken from the Qur'an (c.f. Qur'an 9:106) means
'not to prejudge the future destiny of Man', and 'to give oneself up to God's
decision'. This does not prevent one from judging oneself and judging others
according to their conduct here on earth. To go from there and say that everything
depends upon faith and that nothing else can nullify it is taking a great step, because
this would not only be prejudging, in another way, but also preaching at the same
time against any moral or social law.
We know that, although they abstained from making judgements on religious
controversies and political conflicts, certain Murji 'ites rose up against the injustice
of al-Hajjaj [Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqdt (Leiden, 1335 AH), Vol 6, p 205]. On the other
hand, we know that a man like Ibn Sirin, well-known for his extremely indulgent
abstention from (criticizing) other believers, was extremely severe as regards his
own conduct [al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asnui' wa' 1-Lughdt (London, 1847), p 108].
2 for this, consult the appendix of Draz, La Morale
3 Qur'an 7:157
4 Qur'an 16:90
5 Qur'an 7:28
6 Qur'an 7:33
7 see Draz, La Morale, ch 3, para 3
8 see also, among others, Qur'an 3:186,42:40-3
9 Lev. 29:17-18
10 Abu Dawud, Kitdb al-Taldq, bk 3
11 Ibn Sa'd and l:lakim, cited by al-Suyuti, Jdmi' al-Saghir (Cairo, 1350 AH),
article '/nnamd'
12 Gautier, Moeurs, p 216
13 Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 'L 1slam ', in Histoire et Historiens depuis
Cinquante Ans (1876-1926), p 739
14 Here Goldziher commits a contradiction in translating this verse thus: 'If you
fear betrayal on the part of a people, pay them back with the same' [Le Dog me et Ia
Loi d' Islam (Paris, 1920), p 23]. Kasimirsky makes the same error: 'render him the
same', similarly Savary: 'treat them as they have acted'. It suffices to read the
sequence of the verses to realize the incompatibility of this interpretation in the
context.
 NOTES 151

Chapter Six
1 see al-Bukhari, Jdmi' al-Sa/:zi/:z (Cairo, 1289 AH), 'Kitab Jihad', bk 101. See
also Barthelemy-St-Hilaire, Mahomet, pp 150-1
2 With rare exceptions, for sometimes the appearance of a pause is only kept up
in stages and varies from one group of verses to another in the same chapter, e.g.
suras 69 et seq.
3 In a preceding study in Arabic (al-Naba' a/-'A7im) - whose publication in
Cairo was suspended by our departure for France in 1936 - we have inspected
certain characteristics of the Qur'anic style and shown, by concrete examples, what
these particularities are. Here we do no more than summarize the essential points of
this earlier work.
Quite apart from the commentaries and introductions to the Qur 'an, numerous
other specialized treatises have been devoted to this same task. May we cite among
others: al-'Askari, Sina'atayn (Istanbul, 1320 AH); al-Jurjani, Dala'il al-l'jdz, and
Asrdr al-Baldgha (Cairo, 1912 and 1925); al-Baqillani, l'jdz al-Qur'dn (Cairo,
1915). Among contemporary writers we should above all mention al-Rafi'i, l'jdz al-
Qur'dn wa'l-Baldgha al-Nabawiyya (Cairo, 1928). More recently, Kamil Hussein in
1936 made a study on the form of the Qur 'an, of which there is a typed copy in the
Massignon Library.
4 Abu 1-l:lassan Ibrahim bin 'Umar al-Biqa'i, a Shafi'i of the ninth century AH,
master of al-SuyOti. The latter devoted a chapter of his /tqdn to this subject [Vol 2,
p 108].
5 Qur'an 46:1
6 Qur'an 74:2
7 Qur'an 26:214
8 Qur'an 28:59
9 Qur 'an 6:93
10 Qur'an 21:107
11 Qur'an 2:219
12 Qur'an 5:90
13 Qur 'an 4:77
14 Qur'an 2:190

Part Three
Chapter Seven
1 Renan, 'Mahomet et les Origines de I 'Islamisme' in Revue des Deux Mondes,
15 December 1851
2 Renan, 'Mahomet', pp 1070-1
3 Renan, 'Mahomet', p 1089
4 Qur'an 3:163,62:2
5 Qur'an 33:33, 48:26
6 Renan, 'Mahomet', p 1090
7 see Ibn Hish:im, Sirat al-Rusul, Vol1, p 144
8 Renan, 'Mahomet', p 1090
9 'mararnd bi-najmin kadhd': al-Bukhari, Sal:zil:z. 'Kitab Maghazi ', bk 37
152 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

