55 The Qur’an
VII. The Qur’an
As with other prophets and messengers, God supported Muhammad by allowing him to work miracles and thus prove that he was a genuine prophet. The singular miracle of Muhammad and the ultimate proof of the truthfulness of Islam is the Qur’an. In accordance with the words of the scripture itself, Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the timeless word of God, “the like of which no human can produce.” This trait of the scripture, called inimitability (i’jaz), is based on belief in the divine authorship of the Qur’an. Unlike earlier religions, the miracle of Islam is a literary miracle, and Muhammad’s other supernatural acts are subordinate to it.
This belief in the unique nature of the Qur’an has led Muslims to devote great intellectual energies to the study of its contents and form. In addition to interpreting the scripture and deriving doctrines and laws from it, many disciplines within Qur’anic studies seek to understand its linguistic and literary qualities as an expression of its divine origins.
A. The Format of the Holy Book
The Qur’an is made up of 114 chapters, called suras, which are roughly organized, from the second chapter onward, in order of length, beginning with the longest and ending with the shortest chapters. The first chapter, al-Fatiha (“the Opening”), is a short chapter that is recited during each of the five daily prayers and in many other ritual prayers. All but one chapter begin with the formula “in the name of God, the Merciful Lord of Mercy” (bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim). Each chapter is divided into verses called ayat(singular aya, meaning “sign” or “proof”). With few exceptions the verses are randomly organized without a coherent narrative thread.
A typical chapter of the Qur’an may address any combination of the following themes: God and creation, prophets and messengers from Adam to Jesus, Muhammad as a preacher and as a ruler, Islam as a faith and as a code of life, disbelief, human responsibility and judgment, and society and law. Later Muslim scholars have argued that the text’s timelessness and universality explain the lack of narrative coherence and the randomness of the topics. In other words, the multiple meanings of the Qur’an transcend linear narrative as they transcend any particular historical moment.
B. The Qur’an and the Bible
Islam recognizes the divine origins of the earlier Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and represents itself as both a restoration and a continuation of their traditions. Because of this, the Qur’an draws on biblical stories and repeats many biblical themes. In particular, the stories of several biblical prophets appear in the Qur’an, some in a condensed form; other stories, such as those of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, are given in elaborate detail and even with subtle revisions of the biblical accounts.
One of the important differences between the Qur’anic and biblical stories of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son, for example, is that the Qur’an suggests this son