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Qurʾān , the sacred scripture of Islam . According to conventional Islamic belief, the Qurʾān was revealed by the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad in the West Arabian towns Mecca and Medina beginning in 610 and ending with Muhammad’s death in 632 ce . The word qurʾān , which occurs already within the Islamic scripture itself (e.g., 9:111 and 75:17–18), is derived from the verb qaraʾa —“to read,” “to recite”—but there is probably also some connection with the Syriac qeryānā , “reading,” used for the recitation of scriptural readings during church services. The Qurʾānic corpus, composed in an early form of Classical Arabic , is traditionally believed to be a literal transcript of God’s speech and to constitute the earthly reproduction of an uncreated and eternal heavenly original, according to the general view referred to in the Qurʾān itself as “the well-preserved tablet” ( al-lawḥ al-mahfūẓ ; Qurʾān 85:22).

The Qurʾān is markedly shorter than even the New Testament , let alone the Hebrew Bible . It is subdivided into 114 chapterlike units called “ sūrahs ,” a word used within the Qurʾān to designate revelatory passages of an unspecific length (e.g., 9:64). With the exception of the short opening sūrah , recited during each of the five daily Islamic prayers, the sūrahs are ordered roughly according to decreasing length, although this general rule is frequently interrupted. The second sūrah is by far the longest one. All sūrahs are traditionally known by names—many of them by more than one—which appear to have emerged only after the death of the Prophet. Sūrah names are usually derived from some conspicuous word in the respective text, such as “The Cow” (the second) or “The Poets” (the 26th), though they do not necessarily identify a text’s main theme. Each sūrah, apart from the ninth, is preceded by the so-called basmalah , the formulaic invocation “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” Many sūrahs (e.g., the second) are opened by detached Arabic letters, the meaning of which has not yet been satisfactorily explained.

Internally, the sūrahs are subdivided into verses called āyāt (singular āyah ), a word that literally means “sign” and is also used in the Qurʾān to designate manifestations of God’s power and grace, such as miscellaneous aspects of the natural world (e.g., God’s sending down of rain) or the punishments that God is said to have inflicted on sinful peoples of the past. Qurʾānic verse borders are normally defined by the presence of a verse-final rhyme, even though the Islamic tradition transmits conflicting systems of subdividing the Qurʾān into individual verses. The subdivision that is now predominant counts a total of 6,236 verses. These display extreme divergences in length, ranging from only a few words to entire paragraphs of text, but it should be noted that verse length across a given sūrah is tangibly more uniform than across the entire corpus . Unlike classical Arabic poetry, whose beginnings stretch back to pre-Islamic times, Qurʾānic verses do not adhere to a quantitative metre; i.e., they do not conform to fixed patterns of long and short syllables. In this sense, it is correct to insist, with the Islamic tradition, on a principled distinction between Qurʾānic and poetic verses. Many parts of the Qurʾān are highly formulaic, and longer verses often conclude with certain set phrases, such as “God is forgiving, compassionate” or “God is knowing, wise.”

The Qurʾān generally styles itself as divine speech by employing the first person singular or plural (“I” or “we”) in statements that clearly refer to the Deity . However, this divine voice alternates with third-person statements about God. Utterances by Muhammad are normally introduced by the command “Say:…,” thus emphasizing that the Prophet is speaking on divine injunction only. Prophetic statements often respond to objections or denials ascribed to Muhammad’s opponents, which cast doubt on Qurʾānic doctrines such as the belief in a universal resurrection of the dead or in the existence of only one God. This can result in an extended to-and-fro that endows parts of the Qurʾān with a decidedly polemical and disputatious quality.

Many passages of the Qurʾān are devoted to describing the eschatological judgment through which God will consign each human being to paradise or hell and portraying the ensuing rewards of the saved and torments of the damned. There are also narratives, some of which centre on biblical persons, such as Adam , Moses , Jesus , and Mary . Narrative passages include brief reminiscences (e.g., 85:17–18) as well as much more extensive accounts (e.g., the 12th sūrah, devoted to the story of Joseph ). Regardless of their length, these stories are generally retold in an allusive style that would appear to presuppose that they were already known to their target audience. The stress is not on details of the narrative plots but on their didactic significance, which is often explicitly pointed out by means of interjected comments. In many cases, Qurʾānic narratives show important parallels not merely to certain biblical passages but also to postbiblical Rabbinic and Christian texts. For example, the story of Abraham ’s dispute with his idolatrous father and his destruction of his people’s false deities (e.g., 37:83–98) is not found in the book of Genesis itself but only in later texts, such as a Rabbinic commentary on Genesis. The mediation of those narrative traditions into the Qurʾān’s environment may very well have relied on oral transmission rather than written texts. Even where the Qurʾān retells previously attested stories, it normally does so by harnessing them to its own theological agenda. The Qurʾān’s demonstrable overlap with earlier traditions is patently in line with its self-description as providing a “confirmation” of previous revelations (e.g., 2:97).

Except for the shortest sūrahs that are positioned toward the end of the Qurʾānic corpus, almost all others consist of a succession of paragraph-like sections between which there are frequent and often seemingly abrupt topic shifts. At first sight, the literary coherence of many sūrahs may therefore appear doubtful. Nonetheless, research conducted since the 1980s has increasingly demonstrated that the sūrahs do in fact display a high degree of compositional unity that is manifested , for instance, in the recurrence of key terms and phrases, sometimes in such a way as to create conspicuous terminological brackets or to yield concentric literary structures. Furthermore, many medium-sized sūrahs conform to a common structural template that centres on a narrative middle section. Particularly accessible examples are sūrahs 26, 37, and 54, whose middle section consists of a cycle of stories recounting how God dispatched earlier messengers to admonish their compatriots. These warners include not only biblical figures such as Noah , Abraham, and Moses but also nonbiblical messengers sent to certain ancient Arabian tribes. In almost all cases, God’s emissaries are dismissed or ignored, resulting in a catastrophic divine punishment. Apart from such obvious parallels in content, most of the individual episodes constituting these narrative cycles are also concluded by a refrain, adding further symmetry to the entire composition .

The Qurʾān forms the bedrock of Islamic law , even though many legal details are derived not from scripture but from extra-Qurʾānic utterances and actions attributed to Muhammad—the so-called Ḥadīth . Most of the Qurʾān’s legal or quasi-legal pronouncements are concentrated in a few of the longest sūrahs, the most extensive block of such material being 2:153–283. The domains covered by Qurʾānic law include matters of family law (e.g., inheritance rules), ritual law (e.g., the performance of ablution before prayer or the duty to fast during the month of Ramadan ), dietary regulations (e.g., the prohibition of consuming pork or wine), criminal law (e.g., the punishment for theft or for manslaughter), and commercial law (the prohibition of usury ). Concrete behavioral prescriptions are not expounded in a systematic order and can be presented as responses to audience queries—for instance, at 5:4, “They ask you what is permitted to them [to eat]. Say:….”

