READING: HOW TO READ THE QURAN
The following article by Ingrid Mattson
will help you understand how the Quran functions as a text and shape
your expectations as you come to this text, helping you to be as
effective a reader of the Quran as possible.
Material from THE STUDY QURAN: A NEW
TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY is used by permission from HarperOne, an
imprint of HarperCollins, copyright © 2015 by Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
HOW TO READ THE QURAN
by Ingrid Mattson
The reading of scripture can be
intimidating. At the very least, we know that the sacred texts of each
of the world’s major religions are revered by millions of people.
Authored books—novels, poetry, and plays—might also have coteries of
passionate readers, but scriptural communities are invested more deeply
and comprehensively in the meaning they ascribe to their texts than the
most devoted readers of any secular book. When we open scripture, we
realize we are entering a universe of meaning fraught with spiritual,
emotional, historical, and even political dimensions. Knowing this, some
might be tempted to stay away from such contested territory. But we
also know that those who have not as yet delved into sacred texts will
encounter new and challenging experiences through which they will grow,
that travel and adventure beyond familiar territory are enriching, and
that knowledge is the best antidote to fear and uncertainty.
All those who embark upon reading the
Quran—Muslims and non-Muslims, religious and secular people—can learn
something about the world and about themselves through engagement with
it. Those who will learn the most are those who are prepared to explore
three contexts that will allow them to go beyond a “naive” reading. The
first is the context in which the Quran was revealed and has been
transmitted, interpreted, and read over the centuries. The second is the
reader’s own personal context—that is, one’s own background,
assumptions, and prejudices, which will inevitably affect the “lens”
through which one reads the text. What are you, the reader, bringing to
the Quran as you open it now, perhaps for the first time or perhaps
after many years of reading? And the third context is an understanding
of the inner meaning of revealed terms.
Those who are new to the Quran surely
realize that they cannot without preparation encounter this text
“objectively,” even if they intend to adopt a laudable openness to
learning about it. Moreover, today Islam and Muslims are too much in the
news of the contemporary world and too enmeshed in world history for
literate non-Muslims, even in the West, to be without at least a vague
opinion about this religion and its followers. Before you approach the
Quran, then, review what you “know” about Islam and Muslims and what the
source of this knowledge is. Consider that your information might have
originated with a prejudicial or deficient source. At least considering
this possibility might help you identify potential cognitive and
emotional barriers to having an authentic encounter with the Quran.
It is not only non-Muslims influenced by
negative news about Islam and Muslims who will have to overcome
assumptions and acquired biases about the Quran in order to be able to
read it with an open mind. If you are a Muslim, you too have a cultural
context and formative experiences that have shaped your understanding of
the Quran. Indeed, some born into Muslim families and communities might
have a more difficult time opening their hearts fully to the Quranic
message than new readers, because they have been taught to understand
verses in a particular narrow, sectarian way. This is not to say that
this is the experience of most Muslims. Certainly, many Muslim parents,
teachers, and religious leaders preach and teach a love for the Quran
that allows for a continuing, engaged, and dynamic reading throughout
one’s life. But this is not true for everyone.
It is important for all readers to examine their assumptions about the way the Quran should be
read and understand the ways it is interpreted by those who believe it
is God’s Word. It is true that Muslims believe that the original
Arabic-language Quran is a record of the precise words enunciated by the
Prophet Muhammad as he received them from God through the Archangel
Gabriel. Many people express this Islamic theological belief by saying,
“Muslims believe the Quran is the verbatim Word of God.” This is true.
At the same time, this does not mean that the Quran is supposed to be
read literally, if that means denying the historical meaning of terms
and expressions, ignoring the social context of particular rulings, or
neglecting its symbolic and inner meanings. To research the linguistic
and historical dimensions of the Quran or to seek its inner meaning is
not a modern innovation; rather, these kinds of interpretation began
with the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions and continue today. Readers
of the Quran must shed the notion that a literalist reading of the
Quran is somehow more authentic or pious than an informed
interpretation. Ironically, the minority of Muslims who apply a narrow
“fundamentalist” hermeneutic to the Quran find as their allies a small
group of anti-Muslim bigots who similarly take verses out of context to
prove their hateful assertions.
