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God Almighty has vowed to preserve
the Qur’an from all possibilities
of foreign interference and corruption. The Qur’an says:
It is indeed We Who have sent down this remembrance,
and most surely We are its Guardians. (15:9)
The Qur’an is thus the primary source of knowledge in Islam. Furthermore, the
Book itself clarifies that it is meant to be taken as al-Furqan:
the ultimate criterion between right and wrong. It says:
Blessed is He Who revealed the Criterion (of right and
wrong) to His servant that he may be a warner for the world."(25:1)
Moreover, the Qur’an has been conferred the role of muhaymin i.e. guardian over the
earlier books of divine origin.
The supreme status of the Qur’an as a source of knowledge entails that in all matters on which the Book
of Allah has given guidance -- direct or indirect, specific or general
-- no other source can overrule it. There can always be a possibility of
difference of opinion in the understanding of the contents of the Book,
but the general rule that the Qur’anic verdict holds supreme to all other sources of knowledge, whether religious
or secular, is so unquestionable that whoever disputes it, disputes the
very foundation of Islam. The only theoretical possibility one could imagine
of an authority that could have possibly overruled a Qur’anic verdict was the Prophet (sws) but the Qur’an
has pre-empted to set aside this possibility by requiring him to declare
thus:
Say [O prophet]: It is not for me to change it [the Qur’an]
of my own accord. I only follow that which is inspired in me. If I disobey
my Lord I fear retribution of an awful Day. (10:15).
Although the Qur’an was originally revealed in a sequence that was markedly different from
the existing one, it is the present sequence in which the Qur’an was finally left by the Prophet (sws). This sequence, according to
the Qur’an, has divine origins:
Surely, its collection and recitation are Our responsibility.
(75:17)
The Qur’anic text, apart from the sequence, has two other divinely ordained units:
ayat (verse) and surah (chapter). Where as it is not completely
unanimously1 claimed that
the entire Qur’anic text has
six thousand two hundred and thirty-six verses, the total number of chapters
in the Qur’an are undisputedly
one hundred and fourteen. The entire text is also divided for the purpose
of analysing the message into two categories i.e. the one that was revealed
to the Prophet (sws) in the first thirteen years of his prophetic mission
at Makkah, and the other that was revealed on him in his subsequent
ten years of stay at Madinah. It is
estimated that nearly two-third of the Qur’an is thus Makkan and the rest
Madinan.
The Qur’anic surahs are thus
categorised as Makkan and Madinan,
even though some of these surahs may be carrying a few verses which may
have been revealed in an era different from the one in which the rest of
the surah was revealed.2
The Makkan Surahs generally
consist of the basic message of faith in God, life of the hereafter, and
the prophets, while the Madinan surahs
seek to guide believers in the practical aspects of their lives.
The divine scheme of preservation
of not only the words but also the sequence of presentation was carried
out primarily through the process of memorising the text by the first generation
of Muslims many of who would immediately commit to memory the new Revelation,
no sooner it was communicated by Angel Gabriel to the Prophet (sws). The
fact that the Prophet (sws) used to recite different passages from the
revealed text while leading the daily congregational prayers (three of
the five of which were performed in a manner that the Prophet (sws) would
recite the Qur’an audibly for
the participants) made the task of memorising it easier. Because of the
love of the Book of Allah and also the fact that the Prophet (sws) had
declared the process of memorising the book an act of great virtue, many
of the later-generation Muslims emulated their predecessors in memorising
the entire Qur’an. Thus the
number of huffaz3
increased from generation to generation. A few huffaz in the first generation (according to an estimate they were not more
than thirty) were thus replaced by hundreds in the next generation and
the number continued to swell until now more than fourteen hundred years
later we observe that there are hundreds of thousands of them all across
the globe, most of who care to regularly revive their memory of the text
at least once a year during the month of Ramadan.
This fool-proof, divinely ordained process of preservation of the Book
has ensured that the Qur’anic
promise of its preservation should come true.