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The Qur'an - A Unique Miracle

The Qur'an severally challenges its critics that it is not composed by any human but is the word of God, the Glorified, and Exalted. This challenge is first given in the following verses: " Or do they say , 'He fabricated the Message'? Nay, they have no faith! Let them then produce a recital like unto it -If it be they speak the Truth " ( Al Tur 52:33-34 ).

This challenge is given not only to deniers at the time of its revelation, but is addressed for all times to those who deny its divine origins. It was repeated three more times in Mecca and for the last time in Medina (for this see Yunus 10:37 ; Hud 11:13 ; Bani Israel 17:88 ; Al Baqarah 2:23 ). And the fact is that no one could respond to it either at that time or ever since.

Some critics respond that this applies not only to the Qur'an but to all great literature, for example, that of Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe, Iqbal - in that they are all unique in their style, and therefore irreproducible. But they are mistaken in that the actual challenge is to produce not only in the Arabic but in any language anywhere in the world a book that possesses the unique characteristics of Qur'an, which make it a miracle. Some of these unique characteristics are discussed in this chapter.

Qur'an's Unique Features

1 . The language in which Qur'an is revealed presents its highest and most perfect form of Arabic literature. Its every word and sentence meets the best of criteria devised, and so does its subject matter. To emphasize a certain idea, for example, it repeats the same subject matter a number of times, yet this description comes afresh each time. From the first sentence to last, its words are knit harmoniously and beautifully together. And its message is so effective that a listener - even an opponent, cannot help but get enamored by the very sound of its words.

Muhammad M. Pickthall, an English Muslim translator of Qur'an, describes this phenomenon in these words: "... the Glorious Qur'an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy."

More than 1,400 years have passed since its revelation, yet Qur'an is the best specimen of its language, and no other book comes close to it - it serves as the ultimate literary criterion for the Arabic language. While most languages have either vanished or greatly metamorphosed over such a long period, it is only the Qur'an that has kept Arabic as a living progressive language. None of its words have become obsolete and its every idiom is very much in use today. Rather, it serves as the best of literary examples, and is quoted often to make a valid point or to stress it authoritatively.

2 . Qur'an is the only book that has had and still carries an unparalleled effect on human thought, ethics, morality, civilization, and mode of living. It first affected a group of people and as they rose built a polity and affected others, brought them uniquely together into an Ummah- and set a golden era in the history of humankind. No other book has rendered a comparable revolution. Thus the Qur'an did not just advance a unique theory, but its every word was actually put into practice by changing the mode of thinking of people that created a lasting world civilization.

Its revolutionary appeal initiated some 1,400 years ago has continued over centuries - now appearing in Arab awakening and to continue across the Muslim world. And spilling over into Europe and Americas, and into the unforeseen futures to come. 3 . Qur'an's subject matter is vast and comprehensive - encompassing the entirety of existence from initial stages into its future. It discusses the reality of universe, its beginning and end, its make-up and its organization. It tells us who is its Creator, its Organizer, and its Lord? What are His attributes? And what is the basis on which He has organized the entire worldly system? It enunciates the position of man in this world, and delineates his rightful position in it - a position which is beyond human capacity to modify. It delineates the correct human conduct to accord with his rightful position, and what would violate that position. And it presents evidence in support - from all aspects of the universe, from a human's own nature and from his history. Alongside this, it tells why and for what reasons people have stumbled into wrongful ways. And what sources they could use to correct themselves and live righteously.

In fact, the Qur'an charts out a comprehensive scheme of life that encompasses beliefs, ethics and morality, acts of worships, culture, civilization, economics, politics, law and all other areas of human activity - which fit together harmoniously constituting a wholesome system of life for the betterment of humankind.

In addition, it discusses in detail the consequences that follow the right versus the wrong human conduct in the life of this world - and into another world after this life ends. The Qur'an describes accounts of the reality of the Hereafter and its various stages in detail, such that a complete picture emerges in how we will live through another life. It tells how an accountability of our actions here in this worldly life would be carried out there into the Hereafter. And the consequent rewards and punishments in that life.

The Qur'an covers the subject matter of this vast area with an assured certainty because its author is the one who has full knowledge of the reality, observes all there is and knows all of the facts. The entire world is like an open book to Him, not only from its beginning to its end but after its end into another world - all at the same time. His guidance for humankind is not based on conjecture and speculation, but on knowledge that is certain, without any doubt whatever. As an example consider its astonishing descriptions of the consequential scenes in the Hereafter juxtaposed to the human actions in this word's life - as if to tell us if you do this, such would be the result. And thus to warn us, because in fact none of the facts presented in the Qur'an have proven false - since it is from all knowing Lord of all that exists or will come to exist.

The concepts of universe and humankind presented in the Qur'an offer an explanation for the underlying factors that are naturally connected, and together they constitute a complete, coordinated and comprehensive system. It presents a way of life that is sound and very logical and is actually followed by numerous men and women around the world living a righteous life. And more than any other faith its message attracts every day numerous others towards it - to seek its guidance to live in peace and tranquility.

4 . The Qur'an did not come all at one time, but it started with a reformation movement among the people it initially addressed and with very forceful instructions. And as this movement continued for 23 years it passed through various stages and its leader addressed them according to their needs and requirements. At the completion of this mission, its various portions were put together into a complete book - the Qur'an. According to leader of the movement, its discourses and sentences were not formulated by him but revealed to him by the Creator and Lord of the universe.

If someone considers Qur'an a creation of its leader, then he should present an example of such a man who led a movement like this and was constantly involved in numerous ways - as a preacher and moral teacher, an organizer of a victimized group, as a ruler of a state, as a general of an army, as a conqueror of lands, and as an expert and explainer of what he advocated. Then collect his speeches given at various times and locations in all of these capacities and formulate them into a complete, coordinated and comprehensive book. Such that from its beginning until its end it has the same central theme and flow of ideas; and what was said on day one of its inception conformed to what it said at its end and builds an all-encompassing edifice of beliefs and actions. So that a conscientious reader would naturally feel that its author had a complete view of the entire picture right from its beginning, and never changed his understanding or strategy because of the intervening circumstances or his being unaware of any of them. Obviously, no one else but only a supernatural God could perform such an overwhelmingly enormous undertaking.

5 . The leader who delivered the Qur'anic messages was well known to its people, from its beginning until its end. He would not go into hiding somewhere and come out from time to time with a marvelous message. They knew the way and manner of his own speech - much of it available today in the collections of sayings (Ahadith, plural of Hadith) of Muhammad (PBUH). Although great, yet they are in no way comparable to the speeches he delivered as Qur'an. This distinction is even clear when a quotation from the Quran appears within the words of the Prophet (PBUH).

Murad Hoffman, Germany's ambassador to Algeria and Morocco (1987-94) and former director of information for NATO in his book "Islam and Qur'an" has pointed out that a variety of linguistic analytical tools used by modern sciences have confirmed that all of the Qur'anic text is the product of one entity. And that it differs completely from the sayings of Muhammad (PBUH).