Believers in scriptures other than the
Quran will need to be careful not to automatically apply their
hermeneutical traditions to the Quran, but some Muslim readers also need
to explore the possibility that what they have been taught about the
way the Quran should be interpreted might not be in accord with the
understanding of many other Muslims. When you read other essays in this Study Quran about
traditional exegesis or various approaches to deriving law, spiritual
practices, or spiritual understandings from the Quran, you might be
surprised by what you read. You may have been taught to relate to the
Quran in a particular manner, for example, by using it as a proof text,
that is, proving a particular legal judgment by citing a singular verse.
Alternately, you may have been taught to minimize the import of verses
with detailed legal content while prioritizing verses articulating
general spiritual principles, such as There is no coercion in religion (2:256). Are these approaches to the Quran contradictory? If not, how have they been reconciled?
Take seriously your responsibility to
identify the method you currently use for reading the Quran and evaluate
this approach in light of the new knowledge you gain from the rich
scholarly, spiritual, and juridical traditions of exegesis. Mature
believers take upon themselves the responsibility for evaluating to the
best of their ability what they have learned and accept those scholars’
opinions that are the most convincing, not simply the most expedient or
convenient. Nonbelievers can also learn much by being open to the
diverse traditional interpretations of the sacred scripture of Islam.
WHAT KIND OF BOOK IS THE QURAN?
In the world of modern publishing, books
can look deceptively uniform. Most books are designed to be portable and
manageable and to fit on a standard bookshelf. They are hardcover or
paperback and mostly in rectangular form. The front cover displays the
author and title; the back cover usually gives some information about
the book’s contents. If a book deviates from these norms, for example,
by having an octagonal shape or being excessively large or small, it is
probably an art book or a children’s story; in any case, the appearance
of a book can send a useful message about the unusual or challenging
contents of the book. We might be better prepared to tackle the
difficult style of James Joyce’s Ulysses or Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo if
their contents did not lie behind deceptively banal dime-store covers,
but, rather, were edged in molting felt or encrusted with broken glass.
Today, publications of scripture often
display some gilding on the title or on the edges of the pages. In a
bookstore filled with dramatic cover art and design, this fact does not
do much in itself to prepare us for an encounter with a radically
different kind of text. We need to prepare ourselves, then, as we embark
upon a reading of scripture, to engage with a different kind of book;
we must open ourselves to being surprised, inspired, disturbed, and
sometimes confused by the words and ideas we encounter. All scriptures,
including the Quran, draw on themes, images, symbols, language, and
literary styles that were not wholly unfamiliar to their initial
audiences—that is, to the historical peoples who initially received and
then transmitted the sacred words. But we are far away in time from
those people who first heard or read the various books of the Bible or
the Quran, and we need to understand something about those people and
their societies, language, and worldview if we are to avoid
misinterpreting much of the language and style of these holy texts. Even
the category of “scripture” implies a uniformity of style among the
world’s sacred texts that is far from being the case. As we approach the
Quran, then, we need to take this book on its own terms and embrace its
unique style and arrangement.
A distinctive aspect of the Quran is its
assertion of its own identity as both an oral revelation and a written
text. The Quran calls itself al-Qurʾān (“The Recitation”), a term that signifies an oral revelation, as well as a “book” (kitāb),
a term that signifies a written revealed text. The verses most scholars
believe to be the earliest revealed to the Prophet Muhammad include
commands to recite (iqraʾ) in the Name of thy Lordand describe God as having taught humanity by the Pen (96:1–4). Other early verses tell believers to “chant” (rattil)
the Quran at a measured pace and to “recite” as much of the Quran at a
time as is easy and practical. The Quran itself, therefore, indicates
that it is a book that should be recited as well as read.
What we see when we open a copy of the Quran is that it is divided into 114 sūrahs. The best translation of the word sūrah is
probably “division” or “section,” although it is usually translated
“chapter.” The latter can be especially misleading, because it sets up
in the minds of some the expectation that the sūrahs of the Quran
are organized systematically according to certain thematic or
expository principles, which is not outwardly the case. Rather, with the
exception of al-Fātiḥah (“The Opening”), the sūrahs are
organized roughly according to length, with the longest at the beginning
of the book and the shortest at the end. The second sūrah, “The Cow,” has 286 verses (āyāt), while the last sūrah,“Mankind,”
has 6 verses. The verses themselves vary significantly in length; the
shortest verses consist of only two words, while the longest verses are
more than a hundred words.
