INTRODUCTION TO THE GLORIOUS QUR’AN BY BABA ALI MUSTAPHA
The Holy Qur’an is to the Book of Allah the very word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad through archangel Gabriel (Jibrail) like the earlier holy books sent for example to David (Da’ud) Moses (Musa) and Jesus (Isa). It is sent for the admonition of mankind as the Qur’an itself testifies, “And assuredly we have made the Qur’an easy for admonition; is there then anyone who would be admonished”? (Q54:17). The Qur’an is replete with historical discourse and allusions without being a book of history. The Qur’an is easy for admonition, but one easy in the absolute sense, not easy in sense that it contains no profundities of thought or subtleties of meaning, but it is only easy in so far as lessons of meekness, humility and willing surrenders to God can be deduced from it.
The first revelation of the Qur’an began on the 15th night of the month of Ramadan in the 41st year after the birth of the Prophet. The first Surah was revealed in the Cave Hira when the verse “Recite in the name of the Lord who created…….” Was revealed. The last verse of the Qur’an, “This day we have perfected for your religion…..” was revealed on the 9th Dhul Hajja in the 10thyear of Hijirah (63rd year of the Prophet’s life). Taking this into consideration we come to know that the period in which the Qur’an was revealed in its entirely was twenty-two years, two months and twenty two days.
It is widely accepted as true that at the death of Muhammad, there was not in existence any written collection of revelations of Qur’an in final form. For one thing, so long as the Prophet was alive, new revelations were continually being added oi the earlier ones. In other words, the body of Divine revelation continued to grow throughout the life time of the prophet. This fact does not however, nullify the other well authenticated one, that even at that time, much of the later Qur’an must have already been written down.
As soon as the need was realised for securing Allah’s revelations through His Prophet Muhammad, it became necessary not to rely solely on memory work, as a good deal of the “words” could get lost-human memory being what it is. The people soon felt obliged to secure the revelations from Allah by writing them down, and it is easy to understand that to begin with, materials readiest to hand, like shoulder-blades, palm leaves, stones, etc were used for writing purpose.
Among the earliest recorders of these revelations were Zaid bin Thabit, Mu’awiyah bin Abu Sufiyan, Khlaid bin al-walid and Zubair bin al-Awam all of whom were the companions of the Prophet.
Besides, in an Internationally important commercial duty such as Mecca was, one would expect to find and there certainly were people who wrote down revelations from Allah. The question therefore, as to whether the Prophet himself could read or write is of minor importance. Infact, the Prophet was Ummi (unlettered) and the Qur’an, therefore, was the greatest miracle revealed to him from Allah.
The significance role played ,by the act of writing in the compilation of the Qur’an is more clearly revealed after the death of the Prophet. With his death, the source of revelation ceased to flow, and the believers, in cases of doubt, had no one whom they might cnsult as no one had inherited Muhammad’s prophetic gift. This discourse left by him thus acquired increased importance, for in them spoke the Prophet, or rather God through him to his community, if they were able to interpret the words correctly. The task therefore naturally present itself of collecting this valuable legacy in as complete and accurate a form as possible and preserving it from destruction. This obvious development is also confirmed by the traditions. At this juncture, we might stop to trace the course of event that eventually resulted to the first compilation of the Qur’an.
The most popular view holds that it all started with the realisation of the unfortunate fact that many of the people who knew the Qur’an by heart (Huffaz) had perished in the battle with the false prophet Musailima. This aroused in Umar the fear that some knowledge of revelations might be lost. Umar then induced the Caliph, Abu Bakr, to begin the collection of the scattered discourse. The work was entrusted to the companion and the secretary of Muhammad, Zaid bin Thabit. The latter collected everything that was written on different, often primitive, materials and compared it with what people had retained in their memories, and wrote them on separate leavves which he gave to Abu Bakr.
On the death of Abu Bakr the book passed the hands of his successor, who in turned bequeathed it to his daughter, Hafsa, the widow of the Prophet. It was this copy (Zaid bin Thabits Version) that later formed the basis of the work of compilation done by the third Caliph, Uthman bin Affan.
In compiling his own version of Qur’an, Uthman drew upon material from Zaid’s compilation which was deposited with Abu Bakr and which had passed to Umar after Abu Bakr death. When Umar succeeded, Abu Bakr, it was passed on to him. After Umar’s murder, Hafsa, his daughter had carefully preserved this copy of the Qur’an.