6 . The Prophet (PBUH) during his life was subjected to a variety of situations - for a number of years he became the target of ridicule and innuendoes and was subjected to cruel and insulting treatment. His companions were tortured to the extent that they had to go into exile. While in Mecca they, along with the Prophet (PBUH) had to endure poverty and starvation. His enemies conspired to kill him, and he had to migrate. He had to go to battle them continuously. And finally he triumphed over those very enemies and forgave them. Thus passing through various circumstances, he was naturally subjected to different emotional states.

But none of his personal emotional conditions are apparent in the message of the Qur'an - because it came from God, the one who is above all human limitations and does not suffer from any of human emotions, or any deficiencies and drawbacks. Even the greatest of Islamic critics cannot point out a word or phrase that this is where the Qur'an exhibits such a human weakness.

7 . The extent of subject matter covered by the Qur'an is exhaustive. It was an impossible task to master not only for the Arabs, Persians, Romans, Greeks of those times, but also today for the scholars of the 21st century. Even after spending a lifetime in studies of a specific branch of philosophy and its various sciences, an erudite scholar comes to know some of its end problems. And then if he looks at the Qur'an, he will find a clear answer to what he was looking for. This is the case not of any one branch of knowledge, but all knowledge areas concerning the universe and the humans. How then it could be possible 1,400 years ago for an unlettered dweller of Arab desert to have such a deep insight and perspicacity that he would be able to think and reflect on every basic problem and come up with a clear and certain answer.

In this respect, again consider the following observation from Murad Hoffmann from his book on "Islam & Qur'an": "Even prolonged cooperation between an expert team in the Arab language, theology, philosophy, history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, literature, physics, and biology would never arrive at final conclusions, because the Qur'an keeps offering new insights to every individual, every society, in each new era. In other words: Never ever is the Qur'an without relevance."

8 . The Qur'an provides guidance for the entire humankind despite contingent reality of its revelation to the Arabs in Arabia. God in His infinite wisdom chose Arabic as the most suitable language to convey His message. Of all the languages, Arabic to this day remains rhetorically the richest and spiritually the most comprehensive language. And the Arab people at the time of its revelation, with their good and bad qualities, were the most suitable to receive this message.

Quran's message is broader in nature, aimed at the entirety of humankind. This is remarkable, because in contrast to this, other revelations coming much earlier were by their very nature limited to a particular tribe or geographic locality. And while other holy books are shrouded in mystery, Qur'an more than any other book, religious or otherwise, is wide open for all to critically examine it. It constantly appeals to human intellect and its reasoning ability. It repeatedly asks us to think about the signs in wider nature and in our surroundings, even within ourselves, and reflect on them to arrive at an intelligent faith. Therefore, the Qur'an does not have the dichotomy between faith and science seen in other religions.

In the remainder of this section we quote from Thomas Cleary, a linguist and preeminent translator of classic Eastern religious books from introduction to his book "The Essential Koran" as follows:

"The Qur'an is undeniably a book of great importance even to the non-Muslim, perhaps more today than ever, if that is possible. One aspect of Islam is unexpected and yet appealing to the post-Christian secular mind is the harmonious interplay of faith and reason. Islam does not demand unreasoned belief. Rather, it invites intelligent faith, growing from observation, reflection, and contemplation, beginning with nature and what is all around us. Accordingly, antagonism between religion and science such as that familiar to Westerners is foreign to Islam.

"This connection between faith and reason enabled Islamic civilization to absorb and vivify useful knowledge, including that of ancient peoples, whereby it eventually nursed Europe out of Dark Ages, laying the foundation for the Renaissance. When Europe got on its cultural feet and expelled Islam, however, the European mind was rent by the inability of the Christian church to tolerate the indivisibility of the sacred of the sacred and secular that characterized Islam and had enabled Islamic civilization to develop natural science and abstract art as well as philosophy and social science. The result was a painful, ill-fated divorce between science and religion in Europe, one whose consequences have adversely affected the entire world.

"In the post-Christian West, where thinking people, including scientists themselves once more, are seeking solutions to the difficulties created by the Christian divorce between religion and science, the Qur'an offers a way to explore an attitude that fully embraces the quest for knowledge and understanding that is essence of science, while at the same time, and indeed for the same reasons, fully embrace the awe, humility, reverence, and conscience without which "humankind does indeed go too far in considering itself to be self-sufficient" ( Al Alaq 96: 6-7 )."

9 . Unlike other religious books, the speaker throughout Qur'an is in the first person, that it is God addressing His creation. At times, depending on the situation, it uses the royal "We." It addresses its message variously according to whom it is addressed. Most chapters begin with a general statement addressed to all readers. The comments are either glorifying God or describe the validity of Qur'an, in noble words. When the address is for the entire humanity, it says "O Humankind"; the word of address in this case is Annas plural of Insan, which is a human. Other places it addresses "O Children of Adam", Adam being the first prophet of God.

It often addresses the believers "O You who believe" when it instructs the people who believe its message. Other places it responds to questions asked from the Prophet (PBUH) by saying "They ask you."

Jews and Christians are given the honorific title of "Ahlal kitab" "People of the Book" or "Family of the Book" and thus addressed together, since Muslims share a commonality with them. The Jews are often reminded of their history as "Bani Israel" "Children of Israel", Israel being another name for the Prophet Jacob.

Therefore, an outstanding beauty of Qur'an is that, although it was revealed through Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), it addresses him and every one of us. The Western scholars among them Huston Smith, a professor of religion at the University of California, Berkeley are much impressed by its address in the first person against third person used in other revealed scriptures. A Muslim when reading understands that it is God that addresses him or her. Others, who read it with an open mind, have the same feeling. Admittedly thus it is the word of God, and in its address God is talking with each of us directly and addressing us each individually. He warns us if we do wrong, and gladdens us if we do right. And tells us of the consequences of our actions as if we are actually witnessing them. All this is done with a certainty and assurance that could come only from God! Its message is very forceful, provided the reader gives any attention! It needs no proving that it is from God.

10 . The objective of Qur'an is to provide guidance as clearly stated in the beginning of its second chapter. Its first chapter consists of what constitutes the main part of formal Muslim prayers or salat. In it a worshipper asks Lord Almighty to guide him on the Right Path: Because more than anything else humans need divine guidance in order to conduct themselves righteously. In response, the second chapter of Qur'an begins with the words: " Alif, Lam, Mim. This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear God " ( Al Baqarah 2:1-2 ).

But in the course of providing this guidance, the Qur'an describes many a natural phenomenon. And as our knowledge increases, we come to know these phenomena better. Quite a few modern day scholars have dealt with this aspect of the Qur'an.

Thus for example, at a time when our knowledge of human procreation was next to nothing, the Qur'an gives its factual detail: The fertilization of egg by sperm, and the clinging of zygote to the womb of mother, and fetus's wonderful development into a human with its specific faculties and understanding (see Al Nahl 16:4 ; Al Alaq 96:2 ).

A good reference is the book by a French surgeon, Maurice Bucaille, entitled "The Bible, The Qur'an and Sciences."