10 see Part 2, ch 4 above

11 see Part 2, ch 4 above
12 c.f. Sale, 'Observations Historiques et Critiques sur le Mahometisme ', in Du
Ryer, Al-Coran, pp 30-1
13 see article 'Sabia', Encyclopaedia of Islam
14 see in Huart [ 'Une Nouvelle Source du Koran' in Journal Asiatique, Jul/Aug
1904, p 127] the following conclusion: 'the Arabic texts which have been
discovered, published and studied since then do not allow us to see in the role
attributed to this Syrian monk anything other than fantasy.'
15 Masse, L' Islam (Paris, 1937), p 21
16 Huart, 'Source', p 131
17 Lammens, L'Islam, Croyance et Institutions (Beirut, 1926), p 28
18 Goldziher, Dogme, p 4
19 Andrae, Mahomet, sa Vie et sa Doctrine (Paris, 1945), pp 37-8
20 Sprenger, cited by Huart, 'Source', p 128
21 see Sale, Observations, pp 68-71
22 Taylor, Isaac, Ancient Christianity, Vol 1, p 266
23 Taylor, cited by Saint-Clair Tisdall, Sources, pp 136-7
24 ibid.
25 see Masse, L'Islam, p 17
26 Noldeke, Geschichte, p 10. See also Zamakhshari on Qur'an 5:5.
27 Huart, 'Source', p 129
28 Qur'an 29:48
29 Saint-Clair Tisdall in fact goes as far as maintammg that certain Islamic
notions derive from Zoroastrianism, and devotes an entire chapter to the elements he
says are Zoroastrian in the Qur 'an and Sunna. Without prejudging anything of the
origins or even the parentage of the ideas mentioned by him under this title, we
would maintain that, apart from the idea of the houris, these elements do not even
form part of the Qur 'an itself. They belong to certain traditions to a lesser or greater
degree doubtful in their authenticity, for instance ideas about the Light of
Muhammad, the angel of death, Azrael, the bridge of death mentioned in the Sira,
etc.
30 This interpretation is absurd in certain passages, contradictory in others, like
where the word ummi is applied to the uneducated Jews. When the Prophet says of
himself and his people, 'We are an unlettered (illiterate) people,' he explains it in
these terms: 'We do not write, and neither do we calculate.' [al-Bukhari, Sahib,
'KiUib al-Sawm ', bk 13]
31 see, for example, Leblois, Le Koran, p 34. Following the example of the
others, Leblois has tried to prove the opposite with a tradition according to which
the Prophet, on his deathbed, asked for writing materials to be brought to him so that
he could write his will regarding the succession of the caliphate.
But the argument proves nothing: it does not say that the Prophet wrote; one can
conclude nothing from the unrealized undertaking of a dying man; the verb 'to
write' attributed to the great leaders in general (even more so in the case of a leader
known amongst his disciples for never having held a pen in his hand nor deciphered
 NOTES 153

any writing) signifies nothing more than to dictate and affix one's seal or mark.
Thus in discussing his diplomatic correspondence the term kataba ild fuldn is used
to signify 'through the intermediary of his secretaries'. Likewise, for the treaty of
I:Iudaybiyya it is said bayna-md yaktubu huwa wa-Suhayl idh tala' a ... , when it was
'Ali, at the dictation of the Prophet, who put it into writing.
People have tried to draw another argument from an episode linked with this
same treaty: 'Ali having entitled the treaty 'Peace Treaty between Muhammad,
Messenger of God and . . . ', the Qurayshite delegate objected that, if he recognized
Muhammad's title as the Messenger of God, he would not have fought against him
in the first place. Accepting this, the Prophet ordered his title to be effaced, but the
pious secretary did not dare to acquiesce. So the Prophet asked him where the word
was that should be crossed out, and rubbed it out with his own hand. So far there are
no difficulties. Except that one very concise and elliptical version adds ' ... and
wrote in its place: Muhammad son of 'Abd Allah'. Which apparently imputes the
ability to write to the Prophet.
But this episode is not really problematical: on the one hand the general rule is
that this attribution be understood in the sense of the act being mediated; on the
other hand, the apparent equivocation is elucidated in other versions, where it is
stated precisely that once the first epithet was effaced by the Prophet's own hand,
'Ali replaced it with the new one. To say from this ambiguity that the Prophet knew
how to write would be too quickly to forget the fact that he was not able to
recognize the word to be expunged, other than at the guidance of the scribe; what is
more, it would be to close one's eyes to the explanation, given at this very juncture,
for why recourse was made to a scribe -the Prophet 'did not know how to write': ld
yu}:zsinu yaktub.
So, as backed up by the Prophet himself (md ana bi-qdri': na/:znu ummatun
ummiyya), by his behaviour during his lifetime, by the testimony of his disciples, by
the objections of his enemies, and finally by the solemn proclamation of the Qur'an,
the illiteracy of Muhammad seems to us to be firmly established. All attempts to
establish the opposite are too feeble to make an impact. Muhammad did not live on
another planet: the details of his life are known to us in the smallest detail, and his
people would not err through naive credulity. If the Prophet knew how to read
would he not, at least on occasion, have looked at and verified his correspondence,
or the copies of his Qur 'an?
Thus, despite the ambiguity of certain accounts, Noldeke arrived at the following
conclusions: 1) that Muhammad himself called himself illiterate and that is why he
had the Qur'an and his letters read for him, and; 2) that in any case he had not read
the Bible or any other great work [Geschichte, Vall, p 16].
32 c.f. Leblois, Le Koran, p 35. Graf is yet more positive: it was only several
centuries later that a Bible in the Arabic language made its appearance. Padwick
states that it was only in the ninth and tenth centuries that any need was felt for an
Arabic translation of the Gospel [Pad wick, The Origin of Arabic Translations', in
Moslem World, April 1939]. In spite of his indefatigable researches in various
libraries, Chidiac says he has not been able to find any mention of the New
Testament translated into Arabic prior to the eleventh century [Chidiac, Etude sur
154 INTRODUCfiON TO THE QUR 'AN

