What is the Qur’an?

Answer

The Qur’an—often spelled as Quran or Koran—is the primary sacred text of the Islamic faith. According to Muslim beliefs, the words of the Qur’an were dictated to Muhammad, who then relayed them orally to his followers. The term Qur’an translates to “the recitation.” This message was conveyed by Muhammad approximately 600 years after the ministry of Jesus on earth.

Islam regards the Qur’an as the flawless, eternal, and exquisite message of Allah, serving as the sole necessary evidence of Muhammad’s prophethood. The words of the Qur’an were preserved solely in oral form until after Muhammad’s passing. Subsequently, the text was compiled in writing through the endeavors of early Islamic leaders. While the Qur’an is briefer than the New Testament of the Bible, Islamic theology asserts that its true comprehension can only be achieved through reading it in its original Arabic form. Islamic theology draws from both the Qur’an and various oral traditions accumulated over the centuries.

Islam teaches that Muhammad was visited by the angel Gabriel and instructed to memorize a specific message. For years, Muhammad kept this message within his family, at times questioning if he had encountered a malevolent spirit. Once reassured, he commenced preaching in accordance with these received words. Over the ensuing twenty-plus years, Muhammad progressively revealed more of the message. His followers committed his words to memory, maintaining a completely oral record of the Qur’an. Only minor segments were transcribed on leaves, rocks, and bones.

The core message of the Qur’an is that humanity has strayed from the truths that Allah revealed to individuals like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. According to Muhammad, humans have distorted the words and message of Allah. This specific “recitation” is intended to be the ultimate, definitive declaration from Allah to humanity. Individuals are urged to surrender to Allah: Islam literally translates to “submission.” Musl

Adherents are also commanded by the Qur’an to follow Allah’s instructions and to employ various methods of “struggle” (jihad) to spread this submission worldwide.

While the Judeo-Christian Scriptures include a large amount of history as well as theology, the Qur’an is overwhelmingly theological. Most of the text is devoted to statements about the nature of Allah, creation, mankind’s obligations, and the afterlife.

Recording the Qur’an: Abu Bakr and Uthman

After Muhammad died, the survival of his message was entirely reliant on the hafiz—men who had memorized the entire Qur’an—and qurra—men who had memorized large portions of the text and were adept at reciting it. These sources rapidly dwindled. The Islamic Empire’s rapid military expansion resulted in many hafiz and qurra being killed in battle. In response, Islamic leaders began the process of recording the Qur’an in written form. This involved the memory of the remaining hafiz, as well as collecting various written fragments. The result was a single manuscript, kept by the leader of Islam, Caliph Abu Bakr.

However, as Islam continued to spread, variations within the Qur’an began to arise. This was due to continued oral memorization, alternate writings on leaves and bones, and differences of opinion between Muslims on what Muhammad had actually said. These disagreements were serious enough to spark violence. A succeeding caliph, Uthman, ordered all written copies of the Qur’an, including scraps, to be collected. These were given to a panel of scholars who were tasked with determining the “correct” words and pronunciations. Afterwards, Uthman sent a single copy of the written Qur’an to each of the major regions of the Empire, and ordered all prior copies—in all forms—to be destroyed.

This entire process was completed within thirty years of Muhammad’s death.

This stands in stark contrast to the history of the New Testament. The Qur’an was purposefully compiled—at least twice—after Muh

Amad’s death. Neither process produced a large number of physical copies. This process was entirely under the direction of the leaders of the Islamic Empire. After the second collection, all prior records were purposely destroyed. In short, this means that the Qur’an we see today is the result of a tightly controlled process, under the direction of a very few people, very soon after it was first written down. There is no way to know if or to what extent this might have changed from the original.

The New Testament, on the other hand, was originally written by various authors at various times and places. These words spread during a time when Christianity was functionally illegal. Texts were copied freely, independently, and often. This was done without any central control, and without any restrictions. The end result is what we see today: thousands and thousands of surviving manuscripts from an extremely broad geography. The advantage to this is that no one group, church, or government ever had the ability to control what those manuscripts said. Any copyist errors or changes stand out clearly. By the time the Roman Empire cared about the Bible—three hundred years later—manuscripts had been in circulation for centuries. At that point, it was impossible to replace the texts with some controlled version.

In short, this means it is far more reasonable to assert that the current text of the Bible represents the original words of the authors than to make the same claim about the modern Qur’an representing the original words of Muhammad.

Structure of the Qur’an: Ayat and Surat

The Qur’an is composed of 114 chapters, or surat. Each individual chapter, or surah, is typically given a name for easier identification, based on the content. Rather than being arranged chronologically, these chapters are ordered more or less from longest to shortest. Those with more verses, or more ayat, are generally the earlier chapters, while the shorter ones are placed at the end. As with the Bib

Overall, the length of any specific verse, or ayah, varies significantly. The chapters of the Qur’an are not presented in chronological order, and the subject matter discussed from one verse to another often changes drastically.