Worth mentioning is Bucaille's great surprise that "the Qur'an most definitely did not contain a single proposition at variance with the most firmly established modern knowledge, nor did it contain any of the ideas current at the time on the subjects it describes." And he concluded, "From Modern man's findings concerning the absence of scientific errors are therefore in complete agreement with the 'Muslim exegetes' conception of the Qur'an as a book of revelation. It is a consideration which implies that God could not express an erroneous idea."

11 . Although the Qur'an was revealed through the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he is not even its subject matter; one can only find some clues to his life from it. Accounts of Prophet (PBUH),s his life history are known from his sayings, his contemporaries and writers of his biography who immediately followed him, e.g. Ibn Ishaq's Life of God's Messenger.

The Qur'an does not provide any genealogy of Muhammad (PBUH) - a common practice of the times. Few of his close associates are mentioned, and it is only indirectly. But an entire chapter is named after Mary. The Qur'an describes the life of Moses and his confronting of Pharaoh 136 times, Jesus 29 times, while Muhammad (PBUH) is mentioned by name only 4 times.

12 . Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) provides us with great personal examples, as attested in the Qur'an: "And you stand on an exalted standard of character" ( Al Qalam 68:4 ). Nevertheless, he was a human and would naturally be upset when despite his best efforts was not heard - and not only ignored, but ridiculed even persecuted for his message. Yet, he is told by God that his job is to convey and not to interfere in any way. For example: " But if they turn away, your duty is only to preach the clear message " ( Al Nahl 16:82 ). And " Therefore do you give admonition for you are to admonish. You are not one to manage their affairs " ( Al Ghashiya 88: 21-22 ).

And several places in the Qur'an, he is even reprimanded for small infractions. One of the most outstanding examples of this is provided in Chapter 80. When he frowned at a blind poor man who interrupted his conversation with an influential personality: And for this he was admonished.

" (The Prophet) frowned and turned away, because there came to him the blind man (interrupting). But what could tell thee but that perchance he might grow (in spiritual understanding)? Or that he might receive admonition, and the teaching might profit him? As to one who regards himself as self-sufficient, to him do thee attend; though it is no blame on thee if he grow not (in spiritual understanding). But to him who came to thee earnestly, and with fear in his heat of him thou were unmindful. By no means should it be so! For it is indeed a Message of instruction ... " ( Abasa 80:1-11 ).

Muhammad (PBUH) took this admonition to heart. He helped and showed great respect for Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum (the blind man referred in these versethis verse). He would stand up to greet him whenever he would visit. He would say, "Welcome unto him on whose account my Sustainer has rebuked me."

Such a critique of the prophets is unknown in all other holy scriptures.

1. In writing this chapter much information was gleaned from the following document: Abul A'la Mawdudi, Tafhimul Qur'an,(Urdu), Maktaba Tameer Insaniyat, Lahore, Pakistan, 1967.

2. Other authors quoted in this chapter.

- John Esposito, What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam (second edition), Oxford University Press, 2011.

- Murad Hoffman, Islam & Qur'an, Amana Publications, Beltsville, Maryland, 2007.

- Thomas Cleary, The Essential Koran, Harper San Francisco, 1994

- Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, The Quran and Science, North American Trust Publications, Indianapolis, 1978.

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Five Major Themes of the Qur’an Critical Essay

Introduction, works cited.

The holy Quran is the basis of Islam. The divine revelation contained in the Quran helps Muslims to understand Islamic teachings. As a result, Islam cannot be understood without first having understood the basics of the Holy Quran. For one to fully understand the Quran and its teaching, he or she has to go beyond the five pillars and realize the divine intellect contained in the Quran.

The objective of the essay is to explore the five major themes contained in the Quran. This will be achieved through an exploration of different Quran Suras and verses. The five themes have been derived from the Sura of Mary, the Sura of the Prophets and the Sura of Counsel. The significant issues of the Holy Quran are God, prophets, man, divine scriptures, and sin.

The first major theme of the Quran is God, also referred to as Allah (Madigan 82). According to the teachings of The Quran, there is no other God other than Allah, the mighty and the highest (Madigan 80). God in the Quran has been regarded as compassionate and merciful to humankind.

God is merciful to man, and as such, man has the obligation of serving God. As noted in The Quran, God is “the mighty, the wise, inspire thee and those before thee “(42:1). The implication is that God is wise, mighty and inspires man through His creation. Also, He is the highest in addition to being above what is found on the earth and in heaven. Moreover, God watches over those who stand beside Him.

He is kind and compassionate. He forgives man from his sins. This observation is supported by the Sura of Counsel as contained in The Quran which states that “God is kind to His servants; He provides whom He will, and He is the mighty, the glorious” (The Quran 42:18). God created both heaven and others, and as a result, he is above all his creations. God also created day and night and gave man the power and will to differentiate good from evil (The Quran 21: 34).

The second theme of the pillar is God has given that man free will and choice. The presence of God in man’s life gives it meaning, both personally and collectively. A man was created by God, who has endowed him with free choice. According to The Quran, God watches over man and forgives man from his sins (The Quran 42:3). The Quran teachings go ahead to explain that God “answers the prayer of those who believe and do right, and gives them increase of His grace; but the misbelievers, – for them is keen torment” (The Quran 42: 25).

This implies that the man who believes in God does the right thing and prays to God. In turn, God answers the prayers of such a man. Also, God shares his blessings with such a man. However, a nonbeliever faces the wrath of God for his sins. This is because man has been given the free will, choice, and the ability to differentiate good from evil.

Furthermore, God’s mercy on man is shown through Zachariah who was given a child at old age and with his barren wife (The Koran 19:1). Therefore, whereas God remembers man all the time, on the other hand, a man remembers God only when he is in need. A man who believes in God and lives by his teaching and remains a loyal servant like Zachariah is endowed with God’s grace.

The third theme of the Quran is the prophets. Based on the teachings of the Holy Quran, God speaks to the man through the Holy Scriptures as envisioned by early prophets like Muhammad. The prophets reside besides God, and they are found on earth and in heaven (The Quran 21:22). An excellent example of the prophets is Muhammad. Another proclaimed prophet was Abraham (The Quran 19:42), the father of all nations and humankind.

Others include Moses, Ismail, Idris, and Aaron, among others. According to the Holy Quran, Mary was able to conceive by receiving a breath from the prophets, “And she (Mary) who guarded her private parts, and we breathed into her of our Spirit, and we made her and her son a sign unto the worlds” (The Quran 21:19). This means that Mary was able to give birth to a son through the power of the prophets who breathed their holy spirit on her. Prophets have lifted so many people, according to the Holy Quran.

At the end of times, prophets will drag men and devils around hell, and they shall be answerable to God on judgment day (The Quran 19:70). The presence of prophets is shown through a messenger to Mary. The divine scriptures state that “I am only a messenger of thy Lord to bestow on thee a pure boy” (The Koran 19:19). This implies Mary bore a child through the will of God and this was communicated through a prophet.