A/-Ghazdli, Refutation Exellente de Ia divinite du Jesus-Christ, d' apres les

Evangiles (Paris, 1933), ch 7].
33 see below, Part I, end of ch 2
34 Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammeds, Vol 1, p 78, cited and
developed by Huart, Source, p 133
35 c.f. Ibn Hisham, Sira, Vol 1, p 183
36 Huart, Source, p 131

Chapter Eight
1 see Part I, ch 3
2 al-Bukhari, Sa/:li/:1, 'KiUib al-Sawm ', bk 23
3 It is true that she was betrothed to him a little before the Hijra, but this is
further proof that the principle which authorizes bigamy is ancient, not the effect of
a new moral conception determined by the atmosphere of Medina.
4 Read the reports of 'A 'isba and other mothers of the believers on how he spent
his nights. Dragging himself from sleep, he would abandon himself to prolonged
prayer, sometimes standing until his feet became swollen [al-Bukhari, Sa/:li/:1, 'Kitab
Tahajjud ', bk 6] sometimes so prostrate that he seemed dead [al-Bayhaqi, quoted by
Nabahani, Anwar, p 522]; how sometimes he went to the cemetery to pray for the
souls of the dead [Muslim, Sa/:li/:1, 'Kitab Janayiz ', bk 35). Everything shows that the
piety of the Prophet, far from diminishing, was confirmed and strengthened at
Medina. The Prophet did not have need of being surrounded by pious and honest
souls, not to transmit to us a considerable part of his tradition, and in particular the
teaching directed to women, destined for one half of humanity, nor to complete the
proof of his sincerity by their concordant witness of his depth of character in
intimate life, where all the veils of social hypocrisy fall or are tom away.
5 Masse, L' Islam, p 21
6 Lammens, L' Islam, p 33
7 Andrae, Mahomet, p 139; see also Lammens, L' Islam, p 28
8 Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Institutions Musulmanes (Paris, 1946), p 66;
Andrae, Mahofnet, p 81
9 Andrae, Mahomet, p 137
10 Andrae, Mahomet, p 13.8
II Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Institutions, p 68
12 Goldziher, Dogme, pp 21-2
13 To guide the reader in his consultation of the Qur'an at this point, we give here
the references for the Meccan passages which deal with these stories: Surat al-A 'rdf
Adam 11-25, Moses 102-176; Surat Yunus: Moses 75-92; Surat Hud: Noah 25-49,
Abraham and Lot 69-82; Surat Yusuf Joseph, Adam, Abraham and Lot 26-77; Surat
Bani Isrd'i/: The People of Israel 4-8; Sural al-Kahf: The Seven Sleepers 9-25,
Moses 60-82; Surat Maryam: Zachariah, John the Baptist, Mary, Jesus, etc. 1-33;
Surat Td Hd: Moses 9-98; Surat al-Anbiyd': Abraham 51-70, David, Solomon 78-
82; Surat al-Shu'ard': Moses, Abraham, Noah, etc. 10-189; Surat al-Nam/: Moses,
David, Solomon 7-44; Surat a/-Qasas: Moses 3-43, Aaron 76-82; Surat a/ 'Ankabut:
 NOTES 155