However, there is another theory that it was Umar himself who ordered and supervised the collection, indeed, we are even told (Ibn Sa’d 111/1, 2124) that Umar died before the task was completed. Let us now see briefly how the authorizied “Uthmani edition come into existence.
With the reign of Uthman, the third Caliph we enter upon more solid ground. Already,there were in existence four editions of the Qur’an. These were compiled by four men (1) Ubaiy bin Ka’b (2) Abdullah bin Mas’ud (3) Abu Musa Abdullah al-Ashari, and (4) Miqdad bin ANur (these edition gradually disappeared after the authorization of the final edition in Uthman’s period).
According to a statement of Ibn al-Arthir, the aforementioned four editions found acceptance, each in a particular region: (1) Ubaiy’s in Damaseus (2) Miqdad’s in Hums (3) Ibn Maud’s in Kufa and (4) al-Ash’ari in Basra. This statement is further substaintiated by the fact that the two last named compilers held offices in the provinces mentioned. That the existence of several divergent versions in the matter of arrangement would produce uncertainty among the believers is easily understood, it is only too obvious and inevitable. To avoid unfortunate situation, something had to be done, and that urgently too.
Tradition holds that Hudhaifa thought that the quarrels among his followers about the correct form of arrangements of Revelation in the sacred book, while on a campaign in Armenia and Azerbaijan, were capable of causing division among his followers. He therefore asked the Caliph Uthman to try to abolish this unfortunate state of affairs, so that believers might not quarell like the Jews and Christians over the scriptures. Uthman recognised the justice of the request and asked Hafsat to let him have the “Suhuf” (the copy of the Qur’an in her possesion) so that copies might be made of them. Hafsa agreed and the Caliph entrusted the task to a commssion consisting of Zaid bin Thabit, Abdullah bin Zubair, Said bin al-As and Abdu-Raman bin al-Harith.
It is not easy to see clearly what their work really was. If they had only to make copies of standard text, reliable scribe would have sufficed so that the men name would at most have some sort of supervision over the work. But they had an important assignment of arranging after somee deliberations the chapters of the Qur’an as they exist today. It is however proved beyond doubt that the version of Uthman was based on Zaid’s version.
The tradition further reveals that of the copies made, one was kept in Mecca, while three were sent as standard text to Kufa, Basra and Damascus, that is practically to the regions in which the four differing versions aforementioned were current. The authorised edition was readily accepted everywhere.
The new version must have graduallly driven out the variants because of its official authority and the general desire of uniformity.
It was in this way that there come into existence the authorised version of the Qur’an to the present day, and inspite of all the vicissitudes has formed with the sunnah the solid foundation for Muslims life and thought. It is true to say that there has not been any change even of a word in the Holy Qur’an from the time of the Prophet till to day.
DIVISION OF THE QUR’AN
The whole text of the Qur’an is divided into thirty equal parts. Each part, which is called Juz in Arabic is divided into two hizbs and each hizb is divied into four quarters, each quarter is called rabu’ in Arabic.
The Mecca and Medina suras:
The whole of Qur’an is arranged in 114 Sura (Chapters) of very unequal size. Each is shown as revealed either at Mecca or at Medina.
The distinction between Meccan and Medinite suras is one of time and place of revelation. The Meccan suras were revealed before Hijra (migration) at Mecca or its vicinity, or on the Prophet’s way to Medina before reaching it. The Medinite sura were revealed after Hijra at Medina or its vicinity or on some occasions such as the year of the conquest, the year of the farewell pilgrimage, or during one of the Prophet’s travels.
The Meccan suras usually consist of brief sentence, full of enthusiasm, poetical, lofty and brilliant, denouncing idol worship, promising paradise, and threatening with the punishment of Hell; describing the unity and majesty of Allah, the day of judgement, with allusions to some earlier prophets and the events of their time, rich eloquence, full of illustrative reference to mature, with most of them beginning with one or a number of oaths.
The Medinite chapter narrate the same subject but generally in greater details, the verses being more prosaic and chapter much longer, they are chiefy noted for outlining.