The Quran is arranged in this distinctive
manner because the Prophet Muhammad did not “compose” the Quran and
then teach it to his community. Rather, the Quran is a collection of the
revelations the Prophet Muhammad received from God from the inception
of his call to prophethood at age forty until his death at age
sixty-three. It is as though the Prophet Muhammad had a mental notebook
whose blank pages he filled in with the revelations he received over the
twenty-three years of his prophetic calling. As long as the Prophet was
alive, new verses were revealed and inserted before, after, or in
between existing verses within any sūrah according to the
instructions the Prophet received from the Source of the revelation. For
this reason, the Quran cannot be arranged chronologically, because
some sūrahs contain verses revealed later than other verses.
It was only the death of the Prophet that
cut off any possibility of further revelations to be added to the
Quran. At this point it was the responsibility of his Companions to
preserve the revealed text. Muslims believe that the order of the verses
within each sūrah was fixed by the revelation itself, while the order of the sūrahs relative to one another in the written Quran (known as the muṣḥaf)
was determined by the Companions on the basis of the instructions the
Prophet Muhammad received from the Archangel Gabriel. The arrangement
according to length was also in accordance with the order given by the
Prophet and reflected in the way in which the Prophet himself generally
recited the sūrahs as well as his practice of beginning the canonical prayer with al-Fātiḥah and then reciting longer sūrahs before the shorter ones. Muslims believe that the order of the sūrahs
of the Quran is Divinely revealed and that any written Quran must
retain this original ordering. There are in fact no variations in the
order of the sūrahs in any text of the Quran throughout the
Islamic world. At the same time, Muslims are permitted to read or recite
from any place in the Quran for worship or learning.
STYLISTIC HARMONY IN THE QURAN
The content of the Quranic revelations is
as varied as the diversity of the worldly and transcendent concerns of
humanity. Just as individuals are rarely concerned with only one aspect
of their life at any time, but are constantly shifting their attention
from one concern to another—from marital relations, to finances, to
anxiety about a child’s defiance, to, on another level, spiritual pain
or difficulty in making a moral decision—the Quran rarely focuses for an
extended period on only one concern. Further, the Quran addresses both
individuals and communities, and these communities changed internally
and in relation to each other even over the course of the more than two
decades during which the Quran was revealed. This multiplicity of
audiences and topics that the Quran addresses, sometimes in quick
succession with little “filler” to separate the units of meaning, can be
disorienting to someone expecting a straightforward, linear narrative.
Readers of the Quran, therefore, need to
be mentally and emotionally agile, ready to be moved quickly in a new
direction. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, a class of Muslim
scholars arose who combed through the Quran collecting and organizing
verses that pertained to specific subjects, such as legal issues,
theological matters, stories about the prophets, descriptions of how to
pray, and directly spiritual and metaphysical teachings. Each of their
books was carefully composed to allow readers to learn about the Quranic
perspective on a particular topic. But the Quran itself, the source of
these books, resists such a rigid imposition of external structure.
Readers of the Quran, like each one of us in our daily lives, must be
prepared to quickly shift attention to a new concern at any moment.
This is not to say that the Quran lacks
overall unity or coherence. In fact, it possesses a remarkable inner
unity and coherence. Unlike the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, whose
various books were composed or collected by many people at different
times, the Quran is the collection of revelations to only one man, the
Prophet Muhammad, over a relatively short period of time. Thus, although
the Quran addresses different topics in the various styles most fitting
to convey the knowledge being imparted—parables woven through stories
of the prophets, straight prose for legal injunctions, lyrical passages
for praising God—it is all expressed in the same eloquent Arabic
language.
In this respect, the Quran assumes great importance as recitation.
The beauty of the language of the Quran has always deeply moved Arabs
and even non-Arab Muslims from the time of its revelation and has been a
topic of extensive study by scholars over the centuries. That the Quran
employs apropos vocabulary and concise but powerful turns of phrase is
something that necessarily escapes readers not familiar with Arabic, but
the power of its recitation resulting from the spiritual presence
contained in it transcends the world of those who know Arabic. The
Quran’s use of rhyme and rhythm and other techniques to create aural
harmony can be evident to anyone listening to its recitation.