In total, the text of the Qur’an is shorter compared to the Bible. Depending on whether one is counting words or letters, the relative size may differ. According to most estimates, the Qur’an is slightly over half the length of the New Testament and less than one-fourth the size of the Old Testament.

The content of the Qur’an can be categorized into two main groups: Medinan and Meccan. These categories correspond to the two primary phases of Muhammad’s ministry, the first in Mecca and the second in Medina. The nature of Islam, Muhammad’s message, and the words of the Qur’an show a noticeable shift when Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina.

During his time in Mecca, Muhammad was a relatively powerless and persecuted figure. Meccan surat tend to focus on coexistence, non-coercion, peace, and similar themes. These verses are frequently cited by those who argue that Islam promotes peace. However, after relocating to Medina, Muhammad became a powerful military leader. The later Medinan surat, from the end of Muhammad’s life and the early days of the Islamic Empire, exhibit a more aggressive tone. These verses are often cited by those who claim that Islam advocates aggression and violence.

Interestingly, Islam introduces a concept called abrogation, or “replacement.” According to this concept, a surah or ayah revealed later holds more authority than those revealed earlier. Essentially, the later statement supersedes and replaces the former one. Abrogation is commonly discussed in relation to contradictions within the Qur’an, particularly regarding the shift in tone between the earlier Meccan and later Medinan texts.

Interpretation and Use of the Qur’an: Hadith and Tafsir

The Qur’an does not hold the exact same position in Islamic faith as the Bible.

Does in Christianity. There are strong parallels but also major differences. The Qur’an is believed by Muslims to be the eternal, perfect message of Allah, which is actually more a parallel to Jesus: the eternal, perfect message (Word) of God.

Interpretation of the Qur’an is more complex than for other religious texts. Most Muslims cannot engage in deep study of the Arabic Qur’an, just as most Christians cannot engage in professional-level studies of the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Bible. The vast majority of Muslims worldwide do not speak the Arabic dialect in which the Qur’an is written. Christians have access to translations of the Bible. However, according to Islamic theology, the words of the Qur’an can be fully understood only in their original Arabic dialect. According to Muslims, the miracle of the Qur’an is in its supposedly perfect language and structure. “Translating” the Qur’an, then, is impossible according to Islam. Any change of the text, such as into another language, makes the end result an interpretation. This is frequently offered as a reason why non-Muslims fail to accept the miracle of the words of Allah.

The short length and primarily oral nature of the early Qur’an encouraged the development of hadith, or oral traditions. Islamic scholars collected various comments made by those who knew Muhammad personally and that purport to be memories of Muhammad’s own remarks on the Qur’an and the correct application of Islam. These comments are generally from Muhammad’s wives, lieutenants, or close associates. Not all of these traditional tidbits are accepted by every Muslim. In fact, the differences between major schools of Islamic theology can be coarsely summarized by which hadith they accept or reject.

Because of the language barrier, the chaotic nature of the text, and the existence of the hadith, the Qur’an is significantly more obscure than the Christian Bible. The average Muslim does not have access to all of the thousands and thousands of variant collections.

Tions of oral traditions that form the hadith. However, it is reasonable to say that the Qur’an’s role in Islam cannot be properly understood without the hadith. In this respect, the Qur’an is only part of a Muslim’s religious texts, albeit the most important.

As a result, most Muslims rely heavily on some form of interpretation-commentary in order to understand and apply the Qur’an. These commentaries are called tafsir, which generally combine explanation of context with the opinion of various Islamic scholars.

Competing Claims: The Qur’an and the Bible

Islam has a complex relationship with the Bible, in no small part because of statements made in the Qur’an. In theory, Muslims believe that Allah (God) gave written revelations to men like Moses and David. This, for them, also includes Jesus, whom they refer to as Isa. In some places, the Qur’an seems to suggest that the books given to these earlier men ought to be studied. In other places, it seems to suggest that those words have been corrupted. It also claims Allah will not allow his words to be changed. In some places, the Qur’an suggests that Christians worship a trinity of God, Jesus, and Mary— a gross misunderstanding of Christian teachings.

In short, the Bible stands as the strongest empirical evidence against the validity of the Qur’an. There are copies of the Bible, available in museums today, written centuries before the birth of Muhammad. The claim that the text of the Bible has changed cannot be sustained. And yet that text does not agree with the Qur’an or the Qur’an’s claims about it.

While the Qur’an is held in high esteem by Muslims, it does not represent exactly the same position within the Islamic faith as the Bible does within Christianity. Its composition, character, and history are extremely different from those of the Bible. And, in the end, the validity of the Qur’an simply cannot survive a sustained comparison with the Christian Scriptures.