The fourth pillar of the Quran is sin or evil. God gave man free will and the choice to differentiate evil from good. Because of their sin, men will be dragged in hell and brought on their knees (19:70). The Holy Quran speaks of the theme of evil (sin) which is personified by Iblis or Satan (Madigan 82).

Satan disobeyed God, and since then he has remained the most significant rival to man. Besides, Satan is always encouraging man to disobey God. Wickedness is drawn from Satan’s strength which compels a man to sin. However, because God is merciful, he forgives and pardons the sins committed by man (The Quran 42:24). According to the teaching from the Holy Quran, God pardons those who have sinned against him and rewards those who do well.

The Quran warns the man to be on guard of the Iblis since he is always on the trail of the man. The prophets reside on earth to protect man and save the believers from the evil and evildoers (21:87-88). As a result, man is kept away from sin.

The fifth and last theme of the Quran is divine scriptures. The Quran contains sacred scriptures which were revealed to Prophet Muhammad through God (Allah). The religious scriptures assist man in keeping close to God and preventing him from sinning. The divine scriptures act as a guide to man, thereby aiding him to operate following the will of God. God’s mercy and the work of the prophets are proclaimed through divine scriptures.

The Quran state that, “God it is who has sent down the Book with truth and the balance” (The Quran 42:16). In this context, the “Book” is used to refer to the Holy Quran which contains the divine scriptures as revealed to Muhammad by Allah. The sacred scriptures act as a guide to man through God’s power.

The word “Book” which contains the divine scriptures is mentioned severally. For instance, it appears in Sura 19, verse 16, 42, 52, and 57. Therefore, the holy scriptures as depicted in the Quran, talk about God, Man, His relations with man, and the relationship that man has with nature. It is through the divine scripture that man is kept away from sin.

To sum it up, the Holy Quran acts as the basis of Islam, and its teachings are pivotal in understanding Islam. Based on the essay, it can be concluded that the major themes of the Holy Quran are God, prophets, man, divine scriptures, and sin. God is merciful, forgiving and is above all what is on earth and in heaven. Man is guided by the sacred scriptures which were a revelation of Prophet Muhammad. Through divine scriptures, God can protect man from sin.

Evil originates from Iblis (Satan) who is always trying to deceive man to disobey God. God pardons the man who believes in Him and does according to His will. Prophets, as depicted in the Quran, reside with God both in heaven and on earth, and they will gather all men and bring them before hell. Man will have to kneel before hell as God passes judgment. Rewards shall be accorded to men who walk in the path of God.

Madigan, Daniel. The Cambridge Companion to the Quran . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The Koran. Sura 42: Counsel. n.d. Web.

The Quran. Oxford World’s Classics. Trans. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem . Oxford, Mass: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.

• Five Primary Themes of the Qur'an: Surahs of Mary, the Prophets, and the Counsel
• Religious Studies and Theology- Major Themes in Quran
• Bible and the Qur’an: Fall of Man.
• Depictions of Adam and Eve in Quran and Biblia
• Compare and Contrast: Koran and the Bible
• Evil in the Theology and Practice of Hinduism and Christianity
• Bhagavad Gita and Its Teachings
• Comparative Analysis of the View of God, Jesus, and Salvation among Adoptionists and Gnostics
• Analysis of the book Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations by Michael Sells
• Shankara's understanding of Vedanta
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• > Journals
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• > Volume 43 Issue 2
• > The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary

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The study quran: a new translation and commentary, review products.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2016

The Study Quran is an impressive volume intended for scholars and teachers in various fields, as well as for students and general readers, both Muslim and non-Muslim. It is a vital addition to the existing translations of the Quran and to the not-so-vast body of commentaries on the Quran in the English language. The volume contains a comprehensive English translation and an extensive commentary on the entire Quran, as well as several essays on a range of topics, including Quranic ethics and law, branches of theology, death and dying, and art in the Quran. It includes useful appendices on hadith citations, a timeline of major events specified in the Quran, biographies of the commentators and the authors, a solid index, and a number of maps illustrating the ancient world and Arabia in the early years of Islam.

The Study Quran is an impressive volume intended for scholars and teachers in various fields, as well as for students and general readers, both Muslim and non-Muslim. It is a vital addition to the existing translations of the Quran Footnote * and to the not-so-vast body of commentaries on the Quran in the English language. The volume contains a comprehensive English translation and an extensive commentary on the entire Quran, as well as several essays on a range of topics, including Quranic ethics and law, branches of theology, death and dying, and art in the Quran. It includes useful appendices on hadith citations, a timeline of major events specified in the Quran, biographies of the commentators and the authors, a solid index, and a number of maps illustrating the ancient world and Arabia in the early years of Islam.

The volume is a great resource for students and scholars in the fields of theology and religious studies and can be a useful reference in other fields of the humanities. It is an essential resource for scholars, teachers, and students of Islam, both graduate and undergraduate. It provides students interested in reading the Quran in greater depth access to the rich commentary tradition in a single volume. Study of the Quran for those not familiar with Arabic or Persian (the major languages of the commentarial tradition) has presented quite a challenge. I often refer my students to online sources, as the print sources are at best piecemeal; a university or college library in the United States, for example, might have one or two volumes translated into English out of a massive twenty- or thirty-volume commentary. The Study Quran fills the void by providing an in-depth analysis of verses, Quranic phrases, and a variety of topics while incorporating multiple commentaries, among them the most prominent and influential works of tafsir (interpretation).

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the editor in chief, is a world-renowned scholar of Islam and comparative religion. He is a leading proponent of religio perennis, an ideology that perceives all religious traditions as sharing a single universal truth as a basis of the development of various doctrines. That perspective can find its rationalization in the Quran and its call to universality of revelation, particularly in its reference to Abraham and Jesus as muslims, “submitters.” This point is taken as a prelude to the beginnings of the development of Religionwissenschaft as it appears in the works of Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (d. 422/1048) and the theories of inner unity of religions in the works of Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 638/1240) and Jalal al-din Rumi (d. 672/1273). Nasr is also the shaykh , “spiritual master,” of the independent branch of the Sufi Shadhiliya-Alawiya order—namely, the Maryamiyya. The general editors, Caner Dagli, Maria Massi Dakake, and Joseph Lumbard, and the assistant editor, Muhammed Rustom, are all Muslim scholars of Islamic studies. All have studied with Nasr and were recruited by him for this project. The nine-year project was intended as a Muslim effort rather than a Western or an Orientalist approach to the Quran, even as all the editors of the volume, including Nasr himself, are Western-educated with grounding in Islamic traditional teachings. The volume is not limited confessionally, ethnically, or geographically.

The Study Quran avoids fundamentalist or modernist approaches to interpretation developed in the past two centuries. Its goal is to be faithful to traditional interpretations and to be universal. It contains both Sunni and Shi'a commentaries. The essay contributors include scholars from various geographical and ethnic backgrounds (American, Egyptian, Iranian, French, Pakistani Canadian, and others). The contributors also represent different schools of Islamic thought and Islamic law. Some are Sunni, others are Shi'a (Twelver, or Isma'ili). Some have leanings toward tasawwuf (Sufism), and others place emphasis on linguistic, political-philosophical, or ethical perspectives.