1. Civil and criminal laws.
2. Directions or rituals such as prayer, fasting, etc
3. Social reform
4. Moral regulation
5. Brief description of some of the important battle fought with Quraishites and the jews,
6. Criticism and condemnation of hypocrites who professed Islam but worked against it.
7. Exhortation to defend the cause of Islam, and
8. A brief description of the past Prophets and events illustrating the fundamental principles of Islam
The word Qur’an is derived from the root qira’an which means reading or reciting and the holy book is called the Qur’an, showing that it meant for reading or reciting. Every portion of it was both written and recited and hence it is the Kitab as well as the Qur’an.
The Qur’an is considered the eternal miracle of Islam as superior to what was revaled to the former messengers, as the best guide for seeking Allah’s pleasure and for obtaining salvation, and as the perfection of all moral codes.
The teaching of the Qur’an are universal, addressed to all people throghout to the world regardless of their origins, and revealed to mankind to enlighten man’s spirit, purify gis morals, unify his society and replaced the domination of the powerful with justice and fratenity. As confirmed in Sura XVI, 89, all human problems can be solved through the Qur’an, either directly or indirectly: “And we reveal the scripture to you as an exposition of all things”.
The content of the Qur’an deal primary with the supreme truth and with virtue. All the rest of the text concerning such matters as knowledge of the soul, the sciences of the nature of the heavens and the earth, history prophecy, warnings, and the likeserve only as means to strengthen the message of the Qur’an, to give it more weight and conviction.
The Qur’an, the principal basis of Islam, shows us that Islam cannot find its way into any heart or mind without acceptance of its two fundamental branches viz, beliefs and code of laws. Islam requires first of all, a deep belief in it without any doubt or suspicion as is made clear in the Qur’an: “say (O Muslims): we believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us and that which was revealed to Ibrahim, and that which Musa and Isa received, and that which the Prophets receieved from their Lord, we make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we have surrendered” (Q2:136).
The code of laws provides the regulations with establish the proper relation between man and Allah, such as formal worship, fasting and other religious duties. The laws guide man in his relations with his brothers in Islam and non Muslims, in organising the structure of the family and encouraging reciprocal affection, they lead man to an understanding of his role in the universe, encouraging research into the nature of man and animals and guiding man in the use of the benefits of the natural world.
The Qur’an makes clear that the result of submission is faith, and the effect of the code of law is good behaviour:”Lo! Those who believe and do good works, there are the Gardens and Paradise for welcome, wherein they will abide, with no desire to be removed from thence”. (Sura XVIII, 107-108). “Lo! Those who say: Our Lord is Allah and thereafter walk aright, there shall no fear come upon them, neither shall they grieve (Sura XLVI. 13).
The Qur’an calls upon all people to cooperate for the benefit of all humanity regardless of race, sex, colour, rank and other difference. All people are equal before Allah, “O Mankind Lo! We have created you male and female and have made you nations and tribes that you may know each other. Lo! The noblest among you in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct”. (XLIX, 13).
The Qur’an relates the stories of the people before us and the Prophets who had been sent to them. It shows the consequences of their good response or their disobedience to them, giving as examples, the people of Nuh, Hud, Salih, Ibrahim, etc.
In short, humanity needed the Qur’an and the Qur’an met its need. It has dealth with the faith, the devotional practices, the relations betweeen man and God and between man and others. It has dealth with the principles and the ideals that must be followed by man and it encouraged him to research into the heavens and earth. No wonder the Qur’an has been so important without it humanity would still be living in darkness and ignorance.
In conclusion, for knowledge on the text in Arabic, transliteration, translation and commentary of some selected Surahs of the holy Qur’an, I refer you to these books, introduction to the Qur’an by A. Rahman I. Doi and Qur’an and Tafsir by M. Bashir Sambo and Muhammad Hiqab. While for the knowledge on text, translation and commentary of the whole Qur’an, look for the holy Qur’an Vol. I and Vol. II by Yusuf Ali.
Baba Ali Mustapha is of Ngarannam Ward, Bolori II, near 7up Junction, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria.
Reference:
1Introduction to the Qur’an by A. Rahman I. Doi, published by Hudahuda Publishing Company, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
2
Qur’an and Tafsir by M. Bashir Sambo and Mohammad A. Hiqab, published by Islamic Publication Bureau, 136A Isolo road, Mushin, Lagos, Nigeria.
3
The Holy Qur’an, Vol. I and Vol. II by Abdullahi Yusuf Ali, published in Lahore, Pakistan.
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