It is probably easiest for new readers of the Quran to identify these techniques by first listening to the shorter sūrahs near the end of the Quran; or a number of well-known passages from the longer sūrahs, such as the Pedestal Verse (āyat al-kursī; 2:255) or the Light Verse (āyat al-nūr; 24:35); or the sūrahs al-Raḥmān, “The Compassionate” (55), Yā Sīn, “Yā Sīn” (36), or al-Wāqiʿah, “The Event” (56). Here we find successive verses ending in various kinds of rhymes. For example, in al-Māʿūn, “Small Kindnesses” (107), the verses follow two imperfect rhyming patterns in which the first four verses end in -īn (dīn, yatīm, miskīn, muṣallīn) and the final three verses end in -ūn (sāhūn, yurāʾūn, māʿūn; here the rhyming is even more sophisticated, as we note the consistent ā followed
by a glottal sound before the final rhyming syllable). Similar blocks
of various kinds of rhymes are also found in some of the longer sūrahs, where, in addition to creating aural harmony, they often signify a shift in semantic focus or emphasis.
Readers of the Quran need to pay
attention not only to the way verses end, but to their beginnings as
well. In recitation, rhythm and continuity in sūrahs is
frequently established by the sentence connectors that begin the verses:
interjections, interrogatories, conjunctions, or other short words that
often rhyme. For example, in al-Balad, “The Land” (90), the first five verses begin with words sharing a similar sound: lā (“verily”), wa (“and”), wa (“and”), laqad (“indeed”), and a (an interrogatory); the rest of the sūrah continues
in a similar fashion. Readers who do not know Arabic will probably need
to listen to the recitation a few times in order to notice the pleasing
rhythm created by these connectors, as they are less obvious than the
effect created by the rhymed endings of verses.
All sūrahs of the Quran (except one) are preceded by the invocation In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful (bi’smi’Llāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm). Many sūrahs also conclude with a verse that includes a supplication, doxology, or exhortation such as Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, or Glory be to God, or Truly God is with the virtuous (e.g., 1:2; 23:91; 29:69). The sacred Attributes or Names of God often serve an epitomizing function at the end of sūrahs or at the end of a group of related verses in longer sūrahs. Examples of the way these Names of God are referenced include: Truly God is the Forgiving, the Merciful (al-Ghafūr, al-Raḥīm; 42:5); He is the Hearing, the Knowing(al-Samīʿ, al-ʿAlīm; 2:137); and He is the Wise, the Aware (al-Ḥakīm, al-Khabīr; 6:18).
The Divine Names create both semantic and aural harmony, as many of the
Names rhyme or are assonant. It is recommended that those new to the
Quran read the last three verses of al-Ḥashr,“The Gathering”
(59), which list a number of the Divine Names; this will make it easier
to identify the Names later when they appear in other sūrahs.
Beginners are also advised to read short sections at each sitting, not
great numbers of pages at a time as if they were reading a novel or an
ordinary nonfiction book.
UNIFYING THEMES OF THE QURAN
It is perhaps helpful, before beginning a
reading of the Quran, to be familiar with some of its major themes,
many of which are addressed from multiple perspectives throughout the
scripture. Although the Quran addresses many diverse topics, it most
commonly describes itself as a book of guidance (hidāyah). In fact, one of the traditional names of the Quran is al-Hudā, “The
Guide.” All topics addressed in the Quran are ultimately linked to this
goal of guiding people toward God. Spiritually, the Quran addresses our
need for knowledge about God—to know that He is One, the Creator and
Ruler of the universe—as well as our need to learn how to show our
gratitude and obedience to God through prayer, other acts of worship,
and other human actions that are to be carried out according to Divine
injunctions.
With a few exceptions, most of the
Prophet Muhammad’s contemporaries did not believe in life after death.
Belief in the immortality of the soul, Resurrection, and an ultimate
accounting of each soul before God is therefore identified and
emphasized throughout the Quran, along with belief in God, as a
necessary component of faith for all true religions. For example, after
mentioning Christians, Jews, and Sabeans, the Quran says, Whosoever believes in God and the Last Day and works righteousness, no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve (5:69).
In order to guide humanity to do what is right and prepare for this
accounting, the Quran entices human beings with descriptions of Paradise
and the ultimate bliss of being in the Divine Presence, while warning
them about the consequences of evil acts by describing in very vivid
terms the pain and despair of those whose actions lead to Hellfire.