The volume's introduction provides important information especially for those not familiar with the place of the Quran within Islam and Muslim intellectual and spiritual traditions. An effort has been made to ensure that the volume is not limited to historical, social, or linguistic interests alone, and that it remains true to “its sacred and revealed character.” The volume emphatically represents the spiritual aspect of the Quran—a text that “brings Muslims from Sumatra to Senegal to tears” when recited (xxiv). Recitation of the Quran is one of the forms of Muslim piety and is commonly exercised by women and men. This volume highlights the importance of the Quran as revelation, and its stories not as historical accounts of events but rather as symbolic stories with ethical and spiritual lessons. The centrality of the Quran is highlighted, presenting the perspective that Islamic sciences would not have developed if it had not been for the advent of the Quran. From this perspective Nasr states that works such as the Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas would not have existed in their current forms if not for the compilation of the Quran. He further maintains that words such as algebra and algorithm would not have existed without the Quran, because the flourishing of the Islamic sciences was dependent on the Quran. At the same time, all Islamic thought, art and architecture, and science are in a way commentaries on the Quran.

This Quran-centric perspective is rooted in the idea that the Quran is about absolute Reality; it is a representation of that Reality which is the absolute Real. From a comparative perspective, the Quran is compared to the body of Christ. Just as Christ in Christianity is the representation of Divine Reality, the Quran within Islam represents the Real. To communicate this comparative point, Wilfred Cantwell Smith coined the term “inlibration”— “God becoming book”—in reference to the revelation of the Quran, as parallel to “incarnation”— “God becoming man.” Another debate among the founders of Islamic theology ( kalam ) has been the question of eternity versus the created nature of the Quran. There have always been theologians believing in either position, and those who believe that the Quran is both created ( muhdith ) and eternal ( qadeem ; that is, it has existed with God the Preserved Tablet).

Arabic as the language of the Quran is compared with bread and wine in the Eucharist, not to Aramaic, Greek, or Vulgate Latin as the languages of the New Testament. The significance of Arabic orthography and of al-jafr (the traditional science that deals with the numerical values of the letters of the Arabic alphabet) is quite interesting and highly important in the commentaries. For example, the numerical value of the letters for the word Allah is 66, the same as the numerical value of Adam wa Hawwa’ (Adam and Eve), the representation of the androgynous human state— insan (human).

The gender-neutral Arabic term insan refers to both men and women. The Old English equivalent, man , although in the past referring to both men and women, has come under criticism in American usage. As a result, gender-neutral language has been used in literature of the past forty to fifty years (e.g., humanity is used instead of mankind, and human instead of man ). The use of the word man even if homo or insan follows in parentheses may imply gender hierarchies in the readers' minds, hierarchies that may not be intended by the Divine Author.

Several English translations of the Quran are available both online and in print. The earliest of these, a translation from the French translation of the original Arabic, was produced in the 1600s. Footnote 1 In the nineteenth century, Cambridge scholar E. H. Palmer produced his English translation. Footnote 2 Muhammad Pickthall's translation in 1930 was praised by A. J. Arberry, Footnote 3 whose own translation of the Quran was the first by a scholar of Arabic and Islam. Iranian woman poet Tahere Safarzadeh published Quran: Arabic, English, Persian in Persian and English in 2001. Footnote 4 Another Muslim woman, Laleh Bakhtiar, a student of Nasr's, published her translation, The Sublime Qur'an , in 2007. Footnote 5 The challenge faced by most translators, including those of the present volume, is not so much accuracy as how to convey the rhythm and the lyrics of the original text. Thomas Cleary's 2004 The Quran: A New Translation is one of the few texts that reproduces the semipoetic tone of the Quran while remaining true to its meaning. Footnote 6 Abdullah Yusuf Ali's 1934 translation Footnote 7 and Muhammad Asad's 1980 version, Footnote 8 along with that of Muhammad Pickthall (1930), are readily available on the Internet and provide various search options. I find the translation provided by The Study Quran to be similar in tone to Yusuf Ali's. The translators of the current volume did not aim to update the language, as the updated language “would soon become out of date” (xlii).

One of the difficulties in selecting a particular translation of the Quran is not the limitations of the translation. It is, rather, that because of their symbolic and figurative language sacred texts are ambiguous even in their original language. This makes recommending any translation that is not accompanied by a more detailed interpretation difficult. The Study Quran offers not only a translation that is close to the original Arabic, but also a detailed commentary.

The commentary in this volume brings together several works of tafsir (interpretation) produced by Shi'a and Sunni commentators, from the earliest commentary, by Muqatil ibn Sulayman (d. AD 767), to the twenty-volume collection by allameh Tabataba'i (d. AD 1981). The Study Quran has incorporated at least forty-one commentaries, listed in the commentators' key along with dates and abbreviations used in the text of the commentary for easy referencing. This is the most valuable part of the volume, as the individual works of tafsir are primarily in Arabic or Persian and represent an expansive body of literature, at times spanning twenty to thirty volumes. The Study Quran gives the English-reading audience the opportunity to access a thorough summary and analysis of the most important works of traditional tafsir in a single volume. It brings together various voices within the traditional perspective, along with the respect that has often been afforded to points of disagreements and discord. Ultimately, the volume ends with a common prayer attributing all that is good to the Divine, asking forgiveness for shortcomings of the effort, and concluding with the phrase “and God knows best.”

The Study Quran is printed on lightweight offset paper, which makes its nearly 2,000 pages manageable in both volume and weight and keeps its price low and highly affordable. The volume includes helpful suggestions on various ways of approaching the text, including reading the translation in a linear fashion, reading the translation with the commentary, or following the citations or cross-references from one part of the volume to the other.

Various keys, citations, and indexes enable readers to navigate the text with ease. The Study Quran can also function as a kind of encyclopedia of Quranic commentary. One can easily look up a particular verse or topic using the index and the various references provided and follow the citations to read all that is said on the topic in different parts of the book, to gain an understanding of nuance and context. The original Arabic text is all that is missing in this volume. Had the Arabic text been included, readers familiar with Arabic or in the process of learning the language of the Quran would have had the opportunity to read the English translation in parallel with the original Arabic.

* Editor's Note: In consultation with Dr. Davary, the editors decided to depart from the accepted scholarly transliteration of the Muslim sacred text as “Qur'an.” Instead we used the transliteration “Quran” throughout the review essay to adhere to the choice that Seyyed Hossein Nasr used in editing his volume.

1 The Alcoran of Mahomet, translated out of Arabic into French by Andre Du Ryer ( London : England, 1649 ) Google Scholar , https://archive.org/details/alcoranofmahomet00dury .

2 Edward Henry Palmer's translation was originally published in 1880 as part of a series of sacred texts of the East. It has been reprinted in part or its entirety by various publishers and is partially available on the Web at various sites, including: http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/sbe06/index.htm .