The fact that the oral preservation
was also accompanied by a written record was only meant to consolidate
the process. The objective of preservation of the Qur’anic text, as we have seen, was effectively achieved through the involvement
of hundreds of thousands of believers. The involvement of a few scores
of scribes in the first generation was meant only to confirm it. Any criticism
on the latter process besides being factually unjustifiable can do hardly
anything to take away one’s confidence in the veracity of the text that
was basically kept away from possibilities of corruption through the process
of memorising. It is reported that the Prophet (sws) used to ask some of
his literate companions to write the verses of the Qur’an immediately after they were revealed. He would conduct special sessions
(called ‘ardah) for these scribes where in he would himself recite the
entire revealed portion of the Qur’an to enable the participants to correct errors in copying the text, if
any. It is reported that two sessions of ‘ardah took place after the Qur’an
was fully revealed.
At the time of the caliphate of the
first caliph, Abu Bakr, some
of the prominent huffaz got killed in the battle of Yamamah fought against a large army of insurgent apostates. That incident prompted
‘Umar Ibn Khattab to convince the caliph to accept the idea of writing down an official
version of the Book, unanimously acceptable to all companions of the Prophet
(sws). After some deliberation the caliph gave in to ‘Umar’s arguments.
The task was undertaken by a committee of huffaz headed by Zayd Ibn Thabit.
A unanimously agreed to version was thus finalised. It was kept by Abu
Bakr and then, on his death, the text went into the custody of the
second caliph, ‘Umar Ibn Khattab.
Before the latter’s death, however, the copy came in the custody of his
daughter Hafsah,
the wife of the Prophet (sws). 'Uthman,
the third caliph, did not initially find it important to get the copy from
her. However, the expanding empire of the Muslim world necessitated that
the large number of newly converted Muslims most of who were new to Arabic
language be spared from the possibility of the confusion of confronting
more than one version of the Qur’anic text. 'Uthman, therefore, finally got the copy of the Qur’anic
text from Hafsah
and entrusted the task to Zayd Ibn Thabit to finalise the text beyond any possibilities of doubt. The possible
differences of the dialects were also eliminated in the light of 'Uthman’s
decision that in such matters the Makkan dialect would be considered
final. On the finalising of the text under the direct supervision of the
caliph, a few copies were made, which too were validated for their authenticity
by being read out and confirmed. These copies were sent to the important
centres of Islamic empire. It is disputed as to whether the number of such
copies was four or seven. Some of those copies are claimed to have survived
until now.
Whereas some non-Muslim orientalists
have attempted to cast serious doubts on the usefulness of arranging the
Qur’an in its present sequence
instead of letting it remain the way it was originally revealed, there
are many Muslims too who are not properly acquainted with the merits of
its present sequence of presentation. However, when the Qur’anic text is read with a view to discover logical justification for its
substantially altered arrangement from the sequence of its revelation,
one discovers abundant evidence of thematic and structural coherence in
its text to be convinced that the arrangement is indeed not without important
merits which more than outweigh the disadvantages that could be imagined
in it for not having been arranged in the order it was initially revealed.
To be precise, one finds deep coherence in the message of Qur’anic verses within each surah; almost all surahs are arranged in a
manner that they form surah-pairs;
and finally, the entire Qur’anic text is arranged to reveal seven distinct surah-groups.