The Quran does not teach that people
should be detached from worldly affairs in order to attain this
spiritual state. Rather, it is opposed to otherworldliness. It is by
struggling to do what is right and good in our lives on this earth that
we develop our spiritual depth and awareness. It is for this reason that
the Quran addresses our closest and sometimes most contentious
relationships—with family, neighbors, and business partners—emphasizing
the need for integrity and honesty. The Quran also addresses the
stresses that can emerge within the faith community. Al-Ḥujarāt, “The Private Apartments” (Sūrah 49),
for example, discusses the corrosive effects of gossip, backbiting, and
social marginalizing and emphasizes the need for a sense of community
among Muslims.
The Quran stresses both the individual moral responsibility of adults (e.g., None shall bear the burden of another; 6:164;
17:15; 35:18; 39:7; 53:38) and the need for individuals to work
collectively to establish communities and cultures where such morality
is nurtured. The Quran calls upon people to work together to implement
the teachings of the prophets throughout the ages that foster ethical
and righteous living.
Those acquainted with the Hebrew Bible
and the Christian Gospels will meet many familiar figures in the Quran.
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Isaac, Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus,
and many other prophets and righteous guides appear throughout the
Quran. Christians and Jews think of these men and women as “Biblical”
figures, and it can be jarring to them to read their stories, which
sometimes differ from those in the Bible, in the Quran.
What is important to understand is that
the Biblical stories themselves drew upon a much older oral tradition
that did not disappear when the various books of the Bible were written.
The pre-Islamic Arabs, for example, were well aware that they were
descendants of Abraham through his son Ismāʿīl
(Ishmael) and his mother, Hājar (Hagar). Further, the history of the
prophets was known not just through written and oral literature, but
through the existence of holy sites throughout the Arabian Peninsula and
the Near East. The burial place of Abraham, the baptism site of Jesus,
Mt. Sinai, Jerusalem, and the Kaʿbah
in Makkah—all these sites and many others served as epicenters of
religious education and formation, often across parochial boundaries.
Readers of the Quran who realize that the Biblical figures had a much
richer and wider presence among Near Eastern monotheists outside the
Bible will perhaps be better prepared to encounter new perspectives and
previously unknown stories about them. But such readers must also
remember that, for Muslims, accounts of earlier prophets are not based
on stories that were prevalent in Arabia, but on Divine Revelation about
these prophets and are therefore completely independent of historical
sources.
MUHAMMAD: MESSENGER OF GOD AND BRINGER OF THE QURAN
The Quran stresses the important role of Muhammad as Messenger—the
one who transmitted the message from God to humanity. The Prophet was a
perfect receptor of the Word of God, which he transmitted faithfully
without adding or subtracting anything of his own. Moreover, he was also
the person most familiar with the Quran and interpreted it according to
the needs of his community as well as for later generations of Muslims.
In fact, he can be said to be the first commentator on the Quran.
After the Prophet died, his sayings (aḥādīth)
were assembled in various collections, which differ in some matters,
but are in agreement concerning the authenticity of the vast majority of
the sayings. This body of literature, the Ḥadīth, traditionally
accepted as canonical by both the Sunni and Shiite communities, has been
revered over the ages as a key for the elucidation of the meaning of
the Quran, sources of Law after the Quran, and along with the Quran the
source of everything Islamic. Over the ages scholars of Ḥadīth have
discussed and sometimes disputed the meaning of certain sayings and
actions of the Prophet; some distinguish between those of enduring
religious and spiritual significance to Muslims and those that were
related to passing social or political situations. In any case, the
study of Ḥadīth became a major Islamic science, and this body of literature plays a very important role in the understanding of the Quran.
All Muslims agree that the context of the
initial revelation to the Prophet Muhammad is of great significance.
Much traditional Quranic interpretation in fact involves an examination
of the linguistic, social, moral, and political context of the initial
conditions of the revelation of a particular verse or set of verses of
the Quran, or what is called shaʾn (or asbāb) al-nuzūl of
the Quran, in addition to an analysis of the relationship of various
Quranic verses to each other. The primary teachings of Islam found in
the Quran—witnessing to the reality that is God, the dependence of
creation upon Him, and belief that human beings will answer to God for
their actions on the Day of Judgment—are clear and need little
explanation. But to ignore the conditions of the Prophet’s community
when verses treating such topics as gender relations, religious
diversity, and political authority were revealed is to risk
misunderstanding the Quran. For this reason, one must not be hasty in
drawing conclusions about legal judgments and other norms on the basis
of a surface reading of a few verses from the Quran. As is explained in
the essay “The Quran as Source of Islamic Law,” the Quran is a source of
law; it is not a book of law. Even apparently unambiguous declarations
might, in fact, be limited in application or scope.