3 The Meaning of the Glorious Quran , trans. Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall. Originally published in 1930, Pickthall's translation was reprinted many times and is currently available on multiple websites, including http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/pick . Arberry , A. J. , The Koran Interpreted , ( London : Allen & Unwin , New York: Macmillan, 1955 ) Google Scholar .

4 Qur'an: Arabic, English, Persian , trans. Safarzade , Tahere ( Tehran : Soore Mehr , 2001 ) Google Scholar ; also available on Google books: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cMEICgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false .

5 The Sublime Qur'an, trans. Bakhtiar , Laleh ( Chicago : Kazi Publications , 2007 ) Google Scholar .

6 The Qur'an: A New Translation , trans. Cleary , Thomas ( Chicago : Starlatch Press , 2004 ) Google Scholar .

7 The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an, trans. Ali , Abdullah Yusuf ( 1934 ) Google Scholar , available at http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/yaq/index.htm .

8 The Message of the Qur'an , trans. Asad , Muhammad ( Gibraltar : Dar al-Andulus , 1980 ) Google Scholar .

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• Volume 43, Issue 2
• Bahar Davary (a1)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/hor.2016.108

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What Is the Importance of Quran in Our Life

• September 16, 2024

Someone might ask: what is the importance of Quran in our life? The Quran is a material-spiritual guide for individuals and communities, for all classes of people, and for the whole of human life in all countries and at all times. The teachings of the Quran are universal. They enlighten man’s soul and the path leading to the hereafter.

The Quran holds profound importance in Islam, serving as a comprehensive guide for belief, practice, and morality. Embodying its teachings, Prophet Muhammad PBUH exemplified the Quran’s values in his life, emphasizing its integral role in shaping the behavior and character of Muslims.

Through daily engagement with the Quran, believers draw inspiration and guidance, finding solace and spiritual fulfillment. Particularly during Ramadan, Muslims deepen their connection to the Quran, reflecting on its verses and striving to align their lives with its teachings.

Allah SWT clearly stated the importance of Quran in our daily life the following verses: “This is a blessed Book We have revealed. So follow it and be mindful ˹of Allah˺, so you may be shown mercy.” ( Al-An’am 155 )

He also stated: “There certainly has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book through which Allah guides those who seek His pleasure to the ways of peace, brings them out of darkness and into light by His Will, and guides them to the Straight Path.” (Al-Maidah 15)

Table of Contents

Importance of Quran in Islam 

What is the importance of Quran in our life in Islam? Well, the Quran contains all kinds of principles of belief, practice, and morality that will ensure the true happiness of humanity. And Allah SWT showed this with his messenger, who is the best example for his servants. We can observe it in the life of our prophet, who was moralized with the discipline of Allah SWT and is described by him in Surah Al- Ahzab: Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah, you have an excellent example for whoever has hope in Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah often.

Importance of Quran and Sunnah

We should determine the place and importance of Quran and Hadith in our lives by taking the example of our Prophet’s life. Indeed: Yazid ibn Yabnus said, “We went to Aisha and said, ‘Umm al-Mu’minin, what was the character of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, like?’ She replied, ‘His character was the Quran.”

We learn from this hadith that the Messenger of Allah was the best interpretation of the Quran. Allah SWT has shown him as the best example to His servants. Every Muslim must follow in the footsteps of the Messenger of Allah and avoid what he sees fit and forbids. For this reason, Muslims should try to embrace the importance of Quran to mankind and keep it in an important position in their life flow.

What is the importance of Quran in our life? Even though most of us know how crucial it is, many of us experience difficulty giving space or allocating time in our daily lives . So how do we overcome these difficulties?

Most of us set priorities in our lives for the sake of our own inner peace and the welfare of our families, but if physical and material priorities get in the way of our spiritual balance, we face big problems. The communication that our soul needs is established through worship. This is a parallel phenomenon with life energy, serenity, and motivation.

By learning, reading, and understanding the Quran, we remember the true purpose of life and that the only return is to Allah. If the Quran is our priority in our daily life, it will create a perspective against our other preoccupations in our lives. This is the journey to find true happiness. In your business life and family relationships, you will tidy up your moral qualities from the perspective of the Quran. Thus, the Quran remains at the center of your daily life.

Importance of Quran Recitation

Narrated Muhammad bin Ka’b Al-Qurazi: “I heard ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud saying: ‘The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: “[Whoever recites a letter] from Allah’s Book, then he receives the reward from it, and the reward of ten the like of it. I do not say that Alif Lam Mim is a letter, but Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter and Mim is a letter.” ( Jami’ At-Tirmidhi )

There is no second book in the world where at least ten good deeds are written for each letter. For this reason, a believer must take his share of the Quran every day. It is necessary to read the Quran not only for worship and prayer but also as a source of inspiration.

10 Importance of Quran

• The Quran was revealed to our Master the Prophet PBUH through Gabriel during Ramadan.
• It is the word of Allah, whose reading is worship.
• The addressee of the Quran is all human beings and it is universal.
• Its purpose is to provide the happiness of the servants in the world and the hereafter with divine warnings.
• The Quran is a bridge between the creator and the created, Allah and human beings.
• The Quran is a guide leading to Paradise.
• There are 10 rewards for each letter recited from the Quran.
• It is a book of Shariah (Islamic law).
• It is the complete and the best guide for living one’s life and seeking Allah’s pleasure.
• It is a book protected by Allah. It will show people right and wrong until the Day of Judgment. “It is certainly We Who have revealed the Reminder, and it is certainly We Who will preserve it.” ( Surah Al-Hijr: 9 )

Check this out for more benefits of reciting the Quran regularly !

Importance of Quran in Ramadan

What is the importance of Quran in our life during Ramadan? Well, our Prophet gave much importance to the Quran, especially during Ramadan, and advised us to give it due time and respect. 

Narrated Abu-Huraira: Gabriel used to repeat the recitation of the Quran with the Prophet (PBUH) once a year, but he repeated it twice with him in the year he died. The Prophet (PBUH) used to stay in I’tikaf for ten days every year (in the month of Ramadan), but in the year of his death, he stayed in I’tikaf for twenty days. (Sahih al-Bukhari)

In this blessed month, which finds its honor with the revelation of the Quran, we should read it with contemplation and deepen the content of the verses, and increase our effort to apply its rules and morals to our lives. In this beautiful month, the enthusiasm of the Quran should not be missing from the homes of Muslims.

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Their experienced instructors use a structured curriculum to cover Tajweed, Tafsir, and Memorization, providing easy and effective access to learning the Quran. 

The advanced online classes allow for seamless communication and interaction between students and teachers. Join Riwaq Al Quran for a deeper connection with the Quran.

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Conclusion:.

