What is the Meaning of Quran? Published by Online Arabic Teacher

 

The Koran - al-Qur'an ("reading aloud, by heart"; under the influence of Sir. Kerian - "reading the holy text", "edification") is the main holy book of Muslims, a record of sermons preached by Muhammad in the form of prophetic revelations mainly in Mecca and Medina between 610 and 632. According to Muslim tradition, the original of the Koran is kept in heaven, at the throne of Allah. Online Arabic Teacher  wants to guide the peoples.

 

The term "Koran" along with other terms ( hadith - "story"; haqq - "truth"; surah - "the most important"; aya - "sign", "miracle", "sign"; tanzil - "sending"; al-hikma - "wisdom"; al-furkan - "distinction (between true and false)"; az-dhikr - "reminder (of what was revealed before)") was originally used by the Prophet Muhammad to designate individual revelations that made up his sermons. With the increase in the number of revelations, the appearance of their new records and as the Quran is increasingly opposed to the Scriptures of the Jews (at-Taura) and Christians (Injil), the term al-Kitab - "Book" appears in the text of the Quran.

 

Subsequently, the terms ayah, surah and the Qur'an acquired a narrow terminological meaning: the first - as a designation of the lowest level of articulation of the Qur'anic text, the second - as a designation of an intermediate level, the third - as a designation of the entire Holy Book. The Quran is also designated by the term "al-mushaf" - "scroll" - and by a number of others that are not found in the text of the Quran.

 

During the life of Muhammad, the text of the Koran was transmitted mainly from memory. There were records of only isolated revelations, originally made independently of Muhammad, and in Medina, apparently, at his direction. According to the most reasoned point of view, the first records of the complete text of the Koran appeared in the circle of Muhammad's closest companions after his death in 632 and differed somewhat from each other in the number and order of the revelations, the names of some suras, the writing of a number of words, etc.

 

The decision to compile a consolidated text of the Koran was made in a critical period for Islam, when there was a struggle against ar-ridda ("apostasy") for the establishment of the authority of the Medina Muslim community over Arabia. The most supported hypothesis is based on Muslim tradition, according to which between 650 and 656. by order of Caliph 'Uthman by a special board under the leadership of Zayed b. Sabit (the adopted son and assistant of Muhammad), a copy of the Koran was prepared, gradually replacing other records and subsequently recognized as canonical.

 

It was created on the basis of one of the previous versions, taking into account other records and testimonies of people who knew the sermons of Muhammad by heart. This second stage of work on the text is associated with the needs of a different period, when the victorious Muslim armies took possession of Iraq, Syria and Egypt. The earliest surviving copies of the Koran seem to date back to the turn of the 7th - 8th centuries.

 

In the process of the development of the Arabic script, caused not least of all by the need for an unambiguous understanding of the text of the Koran, its external form underwent further changes. The process of improving the writing was completed mainly at the end of the 9th century, when diacritical marks were introduced into the text of the Koran, however, even after that, the possibility of some discrepancies remained.

 

The emergence, and then the final consolidation of the vowel in the Koran, i.e. the formation of a uniform text in the full sense, is inextricably linked with the sharp ideological discussions that took place in Muslim society in the 8th - 10th centuries. After the appearance of the work of Ibn Mujahid (859-936), seven ways of "reading" the Qur'an (al-Qira'a) were recognized as equally legitimate. Spelling, text structure and rules for "reading" were finally canonized by the edition of the Qur'an in Cairo (1919, 1923, 1928), which follows one of these versions of "readings" - the variant of the ravi ("transmitter") of Hafs (d. 805) .) from the Kufi qari '("reader")' Asim (d. 744).

 

The work on the text of the Koran was not, as before, a phenomenon isolated from the processes and changes taking place in the Islamic world. This period saw the peak of the activity of Muslim reformers who strove to renew Islam through the revival of the "great Islamic traditions." In this regard, the creation of the canonical text of the Koran seemed to be an extremely urgent matter, important, first of all, for understanding the unity of the Muslim world. After all, it was at this time that by the liquidation of the sultanate in Turkey (1922) the caliphate was separated from the secular power, and then abolished (1924), which was perceived by many Muslims as a disaster. On the other hand, the successful work on the text of the Koran was supposed to demonstrate the priority of Muslim scholars over Western ones in this area, which is most important for the Islamic world.

 

The existing text of the Koran contains 114 suras of various sizes (from 3 to 286 ayats). After the first short surah - Fatiha - the longest ones follow and there is a tendency to decrease the length of the suras from the beginning of the Quran to its end. According to the time of pronouncing the suras, in accordance with the tradition entrenched in Muslim science, they are divided into Meccan (610-622, 90 suras) and Medina (622-632, 24 suras, which are mostly longer than Meccan).