HOW THE QURAN IS READ IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
Quranic literacy varies widely in Muslim
societies and does not necessarily correlate with general literacy and
educational achievement. Quranic education formed the foundation of
literacy in traditional Muslim societies, but modernity has severed that
connection in many places, although this is not true everywhere.
Muslims should acquire four skills in order to employ the Quran
themselves in religious and moral life and derive benefit from it as a
source of guidance. The first skill is the ability to read the Arabic
script, since the original language of the Quran is Arabic. The
beginning of religious education for most Muslim children and for
non-Arab converts has always been to learn the Arabic alphabet and then
how to string the letters together to sound out words and sentences.
The second skill is learning Quranic
Arabic well enough to be able to understand the meaning of the words and
sentences. For Arabic-speaking children, an understanding of the
meaning of the words comes at first as a consequence of their general
knowledge of the Arabic language, which is then supplemented by their
teachers. The majority of Muslims throughout history, however, have not
been Arabs, although most Muslim peoples, like the Persians, the Turks,
the Indian Muslims, and the Malays, adopted the Arabic script for their
various languages. To understand the Quran, non-Arab Muslims need extra
preparatory education consisting of either learning basic Arabic
vocabulary and grammar or having access to translations in their native
language. For both Arabs and non-Arabs, a scholarly grasp of the Quran
requires years of advanced study—and non-Arabs have excelled in this
alongside Arabs since the early days of Islamic civilization. In fact,
most classical works of Arabic grammar were written by Persians.
The third skill, which helps a great deal
in grasping the spiritual presence of the text, is the ability to
recite the Quran in a proper manner. Parts of the Quran are recited
orally in the daily ritual prayers that all Muslims are required to
perform; so every Muslim needs some basic recitation skills. The art of tajwīd (“good”
or “beautiful” recitation) includes pronouncing the letters correctly,
knowing which sounds should be elided, emphasized, or elongated, and
using the proper tone. Proper recitation should be melodic, so that it
is pleasant to hear, but not musical in the usual sense of the word,
lest the recitation turn into a performance of personal artistry. Apart
from their own recitation, most Muslims experience the Quran through
hearing its recitation by accomplished reciters, who can be found
throughout the Islamic world in non-Arab countries as well as in Arab
ones. In fact, many of the best reciters are not Arabs, and some
reciters are men and others women. Also, accomplished scholars of the
Quran, not all of whom are reciters, can be found in every Islamic
country.
The fourth skill, which makes a person intimate with the Quran, is memorization of at least a few verses and sūrahs. In each ritual prayer, the sūrah al-Fātiḥah must be recited, followed by a sūrah or
group of verses chosen by the worshipper. These portions of the Quran
are not recited from the text; so they need to be memorized. Someone who
memorizes the complete Quran is known as a ḥāfiẓ, a “memorizer” or “preserver” of the Quran. Implicit in this title is the understanding that the ḥāfiẓ not
only acquires personal spiritual benefits by knowing by heart the Word
of God, but also benefits society by serving as a vessel for the
preservation and propagation of the Sacred Text.
Muslims have taught these skills for
experiencing the Quran through a variety of ways, according to the means
and abilities of each community. Institutions for religious education
in which Quranic studies are pursued run the gamut from one-room
neighborhood schools for small children (maktabs) to enormous seminaries (usually known as madrasahs)
serving an often cosmopolitan student body. For most of Islamic
civilization, learning to read and recite the Quran was the beginning of
education and an incentive to literacy.
The Quran is also widely read and recited
outside of ritual prayers by ordinary Muslims across the world. Some
try to read a small portion of the Quran each day, while others might
devote time to reading particular sūrahs on Fridays, the holiest
day of the week, but also on special occasions such as religious
holidays, weddings, and funerals. Quranic recitation is especially
intense during the month of Ramadan, the time when the Quran was first
revealed. It was probably to facilitate the reading of the whole Quran
during this month that scribes first inserted marks in the text to make
clear the division of the Quran into thirty parts (ajzāʾ). In this way, someone wanting to complete a reading of the Quran in one month can read one part, or juzʾ, each day.