The Quran stands as a beacon of divine guidance in Islam, offering believers a roadmap to righteousness and spiritual fulfillment. Its teachings, exemplified by Prophet Muhammad PBUH, shape the character and conduct of Muslims, guiding them towards a life of piety and devotion. As Muslims engage with the Quran daily, especially during Ramadan, they find inspiration, solace, and direction, enriching their spiritual journey and deepening their connection to Allah SWT.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Qurʾan and Contemporary Analysis

Introduction, overviews of approaches.

• Critical and Reformist Approaches
• Thematic Approaches
• Linguistic Approaches
• Literary Approaches
• Historical-Critical Approaches
• Hybrid Approaches
• Qurʾanic Translation Studies
• Dedicated Journals
• Electronic Resources

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• Qurʾan and Context

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Qurʾan and Contemporary Analysis by Salwa El-Awa LAST REVIEWED: 23 November 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 23 November 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0284

Contemporary analysis of the Qurʾan is marked by a significant turn from source- and historical-critical into textual analytical approaches, allowing more than ever before for the literary and linguistic components of the text to be uncovered using systematic applications of the methodology derived from contemporary literary theory and linguistics. Such textual approaches existed in the classical Islamic period, such as in works of Ibn al-Anbari, ar-Rummani, Abu Bakr al-Bāqillānī, ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī, and al-Shāṭibī. While maintaining the Islamic theological principle of the Qurʾan’s divine inimitability, those authors analyzed the text from their contemporary literary and linguistic viewpoints. Alternatively, early Western works, dating back to the earliest translations of the Qurʾan into Latin in the 12th century by Robert of Ketton, were marked by polemical attitudes and attention to debating the message of the Qurʾan from Christian theological viewpoints. In the early 20th century, while reformists Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Rashid Ridda in the Middle East called for moving the stagnant waters of Islamic scholarship at the time to produce relevant modern interpretation of the Qurʾan, Western scholars continued to build on the efforts of 19th-century scholars such as Geiger, Hirschfeld, Weil, and Nöldeke, among others, to establish the sources of the Qurʾan’s Judeo-Christian materials through philological and biblical research, and to reproduce a revised Qurʾan based on the chronological order of revelations. However, in the second half of the 20th century, a considerable shift in approach took place, with contemporary scholars such as Montgomery Watt (b. 1909–d. 2006), Kenneth Cragg (b. 1913–d. 2012) and others calling for a change in Western academic attitudes in writing about Islamic topics. While older diachronic source- and historical-critical approaches did not entirely lose their appeal in the postmodern era, which can be seen particularly since the 1980s in the works of Griffith, Reynolds, Neuwirth, Sinai, Witztum, Crone, and Zellentin, the new more text-oriented synchronic approaches analyze the text of Qurʾan as used by Muslims from thematic, structural, linguistic and literary points of views. On the way to a more objective and increasingly systematized approach to the study of the Qurʾanic text, several complementary and competing theories are utilized, either developed within Qurʾanic studies or borrowed from linguistics, literary criticism, and critical discourse analysis approaches. Also, many scholars adopted a combination of historical and textual approaches in attempts to reach deeper and more contextualized understanding of this complex text. Areas such as the thematic unity of the text, coherence and textual relations, and literary analysis of various aspects of the text and its language and linguistics are gaining increasing popularity in recent publications among scholars both in the East and in the West.

A large number of works are dedicated to identifying the variety of approaches to the Qurʾan that have gained increased interest in recent years. Hawting and Shareef 1993 is a collection of essays offering insights into the varied methodologies of analyzing the Qurʾanic text with some comparisons between traditional and contemporary approaches. Boullata 2000 provides an overview of contemporary approaches, with a variety of essays adopting textual, structural, thematic, and literary approaches. Taji-Farouki 2006 examines a representative selection of controversial modern and postmodern hermeneutical approaches to the Qurʾan by Muslim intellectuals across the world, highlighting the challenges and struggles those approaches face in engaging directly with the text in the contexts of modernity and globalization. Works such as Saeed 2005 and Cancian 2019 provide overviews of contemporary approaches developing in certain parts of the Muslim world such as Indonesia and Iran. McAuliffe 2001–2006 is a comprehensive collection of articles on a very wide range of questions about the Qurʾanic text and history and is a good starting point when searching for key issues, authors, or sources. McAuliffe 2006 and Rippin and Mojaddedi 2017 complement one another with a wide selection of essays representative of the key methods of analysis in contemporary Qurʾanic studies. Robinson 2003 [1996] is a key work for students and researchers looking for an example of one in-depth contemporary analysis of the Qurʾan from several angles chronologically and textually. For more key references, encyclopedia, handbooks, and companions that offer insights into the issues of interest in those approaches, see the separate Oxford Biographies in Islamic Studies article “ Qurʾan ”.

Boullata, Issa J. Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur ʾ ān . Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2000.

Fifteen essays by influential authors representing examples of the dominant approaches to literary analysis in contemporary Qurʾanic studies.

Cancian, Alessandro, ed. Approaches to the Qurʾan in Contemporary Iran . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

A collection of seventeen essays looking at various approaches to reception of the Qurʾan in contemporary Iran with special attention to three fields: authority, legitimacy, and cultural manifestations.

Hawting, G. R., and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef. Approaches to the Qurʼān . London: Routledge, 1993.

Thirteen essays analyzing the Qurʾan as a literary text, as a text in context, as a thematic unit and as a more widely contextualized text within historical, biblical, and legal frameworks.

McAuliffe, Jane Dammen. “Western Scholarship and the Qurʾan.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Qurʾan . Edited by Andrew Rippin, 235–251. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Fourteen essays on a number of issues by prominent Qurʾan scholars. Key to understanding the different contemporary approaches to the Qurʾan. Access to full book or individual chapters available online .

McAuliffe, Jane Dammen, ed. Encyclopaedia of the Qur ʾ ān . 6 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2001–2006.

Written by a selection of scholars representing a wide variety of contemporary approaches, the six-volume encyclopedia is an essential first point of reference for students and researchers on the key issues in the study of the Qurʾan. A new online-only version of this work is edited by Johanna Pink and can be accessed online .

Rippin, Andrew, and Jawid Mojaddedi. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Qur’ān . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017.

DOI: 10.1002/9781118964873

This is a second edition of the 2006 book edited by Andrew Rippin. It was completed by Mojadeddi after Rippin passed away in 2016.

Robinson, Neal. Discovering the Qurʾan: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text . 2d ed. London: PCM Press, 2003.

An in-depth analysis of the Qurʾan from several angles of paramount interest to contemporary Qurʾanic studies. The first edition of this book was published in 1996.

Saeed, Abdullah, ed. Approaches to the Qur ʾ an in Contemporary Indonesia . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

A compilation of eleven essays on various issues stemming from contemporary Indonesian approaches to the Qurʾan. The essays cover a range of legal, interfaith, and gender issues as well as methodological, exegetical, and creative approaches to the text.

Taji-Farouki, Suha, ed. Muslim Intellectuals and the Qurʾan . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Eleven essays by Eastern and Western Muslim scholars and intellectuals on postmodern critical approaches to interpretation of the Qurʾan.

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