 

European scholars (G. Weil, W. Muir, T. Nöldecke, H. Grimme, R. Blusher, R. Bell, etc.), based on the analysis of allusions to historical events, the development of style and usage, the evolution of ideas and the sermon of Muhammad, proposed a number of more detailed chronologies, which, nevertheless, remain conditional.

In accordance with the needs of the cult, the text of the Koran was also divided into 30 Juz and 60 Hizb.

 

Most of the text of the Quran is a controversy in the form of a dialogue between Allah, "speaking" from the 1st or 3rd person or through intermediaries (spirit, Jibril ) (but always through the mouth of Muhammad), and the opponents of the Prophet, or the appeal of Allah with admonitions and prescriptions to the followers of the Prophet Muhammad.

 

According to the hypothesis accepted in science, the language of the Koran is the Meccan version of the intertribal poetic Koine of the Arabians. The originality of the language of the Quran, the heterogeneity of its form and style are due to the duration of the creation of the Quran, the variety of content, Muhammad's search for accurate means of expression for ideas and social realities that found their understanding in the process of his prophetic activity.

 

Much of the text of the Qur'an, especially the early suras, is rhymed prose (saj).

 

The heterogeneity of the Quran's style is largely due to the traditional stylistic features of the performances of pre-Islamic Arabian soothsayers (Kakhins), tribal leaders (Sayyids), military leaders (Akids), arbitrators (Khakams), tribal orators (Khatibs) or poets (Shairs). Combining several traditional social roles in his person, Muhammad used the style of addressing listeners, which was naturally enshrined in tradition, but reinterpreted and brought together the existing forms and traditions in prophetic revelation.

 

The suras of the early period are short addresses filled with poetic beauty and power. Prophet Muhammad conveys in them ideas and images associated with the idea of ​​the omnipotence of a single creator god. These suras reflect confusion and fear of Allah and the Day of Judgment, uncertainty and bitterness, despair caused by the futility of attempts to convert their fellow tribesmen to the "true faith." Later exhortations and instructive parables are, as a rule, calm and measured.

 

The Late Meccan and especially Medina suras are characterized by long periods, sometimes interrupted by emotional appeals and appeals.

 

The peculiarity of the Koran as a historical and cultural monument and as a historical source lies in the duality of its ideological basis. He captured not only many elements of social psychology and religious consciousness of the pagan world, the disintegrating tribal society, but also the process of establishing monotheism, new social institutions and ethical and cultural norms.

 

The Koran sanctioned the outcome of a long process of social reconstruction, the dominant position of institutions and norms that already existed in the society of the settled centers of Inner Arabia.

 

Formulating new religious and socio-legal ideas, Muhammad saw in them the old ones restored in their original form.

 

The main idea of ​​the Prophet Muhammad's sermon is the need to convert to monotheism. Allah in the Quran is the root cause of life and the creator of the universe. Therefore, polytheism is certainly condemned, the punishment for it is suffering in "earthly" and "future" life. Doomsday warnings (yaum ad-din), description of hell (jahannam) and paradise (al-janna), instructive stories (al-masani) about the punishment of "peoples" (for example, 'hell, samud, askhab ar-rass), rejected prophets (for example, Hood, Salih, Ibrahim, Nuh, Musa, 'Isa), didactic stories dating back to apocryphal Judeo-Christian traditions and Arabian folklore make up a significant part of the content of the Koran.

 

The Quran captured the struggle of Muhammad against paganism and pagans (see, for example, Abu Lahab), polemics with Judaism and Christianity, which existed in Arabia in sectarian forms and were considered in the Quran as religions that preceded and genetically related to Islam, and also, possibly, and struggle with other representatives of pre-Islamic monotheistic movements (see hanif).

 

Gradually, the Koranic ideas about the supernatural world took shape (see Mal'ika, Jinn , Shayatin, Iblis , Ifrit).

 

A significant part of the content of the Koran, and especially the Sur Medin period of the Prophet's life, during which he became the sovereign ruler of the Muslim community (al-ummah), is made up of religious and legal precepts that determine the way of life and behavior of Muslims, some rules for worship (see, for example, al-salat , al-qibla, al-saum, ramadan , zakat, tahara, al-hajj, gusl, manasik), which took shape in the process of the formation of Islam as a religion and the realization by the Prophet and his followers of its independence. If you want  Online Arabic teacher.