Noah, Abraham, Lot 14-35; Surat at-Saba': David, Solomon 10-14; Surat Sad:
David, Solomon, Job 17-44; Surat al-Dhariydt: Abraham 24-37.
14 al-Bukhari, Sahib. 'KWib al-Sawm ', bk 1, and Muslim, Sahib, bk 19
15 Muslim, Sabih, bk 36
16 a term originally equivocal, which signifies either rewriting, or annulment. In
law and in terms of principle, it is used in the sense of abrogation, i.e. the cessation
of the application of a provisional law.
Certain commentators extend the meaning of this word to include all kinds of
illumination or precision brought to a previously unclear expression. Ibn l:lazm used
and abused the term in this context. It is not rare that in one and the same passage he
takes the preposition 'apart from' or the conjunction 'but' for a naskh of the general
term or of the opposite term which preceded it (see, for instance, 2:60, 196, 229,
233; 4:19, 22, 23, 146; 5:34; 29:60; 24:5; 25:70; 26:227; 60:8-9).
A striking example of his stretching the meaning of this term is found in his
commentary on the well-known passage which comes at the beginning of the
revelation:

0 thou covering thyself up! Rise to pray by night except a little, half of it or lessen it
a little, or add to it ...
73:1-3

Except a little is, he says, naskh of by night; half of it is naskh of except a little;
lessen it is naskh of half of it. Thus he finds three naskhs in a sole phrase, and he
could have gone on.
If we count them all up according to Ibn l:lazm 's reckoning, is it astonishing that
we find 224 places where mansitkh occur? Let us note, moreover, that he relates 114
of these 224 passages to the general idea of encouraging people (albeit from a
distance) to withstand passively the aggression of the unfaithful - a transitional
disposition as we know, which was replaced by the authorization to resist and to
oppose force by force.
But what most deserves to be noticed here is the manner in which certain
orientalists have transcribed these ideas. Seizing on this frightening figure, without
taking into account the rather singular terminology of the author, they present it to
us in rather an exaggerated manner, saying that is the number of Qur 'anic
contradictions recognized by the Muslims as having been determined by political
changes [Renan, 'Mahomet', p 1079; see also Saint-Clair Tisdall, Sources, p 278].
This is a clear case of the gulf that can exist between words and realities.
17 Qur'an 18:9-25
18 Ibn Hisham, Sira, Vol1, pp 141-2; al-Bukhari, Sahih, 'Kitab Hijra ', bk 1
19 A similar anachronism, certainly with a wider time-gap, deserves to be pointed
out in the supposed roles of Salman the Persian and Mary the Copt as so-called
initiators of Muhammad into the Zoroastrian and Christian faiths respectively.
Although he converted soon after the Hijra, Salman remained a slave in the
service of a despotic Jewish master for more than four years, and was not able to
accompany the Prophet until the battle of Khandaq in the year 5 AH [Ibn Hisham,
Sirat al-Rusul, pp 141-2]. Mary the Copt was to arrive even later, in the year 7 AH.
156 INTRODUCf!ON TO THE QUR 'AN

Is there any need to recall, furthermore, that even if the Qur 'an could be linked with
the Bible as members of the same family, there is a rupture between its doctrine and
that of the Avesta?
20 al-Tirmidhi, I ami' (Cairo, 1292 AH), 'Kitab Sifat al-Qiyama', bk 15
21 This is what the effort of Saint-Clair Tisdall in his Sources boils down to: in
his avowed intention of showing that the Qur 'an derives from legend rather than
from history [Sources, pp 61-2], the author systematically ignores all the
concordances with the Old and New Testaments, from the Creation until the end of
the world, and dedicates himself exclusively to uncovering the parenthood of certain
details in the Talmud and Judaeo-Christian traditions not contained in the Bible.

Conclusion
1 This judgement forms part of a very precious, historic Arabo-Roman
document, little known in European annals, which describes an interrogation of the
Qurayshite chief Abii Sufyan, conducted by the Emperor Heraclius. The
interrogation is pithy, methodical, full of spirit and measure, and worthy of our
recounting in full below.
In Syria, on his return from a victorious expedition to Persia in 628, the Roman
Emperor found himself detained by a letter in which the Prophet called on him to
embrace Islam. More surprised than importuned, and wanting to know more
precisely what this communication could be about, the Emperor of Byzantium
summoned some compatriots of this man so that he could interrogate them on the
subject. Abii Sufyan, one of the most relentless adversaries of Muhammad,
happened at that time to be in Syria, at the head of a group of Meccan merchants
(this took place during the truce concluded between them and the Prophet in 6 AH).
The emissary of Heraclius met the merchants and took them into the Counsel
Chamber.
Abu Sufyan, being the most closely related to the Prophet of the group,
underwent questioning, while his companions stood behind him in order to keep a
watch on his answers and to eliminate, should the need arise, any possible lies. Abu
Sufyan averred later that, if he had not been intimidated by the presence of his
comrades, he would have slipped in some unfavourable insinuations about the
Prophet; but restrained by shame, he had to declare the truth. When the questioning
was over, Heraclius addressed the following reflections on what he had heard to his
interpreter and told him to pass them on to Abii Sufyan:
'I asked you first about the family of this man, and you told me that he was of a
good family. Now God always chooses his messengers from amongst the nobility of
the people to which they belong.
'I asked you if anyone amongst you had used the kind of language he used
before, and you said, 'No.' Then I thought to myself that if anyone before him had
talked about the same things, I would have believed that he was doing no more than
imitate his predecessors.
'Then I asked you further if, before he undertook this discourse, you ever
suspected him of any lie, and you affirmed to the contrary. I understood by that that
if he were not a man to lie regarding his own kind, he would not be capable, for even
stronger reasons, of lying about God.
 NOTES 157