The Quran describes itself as a blessed Book (6:92),
and even gatherings with an apparently nonreligious purpose are often
opened with Quranic recitation in order to bless the event. Muslims
believe that the Quran is the Word of God, and God is always present,
saying of the human being in one verse, We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (50:16).
Bringing the Quran into a space or occasion is a way to be reminded of
that Divine Presence. The Arabic word for a “verse” of the Quran (āyah)
literally means “sign” or “portent,” a term often also used in the
Quran to refer to phenomena in the world of creation and also within
human beings that function as signs pointing to the Creator. This is one
of the reasons Islamic ritual spaces, such as mosques, are embellished
with Quranic calligraphy along with decorative patterns derived from
those found in nature. Both the “beautiful script” (the literal meaning
of “calligraphy”) and the beautiful recitation (tajwīd) of the Quran remind those gathered for happy or mournful occasions of God’s Mercy, Beauty, Power, and Presence.
WHERE TO BEGIN IF THE QURAN IS NEW TO YOU
Probably the biggest mistake new readers
of the Quran make is to try to read it from “beginning to end.” As
explained previously, there is no need to read the Quran this way,
because in their totality the sūrahs are ordered neither topically nor chronologically. More problematically, those who first encounter the Quran by way of the sūrahs at the beginning (except for al-Fātiḥah) are likely to become quickly overwhelmed by their length and difficult legal and historical content.
It is perhaps a better strategy to first
encounter the Quran the same way the Prophet Muhammad’s community
received the revelations, that is, with the first sūrahs revealed in Makkah. These sūrahs
are short, comprising anywhere from a few to a few dozen verses. By
reading (and perhaps listening to) a small selection of these sūrahs,
one can become accustomed to the style and rhythm of the language and
the overwhelming content of their message. Just as important, these sūrahs
focus for the most part on the fundamental, universal, and enduring
spiritual message of the Quran: the affirmation that there is only one
God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who holds human beings
accountable for their actions.
One might begin, then, by reading the last two sections of the Quran (i.e., parts 29 and 30, beginning with Sūrah 67)
and reflecting on the themes and lessons found there. In an age of
speed-reading and skimming, in which we are taught to quickly “find the
basic point” in a text, it is necessary to consciously slow down when
reading the Quran. One needs to take time to reflect upon every word and
phrase and also upon one’s own reactions and instincts as one
encounters verses that address the deepest existential concerns of
humanity.
After spending some time with the early
revelations and other passages mentioned above, new readers can move on
to other sections of the Quran. As one encounters legal content,
references to particular historical individuals or communities,
and relationships between various social groups (e.g., men and women, or
nomads and the Madinans), it becomes more important to consult the
commentaries, scholarly notes, and essays explaining their context and
implications.
Aside from having diverse religious
orientations or worldviews, readers of the Quran differ in their mental
makeup, spiritual and intellectual aptitudes, interests, and passions.
The person who is passionate about environmental protection will
naturally pay close attention to Quranic verses related to the value of
creation, nature as a locus of God’s Wisdom and Mercy, and the rights of
animal communities, while the ardent advocate of women’s rights will
hone in on verses related to gender relations. Muslims believe that one
of the basic features of the Quran is its multiplicity of messages
addressing the whole gamut of human conditions and circumstances. There
is certainly nothing wrong with using an index or search engine to find
verses related to one topic or another. Indeed, in trying to understand
the meaning of any particular verse, scholars of the Quran usually first
look within the Quran itself to see if there are other verses related
to the same topic (referred to as “tafsīr of the Quran by the
Quran,” for which see the essay “Quranic Commentaries”). Nevertheless,
there are a few precautions to be noted in this regard.
First, we should never reduce the Quran
to its articulations about particular issues or aspects of human life.
The Quran is more than a sum of its parts. As discussed, the total
“linguistic field” created by the Quran is an essential part of its
message; an index of topics the Quran addresses misses this point. Just
as an anatomy book lists and describes all the individual parts and
systems that comprise a human body but tells us nothing about the
experience of being human, a list of issues the Quran addresses tells us
nothing about what it means for believers to have the living Word of
God present in the world.
