Introduction to the Study of the Holy Qur'an

By Maulana Muhammad Ali

This extremely useful book deals with subjects necessary for the understanding of the Holy Qur'an such as the division and arrangement of the Quranic chapters, rules for Interpretation, the Theory of Abrogation, Relationship of the Holy Qur'an to the Sunnah (the practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammad), Relationship of the Holy Qur'an to Earlier Scriptures, the Unity of God, Divine Attributes, Life after Death, Paradise and Hell, Revelation, History of the Prophets, etc.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781934271216

Book preview

Ohio

Transliteration of Arabic Words

The transliteration system adapted for the e-book format from the standard transliteration system is given below. Due to the limitations of the e-book format in producing some of the diacritical signs, alternative diacritical signs have been used. These changes are indicated by red type.

Consonants

Arabic Letter — Sound — Represented by

hamzah — (sounds like h in hour — a sort of catch in the voice) — ’

ba — (same as b) — b

ta — (the Italian dental, softer than t) — t

tha — (between th in thing and s) — th

jim — (like g in gem) — j

ha — (very sharp but smooth guttural aspirate) — h

kha — (like ch in the Scotch word loch) — kh

dal — (Italian dental, softer than d) — d

dhal — (sounds between z and th in that) — dh

ra — (same as r) — r

za — (same as z) — z

sin — (same as s) — s

shin — (same as sh in she) — sh

sad — (strongly articulated s, like ss in hiss) — s

dad — (aspirated d, between d and z) — dz

ta — (strongly articulated palatal t) — t

za — (strongly articulated palatal z) — z

‘ain — (somewhat like a strong guttural hamzah, not a mere vowel) — ‘

ghain — (guttural g, but soft) — gh

fa — (same as f) — f

qaf — (strongly articulated guttural k) — q

kaf — (same as k) — k

lam — (same as l) — l

mim — (same as m) — m

nun — (same as n) — n

ha — (same as h) — h

waw — (same as w) — w

ya — (same as y) — y

Vowels

The vowels are represented as follows:

Short vowels:

— ’ — fathah, as u in tub — a

— ’ — kasrah, as i in pin — i

Long vowels:

— — long fathah, as a in father — a

— — long kasrah, as ee in deep — i

— ‘ — long dammah, as oo in moot — u

— — fathah before waw — au

— — fathah before ya — ai

Tanwin   ’’   ’’   ‘’ is represented by an, in, un, respectively. The short and long vowels at the end of a word are shown as parts of the words, as qala where the final a stands for the fathah on lam, but the tanwin is shown as a separate syllable, as Muhammad-in.

Proper Names

Biblical proper names are not transliterated, but their Biblical form is adopted; other names are transliterated according to the rules of transliteration. Hence the reader will notice a change in such names as Mecca which should be written as Makkah, Medina which should be written as Madinah, Yemen which should be written as Yaman, and so on.

The following list shows the Biblical names and their Arabic equivalents:

Biblical Names— Arabic Form

Aaron — Harun

Abraham — Ibrahim

Adam — Adam

Amran — ‘Imran

Babel — Babil

David — Dawud

Egypt — Misr

Elias — Ilyas

Ezra — ‘Uzair

Elisha — Al-Yash‘a

Gabriel — Jibril

Gog — Ya’juj

Goliath — Jalut

Gospel — Injil

Isaac — Ishaq

Ishmael — Isma‘il

Jacob — Ya‘qub

Jesus — ‘Isa

Jew — Yahudi

Job — Ayyub

John — Yahya

Jonah — Yunus

Korah — Qarun

Lot — Lut

Magog — Ma’juj

Mary — Maryam

Michael — Mikal

Moses — Musa

Noah — Nuh

Pharaoh — Fir‘aun

Saul — Talut

Sheba — Saba’

Soloman — Sulaiman

Torah — Taurat

Zacharias — Zakariyya

About the author

Born in 1874 in the Punjab (India) Maulana Muhammad Ali had a distinguished academic record, obtaining degrees in English and Law by 1899. As he stood on the threshold of a lucrative career in law, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmed, the reformer (mujaddid) of the 14th century Hijra, called on him to devote his life to the service of Islam. He forthwith abandoned his worldly plans and joined the great reformer in Qadian. Here he learned those gems of Islamic truth uncovered in this age by Hazrat Mirza Sahib through which Islam was now destined to attract people all over the world. He became the secretary of the organization and was appointed by Hazrat Mirza Sahib as the editor of the Review of Religions, one of the first Islamic journals in English. Under his editorship this journal presented the pristine beautiful face of Islam to a world which had seen only an ugly image of it.

