The Qur'an: Tradition Vs. History

7/31/2019 The Qur'an: Tradition Vs. History

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The Quran Juan A. Caballero Prieto

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The Quran: Tradition vs. History

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It belongs not to any mortal that god should speak to him,

except by inspiration, or from behind a veil, or that He

should send a messenger and he reveal whatsoever He will, by

His leave; surely He is All-high, All-wise.2

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quran_cover.jpg

2Gatje p.45; Zamahshari on Sura 42:51/50f


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The Quran is the main focus of Islamic religion and provides day-to-day guidance in regards to

the laws by which all Muslims need to abide; a projection to ancient prophets, and a definition of Islam in

contrast with the other major monotheistic religions of the time in which it was composed. The work

consists of 114 chapters, called suras, arranged roughly in order of length, from longest to shortest

each chapter is divided into verses, ayas, the total number amounting to somewhere between 6,204 and

6,236, differing according to various schemes of counting,3 In regards to its overall composition

however, the Quran is far more complex that it would at first seem. Claimed by Muslims to have come

directly from God (Allah) via Muhammad, the historicity of the work gives us a picture of a volume that

had been put together after Muhammads death and which evolved into a cohesive whole. As we have

learned in this class, the Quran serves a paradigmatic function within the Muslim community meant to

join them to the enlightened traditions of the West with a monotheism superior to that of the existing

religions of the same claim.4

The focus of this research paper will be how Muslim tradition sees the

Quran and what the peculiar compositions of its structure say about the development of Islam as a

religion. We will find that Islam, as well as the Quran, is a composition that evolved at the hands of a

devoted class of followers who sought to consolidate the sayings of Muhammad as revealed to him by

God.

The Quran in Islamic Tradition

When it comes to Islam itself, traditional beliefs about the Quran are straightforward, the book

was passed down from God to Muhammad,5

according to some traditionalists in seven dialects,6

and it

served the purpose of guiding the believers or creatures that He had created so that when the end of the

world came, those who have chosen to follow Him would be saved.7

The book establishes itself early on

as unique and above all others in regards to its message, denouncing Judaism and Christianity as

3Rippin p.20; Weil p.349

4From my notes on Lecture IV of this course by professor Von Sivers

5Gatje pp.4-5

6Weil P.346; of which Quraish was selected as the main linguistic characterization

7Rippin p.21


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conformist religions in regards to unbelievers.8

These ideas reinforce Muslim traditional belief in the

uniqueness9 of the Quran and their necessity to adhere to a single God10 which is indivisible and beyond

all understanding. However, like Christianity and Judaism, Islam needed to connect itself to older

traditions in order to establish what it was trying to revive or oppose, and the Quran offered this idea to

traditional Muslims so as to vindicate the antiquity of the religion and its approach to traditional

revelation.11

There are twenty-eight figures other than Muhammad named in the Quran as having been

commissioned or selected by God to spread His message.12

It would seem, however, that the most important function of the Quran in traditional Islam is the

guidance it offers in regards to salvation; A dichotomy of forbidden (aram) and permitted (all)

permeates the Quran and provides an elements of the foundation for Islamic ethics.13 What is halland

aram defines the propriety of every Muslim, and it is the behavior of the individual towards these

concepts and what they embodied that will be the staple of judgment when God brings about the end of

time. In the end, salvation to a Muslim seems to depend on Quranic revelation , as it provides a clear and

perfect version of the will of God, the correct rendition of revelation.14

The Quran, its Composition, and the Secular View

As we have seen, the Quran is an absolute text to the Muslim, written by Muhammad by direct

revelation from God. However, its composition is more complex than the view of traditional Islam would

have us believe.

Muhammad himself is actually excluded from any work regarding the collection of the Quran

into a book, though there are accounts in which he goes over the entire text with his cousin, and future

8Quran 9/30-19

This trait or, as Rippin puts it in p.35 ofhis book, The Doctrine of Inimitability, is used as evidence by the

Muslims, first under the guide of al-Rummani (d. 996), for the veracity of its contents10

Quran 2/255-6 gives us an overall description of God in Islam thought11

Muhammad claimed that he recited back portions of the Quran to the angel Gabriel in order to establish is

correctness (Weil p.347)12

Rippin p.23; see also Gatjes chapter III (pp. 92-129) on Salvation History for greater detail on the matter13

Rippin p.2714

Rippin p.30


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son-in-law, Ali.15Islam defends this initial lack of records by stating that it was unnecessary, because de

verses revealed by him were at once committed to memory by his companions, and thus were saved from

oblivion.16 Credit for the collection of scripture is given to a Zayd ibn Thabit, a compation of

Muhammad, while the pages of the text were entrusted to a Hafsa, who was one of Muhammads wives.

Later on, under Caliph Uthmn ibn Affn (b.579- d.656 CE),17 the third ruler of the Muslim Empire, a

final version of the Quranic text was commissioned and finalized. Thus there are two ways of tradition in

Muslim religion, that of the oral tradition by Muhammad and the written tradition by Caliph Uthman. 18

The evidence for the traditional view is not extant, but some documents have been found which

date the existing text to be completed by the eight century; however, all studies indicate that the current

text is the product of reflection upon a primitive written text and not upon the parallel transmission of an

oral text as Muslim tradition has suggested.19 In the end, what this represents is a religion that has

evolved with time and was not set from the beginning. As much as Islam would like to portray a divine

and finalized text directly from Muhammad to the Muslims, evidence even within the traditions of Islam

portray a much more different and dynamic text. Secularly speaking, the Quran was orally transmitted by

Muhammad and, though he may have seen a finalize version of the text before he died, the final work was

not compiled until after his death by Caliph Uthman, who is viewed by science as the creator of the

written Quran.20 Later writers such as Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari would attempt to

interpret the Quran in order to expound on its meaning,21 yet further evidence of is complexity and

evolution.

15Ali will also be the figurehead of the later Shii movement

16Weil p.344

17Hinds p.457

18Rippin p.31

19Rippin p.32

20Weil p.348

21Rippin p.37; see also Weil p.346


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Conclusion

Naturally, Islam will find its own explanations for this seeming separation between the word of

God transmitted by Muhammad and the written version of the Caliphs, but this will be only further

evidence of the dynamic Traditional Islam we have come to know and understand through this course,

one which developed into its current form through debate and change into the Islam we know and

understand today. What the Quran is traditionally cannot be superseded with what it is historically, but in

order to understand the development of the culture of Islam as a religion we must also grasp its meaning

in a community that has built itself around a book considered law. Islam tries to set itself apart in a world

in which all religions seem to share traditional beginnings.


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Bibliography

Gatje, Helmut, The Quran and its Exegesis (Selected texts with Classical and Modern Muslim

Interpretations (1976) Berkley and Los Angeles

Hinds, Martin, The Murder of the Caliph 'Uthman International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 3,

No. 4 (Oct., 1972), pp. 450-469 Cambridge University Press

Muhammad, Ali, Yusuf Abdullah (Translator) The Quran 23 rd US Edition (2008) Tahrike Tarsile QuranInc, New York

Rippin, Andrew,Muslims (their religious beliefs and practices) 4th

Edition (2012) Routledge Press, New

York

Weil, Gustav,An Introduction to the Quran. III. The Biblical World Vol. 5, No. 5 (May, 1895), pp. 343-

359 The University of Chicago Press

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The Qur'an: Tradition Vs. History