'I also asked you if any of his ancestors had ever been king, and you said, 'No.'
Otherwise I would have said: this is a man who seeks to take back the throne of his
fathers.
'I asked you if they were increasing or decreasing in number, and you answered
that tpey were increasing. Now this is the property of faith, to increase up to its
complete evolution.
'I asked you if anyone among them had reneged on his religion, and you said,
'No.' This is how it is with faith, when the grace of conviction in it penetrates the
heart.
'Then I asked you if this man broke his promises, and you maintained the
opposite. Thus it is with prophets: they do not betray.
'I asked you about the battles undertaken between you and him, and you said that
sometimes he won and sometimes you did. Thus the prophets sometimes undergo
trials, but final success is theirs.
'Finally I asked you about the nature of his commandments and you told me that
he ordered you to renounce the beliefs of your fathers, to worship the sole God, to
observe prayer, charity and chastity, faithfulness to promises made and the
restitution of property entrusted to one's care.
'Now all this answers well to the picture of a true prophet. I knew well that such a
man W<\i going to appear, but I did not think that he would be one of you. If you
have told the truth, it will be inevitable that this man will conquer the very place on
which my feet are standing. As for myself, if I could get to him I would try very
hard to meet him; if I were next to him, I would wash the dust from his feet. '
When Heraclius had finished speaking, Abu Sufyan relates, violent shouts were
uttered by the important personages who surrounded him, and a great tumult arose.
The emperor then gave the order that we should be led out . . . From that time
onwards, I remained humbly convinced of the imminent success of Muhammad [al-
Bukhari, Sahifi, 'Kitab Jihad', bk 101].
2 The story of the defamatory incident that placed his family honour into the
balance (lfadlth al-lfk) is well known. A pronouncement was urgently needed, but
revelation was awaited for a month - in the mean time he could not advance
anything on the strength of his leadership either to confirm or confute the rumours.
If the matter had depended on his own arbitration, would he not have been capable
of shedding light on the situation by some show of eloquence, and even of
attributing it to revelation?
3 If we examine the instances where the Qur 'an complains about him, it is
surprising to find in fact that they all relate to the one characeristic - the fact that,
when confronted by two solutions equally permissible, and most often explicitly so,
thus compare:

So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, smite the necks; then, when you
have overcome them, make (them) prisoners, and afterwards (set them free) as a
favour or for ransom till the war lay down its burdens ...
47:4
!58 INTRODUCflON TO THE QUR 'AN

Only those are believers who believe in Allah and His Messenger, and when they
are with him on a momentous affair, they go not away until they have asked leave of
him. Surely they who ask leave of thee, are they who believe in Allah and His
Messenger; so when they ask leave of thee for some affair of theirs, give leave to
whom thou wilt of them ...
24:62

Askforgivenessfor them or ask not forgiveness for them ... cited above
9:79

Allah has not made for any man two hearts within him nor has He made your wives
whom you desert by Zihar, your mothers, nor has He made those whom you assert
(to be your sons) your sons ...
33:4

There is no harm for the Prophet in that which Allah has ordained for him ...
33:38

- the Prophet chose the one which he judged the best from the point of view of plain
common sense, if not on its own merits:

Had they gone forth with you, they would have added to you naught but trouble, and
would have hurried to and fro among you seeking (to sow) dissension among you.
And among you there are those who would listen to them ...
9:47

But in the eyes of Divine vision, such choices were not precise enough: a little
premature in the two first instances; a little too indulgent in the third; not bold
enough in the fourth; and aiming for an unattainable ideal in the last.
4 see Massignon, La Mubtihala (Paris, 1944), p 11
5 amongst others, Carlyle, Andrae, Bartbelemy-St.-Hilaire, Goldziher,
Massignon, Noldeke, Turpin etc.
6 Renan, 'Mahomet', p 1080
7 Goldziher, Dogme, p 3
8 For at the same time, in reality, each one retains its own particular quality.
Thus for instance the genealogies in the Bible, and the stories of 'Ad and Thamiid in
the Qur'an.
9 David, 'Analogies et Divergences entre les Legendes de Ia Bible et du Koran',
in Revue Sociologique et Historique, 4th series, Vol2, March-April1884, p 125
10 In our choice of texts for this paragraph, we have taken care to avoid the
double fault for which this exegetic method, known by the name of 'concordism ',
can so often be reproached: interpreting revealed texts in such a way as to put them
in line with the results of science.
Zeal for explanation has pushed certain modem commentators of the Qur 'an to
demonstrate this 'concordist' tendency out of all proportion, to the extent of
endangering the credibility of the faith itself. Sometimes they lack respect for the
text, twisting it and forcing a meaning out of it which neither the vocabulary, nor the
syntax, are giving to understand, and sometimes they have too much respect for the
 NOTES 159