When the successor of Hazrat Mirza Sahib, Maulana Nuruddin Sahib, died in 1914 certain elements in the organization led by the founder’s son gained control of the movement, turning it into an exclusive intolerant sect ruled by a spiritual autocracy. They distorted and misrepresented Hazrat Mirza Sahib’s views by asserting that he had claimed prophethood. These circumstances compelled Maulana Muhammad Ali to leave Qadian, and he along with his associates established the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at Islam in Lahore to continue Hazrat Mirza Sahib’s real mission. From that date until his death in 1951 he led this society, organized its worldwide missionary activities, and produced a vast amount of invaluable scholarly literature in English and Urdu. His major works include: translations of the Holy Quran with detailed commentaries in both English and Urdu, The Religion of Islam, A Manual of Hadith, Fazl-i-Bari an exhaustive commentary on the Sahih Bukhari in Urdu, Muhammad the Prophet, The New World Order, the Early Caliphate, and the Living Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad. This unique collection of books presents a picture of Islam restored to its original purity—a religion of peace, tolerance, and spirituality. The Maulana’s contribution to Islamic literature and revival of Islam has been highly acclaimed by eminent Muslims all over the world. A famous British Muslim scholar and translator of the Holy Quran, Marmaduke Pickthall, while reviewing the Maulana’s monumental work the Religion of Islam, wrote in 1936 "Probably no living man has done longer or more valuable service for the cause of Islamic revival than Maulana Muhammad Ali of Lahore…"

Chapter 1 — The Holy Qur’an

Section 1 – Divisions and Arrangement

The name Al-Qur’an, the proper name of the sacred Book of the Muslims, occurs several times in the Book itself (2:185, etc.). The word qur’an is an infinitive noun from the root qara’a meaning, primarily, he collected together things, and also, he read or recited; and the Book is so called both because it is a collection of the best religious teachings, and because it is a Book that is or should be read: as a matter of fact, it is the most widely read Book in the whole world. It is plainly stated to be a revelation from the Lord of the worlds (26:192), or a revelation from God, the Mighty, the Wise (39:1, etc.), and so on. It was sent down to the Prophet Muhammad (47:2), having been revealed to his heart through the Holy Spirit (26:193, 194), in the Arabic language (44:58; 43:3). The first revelation came to the Prophet in the month of Ramadan (2:185) on the 25th or 27th night, which is known as Lailat al-qadr (97:1).

It is mentioned by the following additional names: Al·Kitab (2:2), a writing which is complete in itself; al-Furqan (25:1), that which distinguishes between truth and falsehood, between right and wrong; al-Dhikr (15:9), the Reminder or a source of eminence and glory to mankind; al-Mau‘iza (10:57), the Admonition; al·Hukm (13:37), the Judgement; al-Hikma (17:39), the Wisdom; al-Shifa’ (10:57), that which heals; al-Huda (72:13), that which guides or makes one attain the goal; al-Tanzil (26:192), the Revelation; al-Rahma (17:82), the Mercy; al-Ruh (42:52), the Spirit or that which gives life; al·Khair (3:104), the Goodness; al-Bayan (3:138), that which explains all things; al-Ni‘ma (93:11), the Blessing; al-Burhan (4:174), the clear Argument; al-Qayyim (18:2), the Maintainer; al-Muhaimin (5:48), the Guardian (of the previous revelation); al-Nur (7:157), the Light; al·Haqq (17:81), the Truth; Habl-Allah (3:103), the Covenant of God. In addition many qualifying epithets are applied to the Holy Book; such as al·mubin (12:1), one that explains; al-karim (56:77), the honoured; al-majid (50:1), the glorious; al-hakim (36:2), possessing wisdom; ‘Arabiyy (12:2), the Arabic; al-‘aziz (41:4), the mighty; al-mukarrama (80:13), the honoured; al-marfu‘a (80:14), the exalted; al·mutahhara (80:14), the purified; al-‘ajab (72:1), the wonderful; mubarak (6:92), blessed; musaddiq (6:92), confirming the truth of previous revelation.