Second, readers must always keep in mind
that the Quran is concerned with all the aspects of human life and
humanity’s relationship with the Divine; therefore, it does not separate
temporal and eternal concerns. The purpose of the revelation is to show
how we should live in the world of created things in a way that ensures
an enduring and at the same time positive connection with God in this
life and the next. The Quran’s passionate call for justice in human
relationships combined with mercy is intimately related to its generous
invitation to every person to enjoy eternity in the presence of the
Divine.
This message presents a particular
challenge for readers of the Quran who deny a Transcendent Reality or a
Divine Creator. Certainly some of the ethical pronouncements in the
Quran might still have some resonance for these readers. Nonbelievers,
however, often see the notion of giving up certain activities, being
generous to the needy, or disciplining oneself through worship for the
sake of a deeper relationship with God through reductionist eyes as
being devoid of spiritual significance. An example of reductionist
thinking is when one, upon encountering Quranic verses instructing men
and women to restrict their sexual activity to marriage, concludes
that religious language is being “used” here as a mechanism of social
control. One of the many points this kind of reader misses in this case
is how intimacy itself can be enhanced and made even more fulfilling
when it has a spiritual dimension. If nonbelievers cannot relate to the
transcendental aspect of apparently worldly concerns of the Quran, they
might at least be able to analogize other spheres of human experience
where individuals exercise discipline and make sacrifices for what they
consider a higher good.
RESPECTING THE QURAN
It is appropriate, perhaps, to close this
introduction to reading the Quran by discussing briefly the respect
Muslims accord to the physical text of the Quran, the muṣḥaf, as
well as the sound of its recitation, which often moves believers to
tears. We should recall that in premodern societies, books of scripture
were not as easily available as they are today, and they were not
treated like other books. Whether it was the Bible, the Torah, or the
Quran, scriptures were approached with awe. The ontological distinctness
of scriptures from other books (i.e., the fact that they are a
different kind of book in their very being) was signaled by their
being placed on high lecterns, lovingly guarded in special locked
cabinets, or wrapped in distinctive coverings.
Muslims today continue to demonstrate
their respect for the contents of the Quran by treating any written
manifestation of it with deference. Symbolic acts of respect, such as
handling papers with Quranic verses written upon them with special care
and refraining from placing the muṣḥaf on the floor, are widespread. Islamic Law directs Muslims to touch the muṣḥaf only
when in a state of ritual purity (56:77–79). This is achieved by
performing ablutions before handling the Quran in accordance with
Quranic directives and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad. Sufis add
that one must be also inwardly pure in order to be able to “touch” the
inner meaning of the Sacred Text. Although these rules do not strictly
apply to translations of the Quran or to nontextual copies of the muṣḥaf, such
as electronic books, a general attitude of respect for any reproduction
of the contents of the Quran is recommended and widely practiced
throughout the Islamic world.
Today, anyone can own a copy of the
Quran, in its original language or in translation. In most respects,
this is a positive development, for it allows more widespread knowledge
of the Quran and communication about its message among diverse peoples
across the world. Indeed, the Quran directs its message mostly to
“humanity” and to “believers”—not only to Muslims—so it is fitting that
it is accessible to all who wish to hear or read it.
Yet Muslims sometimes have ambivalent
feelings about this easy availability of the Quran today. On the one
hand, most Muslims want what they consider to be the Word of the living
God available to all people. On the other hand, the painful reality is
that some hateful people now have a greater ability to deliberately
desecrate the Quran to hurt and vilify Muslims. It is to prevent the
desecration of the Quran, in fact, that premodern scholars generally
advised Muslims not to carry the Quran into hostile territory.
The hard division between “Muslim” and
“non-Muslim” lands does not reflect the religious diversity found in
most nation-states today (if it ever did), so this medieval legal
opinion is now moot. Instead, Muslims usually collaborate with other
peoples of faith to cultivate an ethic of mutual respect for religious
symbols, artifacts, and sacred texts. Although some nations have laws
restricting “hate speech” toward religious communities or grant special
protection to religious books and symbols, the need for robust laws
protecting freedom of speech in many countries, especially in the West,
prevents such restrictions from being widely adopted especially as far
as Islam is concerned, and in any case no law is effective without an
underlying ethic that is broadly supported. Inculcating values of
kindness, mutual respect, and neighborliness in our diverse communities
is the best way to prevent religious differences from being used to harm
one another, and this begins and ends with respect for the sacred
scriptures and religious beliefs and practices of others.
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