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The Qur'an is the
sacred book of Islam. It has also been called, in English,
"the Koran". Qur'an is the currently preferred English
transliteration of the Arabic original (قرآن); it means
“recitation”. Although the Qur'an is referred to as a
"book", when a Muslim refers to the Qur'an, they are
referring to the actual text, the words, rather than the
printed work itself.
 Muslims
believe the Qur'an to be the literal word of God as revealed
to Muhammad, over a period of twenty-three years by the
angel Gabriel and regard it as God's final revelation to
mankind and the only revelation of God that has been
preserved from textual distortion.
The Qur'an consists of 114 surah (chapters) with a total of
6236 ayat (verses).The surahs, or chapters, are generally
known by an Arabic name derived from the sura. The surahs
are not arranged in chronological order (in the order in
which Islamic scholars believe they were revealed) but in a
different order, roughly descending by size.
The Qur'an mixes
narrative, exhortation, and legal prescription. The suras
frequently combine all these modes, not always in ways that
seem obvious to the reader. Muslims often argue that the
uniqueness of the Qur'anic style supports belief in its
divine origin.
There are many
repeated epithets (e.g. "Lord of the heavens and the
earth"), sentences ("And when We said unto the angels:
Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all
save Iblis"), and even stories (such as the story of Adam)
in the Qur'an. Muslim scholars explain these repetitions as
emphasizing and explaining different aspects of important
themes.
The Qur'an is
partly rhymed, partly prose. Traditionally, the Arabic
grammarians consider the Qur'an to be a genre unique unto
itself, neither poetry (defined as speech with metre and
rhyme) nor prose (defined as normal speech or rhymed but
non-metrical speech, saj'). The Qur'an often, although by no
means always, uses loose rhyme between successive verses.
Before printing was widely adopted, the Qur'an was
transmitted by copyists and calligraphers. Since Muslim
tradition felt that directly portraying sacred figures and
events might lead to idolatry, it was forbidden to decorate
the Qur'an with pictures (as was often done for Christian
texts, for example). Muslims instead lavished love and care
upon the sacred text itself. Arabic is written in many
scripts, some of which are both complex and beautiful.
Arabic calligraphy is a highly honored art, much like
Chinese calligraphy. Muslims also decorated their Qur'ans
with abstract figures (arabesques), colored inks, and gold
leaf.
The Qur'an has been translated into many languages; there
are several translations for many languages, including
English. These translations are considered to be glosses for
personal use only; they have no weight in serious religious
discussion. Translation is an extremely difficult endeavor,
because each translator must consult his/her own opinions
and aesthetic sense in trying to replicate shades of meaning
in another language; this inevitably changes the original
text. Thus a translation is often referred to as an
"interpretation," and is not considered a real Qur'an. Just
as Jewish and Christian scholars turn to the earliest texts,
in Hebrew or Greek, when it is a question of exactly what is
meant by a certain passage, so Muslim scholars turn to the
Qur'an in Arabic. Every reputable Islamic scholar is able,
at the least, to read and understand the Qur'an in its
original form, while most have it completely memorized.
The earliest
recorded translation into English was made in 1649 by Robert
Ketton; he worked from a French translation of the Arabic
original. George Sale produced a better English version in
1734; another was produced by Richard Bell in 1937, and yet
another by Arthur John Arberry in 1955. All these
translators were non-Muslims. There have been numerous
translation by Muslims; the most popular of these are the
translations by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Dr. Muhammad
Taqi-ud-Din al Hilali, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, M. H. Shakir, and
Marmaduke Pickthall.
The English
translators have sometimes favored archaic English words and
constructions over their more modern or conventional
equivalents; thus, for example, two widely-read translators,
A. Yusuf Ali and M. Marmaduke Pickthall, use "ye" and "thou"
instead of the more common "you." Another common stylistic
decision has been to refrain from translating "Allah" — in
Arabic, literally, "The God" — into the common English word
"God." These choices may differ in more recent translations.
It is an
obligation - and blessing - for all who hear of the Qur'an
and Islam to investigate it and evaluate it for themselves.
Allah has guaranteed that He will protect the Qur'an from
human tampering, and today's readers can find exact copies
of it all over the world.
More information
on the Qur’an may be found at:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/
http://www.islamicity.com/Mosque/uiatm/un_islam.htm#WIQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qur%27an
Get a Free Copy
of the Qur’an at:
http://www.explorethequran.org/
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