opinions of scholars, adopting even those hypotheses which are unverifiable or

contradictory.
This double excess put aside, we not only find ourselves justified in comparing
the givens of this instantaneous inspiration with the results of slow, methodical
observation, but we judge it indispensable to the firmness of the faith. The Qur 'an
expressly invites us to discover its Divine source, on the one hand by meditating on
it, and on the other by contemplating the signs which the Creator has left scattered in
the world and in ourselves which bear clear witness to its absolute truthfulness:
•
Will they not then meditate on the Qur' dn? And if it were from any other than Allah,
they would have found in it many a discrepancy.
4:82

We will soon show them Our signs in farthest regions and among their own people,
until it is quite clear to them that it is the Truth ...
41:53

Now, in the examples cited here, it is not a question of interpreting, but of noting
the striking identity between the pronunciations of the Qur 'an, and scientific
statements resulting from much prolonged research across the centuries, resulting in
definite information thanks only to the collaboration of competent and specialized
men, each in his own field.
Is this simple coincidence?
Is it possible that in the time of Ignorance a man unaided by any apparatus, left to
his own natural enlightenment and limited observations could, on top of his basic
moral, religious and social task, deal with matters of anatomy, meteorology,
cosmology, animal and human psychology, and yet other branches of knowledge?
All necessitating elaborated apparatus and collective experience complementing
each other? And give us universal and eternal formulae on each subject, without
leaving traces of error anywhere about his own era, environment or mentality?
11 It is not difficult to disengage the capital difference which, in many respects,
distinguishes the facts announced by the Qur 'an from facts treated by modern
experimental psychology (telepathy, magnetism, spiritualism, psychometry, dreams,
prevision, retrovision, etc.) and which, while proving the existence of something
beyond the senses and the possibility of contact with a beyond, afford nothing
certain about a Divine origin.
This difference resides first of all in how they perceive themselves. Not only do
presentiments of distant events in scientific procedures suppose a voluntary and
induced attitude, but the moment they arise within normal consciousness, they
appear to have an uncertain character; they are possible, or probable. Every
subjective assurance in this regard is certainly subject to easy falsification through
the influence of some adverse suggestion (e.g. dreams or hypnotism).
The second difference is in their realization. Thus, for example, the American
writer, Upton Sinclair, known for his methodical research on telepathy, affirms to us
that of 290 experiments conducted by him and his wife, only 23 succeeded
completely, and 53 partially [cited by al-'Akkad, Allah (Cairo, 1947), p 38].
160 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

The final difference lies in their range: aiming towards an individual or a very
limited period, human prevision has, in fact, a relatively mediocre field of
application and never extends to eternal matters. In place of formulae of the most
categorical nature, some repeat themselves, others depend on certain circumstances,
and others soon find themselves invalid. In every case they are systematically and
precisely confirmed.
But our own position here consists less in a demonstration in favour of the
Qur 'anic thesis, than in a refutation, by its absurdity, of the opposite thesis. If this
revelation is nothing more than the product of an exalted imagination, we should
have to be able to find at least one example in the Qur 'an where a disparity between
words and reality is manifested.
12 Lammens, Berceau, p 89
 Index