Divisions

The Holy Qur’an is divided into 114 chapters, each of which is called a sura (2:23). The word sura means literally eminence or high degree, and also any step of a structure, and in the Book itself it is applied to a chapter of the Qur’an, either because of its eminence or because each chapter is, as it were, a distinct degree or step in the whole Book, which is thus compared to a structure. The chapters of the Holy Qur’an are of varying length, the largest comprising fully one-twelfth of the entire Book and the smallest containing only three verses. Each chapter is, however, complete in itself and is therefore, called a book, and the whole of the Qur’an is said to contain many books: Pure pages wherein are rightly-directing books (98:2,3). The longer chapters are divided into ruku’s or sections, each section generally dealing with one subject, the different sections being interrelated. Again, each section contains a number of ayas or verses. The word aya means, originally, an apparent sign or mark and, in this sense, it comes to mean a miracle but it also signifies a communication from God, and is applied as such to a verse of the Holy Qur’an as well as to a revelation or a law.

Thus the Holy Qur’an is divided into a number of chapters of unequal length; each chapter, with the exception of the concluding 35 chapters, is divided into sections, the largest number of sections in a chapter being 40; and each section, as also each single-section chapter, is divided into a number of verses. The highest number of verses in a chapter is 286 and the smallest only three. The total number of verses in the Holy Qur’an is 6,247, or 6,360, if we add to each chapter the common opening verse of Bismillah. For the purposes of recitation, the Holy Qur’an is also divided into thirty parts of equal length, each called a juz’, every part being again subdivided into four parts. These divisions, however, have nothing to do with the subject-matter of the Qur’an, neither has the division into seven manzils or portions, which is meant only for the completion of the recital of the Holy Qur’an in seven days.

Revelation, Collection and Arrangement

The Qur’an was revealed piecemeal (25:32) during a period of twenty-three years, the shorter chapters generally, and some of the larger ones, being revealed entire and at one time, while the revelation of the majority of the larger chapters and some of the shorter chapters extended over many years. The practice was, when a chapter was revealed in parts, that the Holy Prophet specified, under Divine guidance, the place of the verses revealed, and thus the arrangement of verses in each chapter was entirely his work. Similarly, the arrangement of the chapters was also the work of the Holy Prophet himself for, though no written manuscript was collected while he was living, the whole of the Qur’an was committed to memory and repeated frequently by the Companions of the Holy Prophet. This would have been impossible unless there was a fixed order in which the chapters followed one another. Moreover, the division of the Holy Qur’an into seven manzils is based on a direction of the Holy Prophet, and this division presupposes a known order of the chapters. It is in one of the earliest revelations that the Holy Qur’an plainly speaks of its collection as well as its revelation as being a part of the Divine scheme:

On Us devolves the collecting of it and the recitation of it (75:17).

The collection of the Holy Qur’an — which means the arrangement of its verses and chapters — was, therefore, a work which was performed by the Holy Prophet himself under Divine guidance, and it is a mistake to think that either Abu Bakr or ‘Uthman was the collector of the Qur’an, though both of them did important work in connection with the dissemination of the written copies of the sacred text. Abu Bakr made the first complete written copy, by arranging the manuscripts written in the time of the Holy Prophet, in the order of the oral recitation of the Prophet’s time. ‘Uthman’s work, on the other hand, was only the ordering of the copies to be made from the written manuscript of Abu Bakr’s time and the placing of these copies in the various centres of Islamic learning, so that those who wrote the Holy Qur’an might be able to compare their copies with the standard copy, and thus rectify errors which would otherwise have crept into the sacred text. The text of the Holy Qur’an has thus been safeguarded from all alterations or corruptions in accordance with the Divine promise contained in one of the earliest revelations: We have revealed the Reminder and We will surely be its guardian (15:9).

Makka and Medina Revelations

Another division of the Holy Book concerns the Makka and Madina revelations. Of the twenty-three years over which the revelation of the entire Book is spread thirteen years were passed by the Holy Prophet at Makka and ten were passed at Madina, to which city he had to fly for the safety of his own life and the lives of his followers. Of the entire number of chapters, ninety-three were revealed at Makka and twenty-one were revealed at Madina, but the 110th chapter, though belonging to the Madina period, was revealed at Makka during the well-known Farewell pilgrimage. The Madina chapters, being generally larger, contain really one-third of the entire Qur’an. In arrangement, the Makka revelation is intermixed with the Madina revelation. Thus