Although many beginners are frustrated
in their initial attempts at reading the Qur’an in an effort to find any real coherent message within a surah, the
fact is that the verses in all surahs of the Qur’an are very closely knit with their respective basic themes. If the theme
is correctly identified on repeated readings of a surah, the task of finding
the link of the apparently incoherent passages with it becomes an exciting
intellectual challenge. For instance, the central theme of the seventh
surah of the Qur’an (al-‘araf)
is the narration of the fact that the messengers of God conveyed the message
to their nations and that the nations found guilty of rejecting them were
destroyed. In this broad theme, however, one finds it initially difficult
to appreciate, for example, how verses describing the phenomenon of rainfall
and the subsequent sprouting of useful plantation -- impressively abundant
in some soils and completely disappointing in others (verses 57, 58) --
fit into the general mood of the surah. The difficulty in appreciating
the contextual relevance accentuates when in the very next verse (59) the
reader is confronted with the beginning of the story of the prophet Noah,
Allah’s blessings be on him, which informs how he undertook efforts to
convince people of his nation to have faith in the message of Allah. Most
of the people, however, continued to deny; only a few got the privilege
of believing in the message. A little more reflection, however, leads one
to see the link: Like in case of physical rainfall it depends on the quality
of soil whether useful cultivation will take place or not, similarly in
the case of spiritual rainfall (i.e. divine revelation) it depends on the
quality of inner soil (unbiased preparedness of one’s heart to accept the
truth) whether good results (true faith) are going to emerge or not. Thus,
the apparently disordered set of verses would begin to appear meaningfully
coherent to the reader.
In order to understand the thematic
coherence in the verses of a full surah,
it would be more workable to cite the example of Surah
al-Jumu‘ah, a relatively shorter surah comprising of eleven verses. The central idea of the surah is to make
the native Arabs aware of the tremendous blessings they have been bestowed
with by God Almighty in the form of revelation of the Qur’an.
However, even a casual reading of the surah unfolds the fact that the surah
is in fact divided into three distinct passages: verses 1 to 4, 5 to
8, and 9 to 11. The first passage addresses the central theme of the surah
directly. The second one, however, refers to the inept attitude of the
Jews towards Torah, the book of Allah given to them, and the consequent
degeneration in their spiritual life that followed. The passage does not
require a great deal of in-depth reflection to disclose that it, in fact,
is meant to forewarn the believers through a historical reference on the
ill effects of not valuing the significance of the message of Allah. It
is thus a continuation of the same theme. The third passage of the surah is, however, not quite as easily amenable to the strict requirements
of thematic coherence. It directly commands the believers to respond immediately
to the call for the congregational Jumu‘ah prayers and to leave
aside all worldly business on hearing it. Later, it laments the behaviour
of those Muslims who were not doing likewise at the time of revelation
of these verses. A deeper reflection, however, reveals that this passage
too is inextricably linked with the central idea of the surah:
One of the important injunctions which many of the Jews did not care to
abide by with seriousness of purpose was maintenance of sanctity of Sabbath
which required them to stay away from worldly activities and concentrate
on the remembrance of Allah on Saturdays. Muslims have thus been cautioned
in this surah to be particularly
careful about their obligation towards Jumu‘ah prayers, an Islamic
equivalent of the Sabbath law, lest they should fall into the same trap
and face similar consequences. Thus the entire surah seems to be contributing to erect the same meaningful structure, although
each passage is doing it differently.
A thoughtful reading of the Qur’an also reveals that a carefully designed scheme of surah-pairs is preserved
in the existing sequence of the of the Qur’anic text as a result of which one discovers that two adjacently arranged
surahs are contributing to
achieving the goal of more fully understanding a common, broader topic,
although one of the two surahs is doing so by approaching the common theme
by contributing towards one aspect of it while the other surah is serving the same purpose by contributing towards some other aspect
of it. Two examples -- one of a surah-pair
involving two of the longest surahs and another involving two of the shortest
surahs -- would help understand
the concept.
al-Baqarah and Ali
‘Imran, the second and third surahs of the Qur’an,
form a pair of Madinan surahs.
Apart from many other common aspects in them, an important theme discussed
in the two surahs is the invitation
extended by Allah to the people of the earlier Books to have faith in His
last Message. However, where as in al-Baqarah the invitation is
primarily directed towards the Jews, in Ali
'Imran Christians aare invited to have faith in the new revelation.
Viewed in this context, it comes as no surprise that a large passage al-Baqarah
is devoted to the description of the history of the Jews interspersed
with strong urging to them to have faith in the new Message from Allah. Ali 'Imran, on the other hand, while
focussing on the subject of inviting primarily the Christians to accept
the new faith, not surprisingly again, mentions in detail the important
events preceding the miraculous birth of Jesus (sws). Thus the two surah despite having a common, broader theme have their own peculiar sub-topics
to contribute to the main theme.