'AbdAllah, Prophet's father, 3, 143 Aqra' bin I:Iabis, al-, 140, 144
'AbdAllah, Prophet's son, 5 Arabia, 6
'AbdAllah bin Sallam, 126 Arafat, 85
'AbdAllah bin al-Zubayr, 17 Ariens, 104
'Abd al-Muttalib, 4 Armenia-Azerbaijan, battles of, 16
'Abd Manaf, see Abii Talib A'sha, al-, 107
'Abd al-Rabman bin al-l:larith, 17 Ash'arites, 62
Abii Bakr, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21,28 'Ashiira', 119, 121
Abii Ja'far, 17 Asia Minor, 26
Abii '-'As, 5 'Askari, 151
Abii '1-Aswad al-Duwali, 23 Avesta, 156
Abii Dawiid,l50 Azhar, 92
Abii Miisa, 23 Azrael, 148, 152
Abii Sufyan, 27, 128, 156-7
Abii Talib, 4, 5 Babylon, 111
Abraha, 3 Badr, battle of, 138-9, 148
Abraham, 3, 41, 43, 48, 49, 119, 120, Babira, 4, 102
143, 154, 155 Bahrain, 146
Abyssinia, 27 Bani Shayba, 6
Adam, 83, 154 Bani Sa'd, 4
'Ad, 158 Bani '1-l:larith, 103
'Adnan, 3, 143 Bayhaqi, al-, 154
'Akkad, al-, 159 Baqillani, al-, 147, 151
'A'isha, 7,117 Bara ', al-, 146
Alexander the Great, 25-6 Barthelemy-St-Hilaire, 147, 148,
Alexandria, 26 151, 158
'Ali, 5, 6, 14, 17, 28, 105, 147, 148, Basra, 146
153 Bible, 21,66-7,68-70,70-2,72-5,
Amina, 4 76,82,97, 107,109,114,115,
'Amr bin al-'Ar>, 14 119, 135, 149, 153-4, 156, 158
Anas bin Malik, 7 Bika'i, Biirhan al-Din al-, 94
Andrae, Tor, 152, 154 Biqa'i, al-, 151

161
162 IN1RODUCf!ON TO THE QUR 'AN

Black Stone, 6 l:lafsa, 16, 17, 21, 146, 148

Bo~ra, 4 Hajjaj, al-, 146
Bukhari, al-, 18, 144, 147, 151, 152, l:lakim, 150
154, 155, 157 l:lalima, 4
Byzantium, 156 Hama, 56
I:Iammad, 108
Carriers of the Qur 'an, 15, 17 l;anif, 101
Carlyle, 158 I:Ianifites, 99-102, 112, 120
Caussin de Perceval, 140, 144 Harran, 102
Chidiac, 153-4 l:lasan, al-, 140, 144
China, 38 Hashemite, 3
Chosroes, 145 l:lassan al-Basri, 23
Christians, 4, 9, 17, 21, 26, 37, 43, Hejaz, 3, 99, 102
44,48, 76,83,87, 102,103,104, Heraclius, 89, 128, 156-7
105, 106, 108, 111, 114, 115, 117, Hijra, 29, 139, 144-5
119,121, 126, 133,139,140 Hisham bin l:lakim bin I:Iizam, 18, 19
Constance, 104 Holy War, 32
Huart, Clement, 105, 109, 110, 152,
Damascene, 104 154
David, king of Israel, 5, 154, 155 I:Iudaybiyya, 37, 149, 152-3
David, Jules, 135, 158 Hud, 65
Descartes, 115 I:Iudhayfa bin al-Yaman, 16
Dhubyani, Nabigha al-, 110
Draz, 149, 150 Ibn 'Abbas, 143, 145
Du Ryer, 149 Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, 20
Ibn Abi Dawud, 147, 148,
Egypt, 26, 149 Ibn al-Anbari, 146
Europe, 37 Ibn al- 'Arabi, Abu Bakr, 94
Eutichians, 104 Ibn I:Iajar, 157
Ibn I:Iazm, 155
Falaki, Mahmoud Pacha al-, 139, Ibn Hisham, 144, 151, 154, 155
140, 141, 143-4 Ibnlsbaq, 140,144,148
Fatima, 5, 6 Ibn Mas'Ud, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23, 24,
Fayyumi, al-, 102 146, 148
Fu<,lul confederation, 5, 144 Ibn Mujahid, 147
France, 151 Ibn Sa'd, 8, 150
Ibn Salam, see 'Abd Allah
Gabriel, angel, 1, 8, 9, 10 Ibn Sirin, 150
Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 150, 154 Ibn Taghribirdi, 149
Gautier, 148, 149, 150 Ibn al-Zubayr, see 'AbdAllah
Ghassanids, 103 Ibrahim, Prophet's son, 144
Ghazali, al-, 154 Imamites, 17
Ghorash, 104 Iraq, 16, 23, 102
Goldziher, 104, 150, 154, 158 Isaac, 41, 43, 64
Greece, 26 Isfandiyar, 110
Isma'il, 3, 43, 64, 119, 143
 INDEX 163

Israel, 79, 132 Moses,5,9,41,43,44,64,66,67,

Israelites, 119, 125, 154 75, 76, 79,97,154
Mosheim, 105
Jacob, 41, 64 Mount Hira, 7, 9
Jeffrey, Dr Arthur, 20-2, 147, 148 Mozambique, 38
Jerusalem, 119, 121-2 Mu'awiya, 14, 145
Jesus Christ, 41, 43, 53, 64, 66, 72, Mubarram, 145
75,79,87, 109,116,146,154 Muir, W, 17-18, 147
Jews,4, 17,26,43,44,82, 104,111, Murji 'ites, 62, 150
114, 115, 119, 121, 124-6, 140 Musaylima, 15
jihad, see Holy War Muslim, 154
Job, 155 Mu'tazilites, 62
John the Baptist, 102, 154
Joseph, 154 Nabahiini, 143, 154
Jouguet, 148 Nadr bin al-I:Iarith, al-, 110
Jurjiini, al-, 151 Najriin, 103
Justinian, 104 Namus, 9, 140, 144
Na~r bin 'A~~im, 23
Ka'ba, 6, 7, 90, 102, 119, 122 Nawawi, al-, 150
Kamil Hussein, 151 Naysabflri, Abu Bakr al-, 94
Kasimirsky, 150 Nestorians, 104
Kazem, Mirza Alexandre, 146 Nicaea, Council of, 104
Khaybar, 103, 148 Noah, 52, 154, 155
Khadija, 5, 9, 10 Noldeke, 17, 146, 147, 152, 158
Khalaf al-Abmar, 108
Khalil bin Abmad, 24 Odes, the Seven, 90
Khandaq, 155 Old Testament, see Bible
Kufa, 20, 146 Oriental Church, 104

Lammens, Pere H., 145, 148, 152, Padwick, 153

154 Palestine, 26, 105
Layth bin Sa'd al-, 16 Parthians, 26
Leblois, 17, 147, 152, 153 Peninsula, 109
Light of Muhammad, 148 Pentateuch, see Bible
Lithuania, 38 Persia, 105, 110, 155
Lot, 65, 154, 155 Pharisees, 53
Luqmiin, 65-6 Porter, 149
Ptolemies, 26
Macedonia, 20
Mary, mother of Jesus, 47, 51, 154 Qasim, al-, 5
Mary the Copt, 144, 155 Qays bin 'A~~im, 140, 144
Masse, 152, 154 Qibla, 119, 121-2
Massignon, 158 Quraysh, 3, 102, 122
Massignon library, 151
Matthew, 76, 82, 149 Rabi' al-Awwal, 3, 11, 144
Morocco, 38 Rafi'i, al-, 151
164 INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR 'AN

Ramadan, 8, 10, 15 Ten Commandments, 66, 67

Razi, Fakhr al-Din al-, 94, 150 Thamiid, 158
Red Sea, 25 Tihama, 104
Reformation, Protestant, 37 Tirmidhi, al-, 156
Renan, Ernest, 99, 101, 134, 155 Torah, 67, 76, 114
Rome, 26, 104, 138-9 Turpin, 158
Ruqayya, 5
Rustam, 110 Ubayy bin Ka'b, 14, 16, 19, 142, 146
Rustiifdiini, 146 'Uka~. 101
Umama,5
Sabaeans, 102, 111 'Umar, 14, 15, 16, 18-19,20,23, 146,
Sabellians, 104 148
Sabi, 102 'Umar II, 149
Sacy, Silvestre de, 144 Umayya bin Abi1-Salt, 20, 23, 107-8
Sa'id bin al-'As, 14, 17 Umm-Ayman, 4
Saint-Clair Tisdall, 152, 156 Umm I:Iabiba, 27
Salama, 149 Umm Kulthiim, 5
Sale, Georges, 152 Upper Asia, 26
Salib, 65 Upton Sinclair, 159
Salman the Persian, 155 'Uthman, 5, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
Satan, 120 21,22,23,27, 146,148
Savary, 150 Ursitan, 104
Schwally, 21
Sermon on the Mount, 66, 70 Walid bin Mughira, 139
Seth, 102 Waraqa bin Nawfal, 9
Sha'bi, al-, 9 Western Church, 104
Shatibi, Abu Isbaq al-, 94
Shi'ites, 17, 18 Yabya bin Ya'mar, 23
Shu'ayb, 65 Yamama, battle of, 15
Sijistani, Abu I:Iatim al-, 146 Yathrib, 27
Sird( al-mustaqim, 152 Yemen, 3, 104, 114, 146
Sleepers, the Seven, 154
Solomon, 110, 154, 155 Zachariah, 154
Sprenger, 106, 152, 154 Zamakhshari, 152
Sunnites, 21, 146 Zayd, Prophet's adopted son, 118
Siiq Hubasha, 104 Zayd bin 'Arnr bin Nufayl, 101
Suyiiti, al-, 146, 147, 150, 151 Zayd bin Thabit, 14, 15-16, 17, 21
Syria, 4, 16, 102, 103, 105, 156 Zaynab,5, 148
Zinjani, al-, 146, 147
Taghlib, 105 Zubayr bin al-'Awwam, 14
Tahir, 147 Zoroastrian, 105
Talmud, 156
Tassy, Garcin de, 146
Taylor, Isaac, 105, 152