The last two surahs of the Qur’an, al-Falaq
and al-Nas (the pair is
popularly referred to as Mu‘awwadhatayn i.e. the two surahs through
which refuge is sought), are no exceptions to the rule of surah-pairs.
Both are in the style of prayers seeking refuge in Allah from the evils
that threaten man by invoking Him through His attributes. The former, however,
seeks refuge in Allah from the evil forces that pose a danger to the spiritual
life of man from without, while the latter seeks to be guarded against
the impending dangers that lie within human souls. Thus, although the general
theme -- seeking refuge in Allah -- is the same, contributions made by
the two is in their own peculiar, distinct ways.
Perhaps the most daunting task of
all in the area of finding logic behind the Qur’an’s present sequencing is to meaningfully justify the structure of the
Book in its entirety the way it appears now. The enormity of the task makes
the possibility of an attempt prohibitive. However, some recent attempts
towards this end have brought forth convincing results. According to the
understanding gained from the approach adopted by a few scholars of the
sub-continent4, the entire
Qur’an is neatly divided into
seven meaningful blocks (called groups) such that each group has its own
central idea, again supported in distinct ways by the different surah and
surah-pairs of the group. The
surahs in the seven groups
thus identified have been sequenced in such a manner that each begins with
one or more Makkan surahs to be followed until the end of the group
by one or more Madinan surahs.
This pattern of alternating appearances of the two categories of surah is consistently found all throughout the Qur’anic
text.5
In order to illustrate the sort of
meaningful cluster the surahs of these groups create, perhaps the simplest
approach would be to take the example of the second group of the text consisting
of only four surahs, two Makkan, al-An‘am (6) and al-‘Araf (7), and two
Madinan, al-Anfal (8) and at- Tawbah (9). The basic theme of this group is to
show that the enemies of the messengers of Allah are doomed to destruction.
In order to show this the first surah of the group, al-An‘am,
presents to the people of Makkah the basic message of Islam, the
same message which, according to the surah, was presented by the unanimously
revered Patriarch of the Arabs, the Prophet Abraham (sws). The next surah,
al-‘Araf,
then describes the stories of some of the prominent messengers of Allah
who when they delivered the same message of Allah whose salient features
were described in the previous surah (al-An‘am)
their nations rejected them. These nations were, according to the Qur’an
ultimately erased from the face of the earth, through one natural calamity
or the other. The next pair of surah, being Madinan
by the design of the same Divine scheme that is so consistently observable
in the entire text of the Qur’an,
describes the practical manifestation in the contemporary setting of the
same law that was outlined in the preceding two Makkan surahs.
Surah al-Anfal requires the believers to be both spiritually and materially prepared
to face the enemies of Allah. This being so because, according to a verse
of al-An’am one of the possible
ways Allah sends his retributions to corrupt nations is by letting the
swords of some to inflict misery on others (6: 65). Thus, since the believers
of Madinah were to be given the privilege
of playing a role which in the case of the earlier nations was played by
natural calamities, the believers were required to come upto the standards
of the status that was befitting that role. That having being achieved
in al-Anfal, the next surah,
at-Tawbah, is the surah of the declaration of Allah’s punishment for the infidel pagans of
Makkah. It tells the believers that the pagan Arabs who have repeatedly
rejected the message of Allah and have betrayed all pacts with the believers
are not deserving to survive in this world any more (like the nations that
rejected the earlier messages). No wonder, therefore, that the surah is the only one which does not begin with the opening expression of
tasmiyah, which mentions those names of Allah’s that reflect His
supreme mercy and compassion. Thus the usual opening words, which would
have appeared inconsistent with the general mood of the surah had they
been allowed to precede its message, were omitted from being mentioned.
To conclude, the Qur’an is the unquestionably supreme source of guidance for Muslims. Its existing
form is exactly the same which the Prophet (sws) himself had left for the
followers. The difference in the present arrangement of the Book from its
initial sequence of revelation is logically justifiable.
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