sell - recensions of the quran

8/8/2019 Sell - Recensions of the Quran

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THE

IRECENSIONS OF THE QUR'AN

BY

THE REV. CANON SELL, D.D., M.R.A.S.Fellow of the University of Maillras

CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETYLONDON, MADRAS AND COLOMBO

1909


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PRINTED AT THEB;""P; 0; X.. PRESS, VEPEBY, :MADRAS

1909


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The following IS the scheme of diacritical points nowadopted by IIhe' C.L.S. for the traml1iteration of Arabic andPersian words:-th for t for kl;1 " t: \'i " l>kh ~ t " Cdh " J @ " t

" ;.,II ' 11:" .;" , "4- " J> " ,.

THERECENSIONS OF THE QUR'AN

' rHE various portions which now form the Qur'an, were recitedby the Prophe t during a period of twenty-three years, butduring his lifetime they were never collected together or systematically arranged. Passages were wri tt en on palm leaves,leather, and on such other materials as came to hand, byindividual hearers, but these were all disconne,cted and had nospecial authori ty : The great storehouse of the Qur'an was themarvellous memory of the Arab people. ' I t was recited againand again at each a.ct of worship, snd it was held in suchreverence that the committal of it to memory WI'S an &ct ofthe highest virtue.

We owe the Qur'an as we now have it to two recensions,made by the first and third KhaIlfas, AbU Bakr and 'Ut.hman.At the battle of Yemana , probably wi thin a year of the deathof the Prophet, when the usurper Musailama was overthrown,a great Il)any of t he Qur 'an reciters were slain, and 'Umar,afterwards the second Khallfa, began to fear lest t he t rue text,should be lost. Mirkhond says: 'when Abu Bakr receivedthe news of the battle he thought that in course of time thewords of the Lord Most High might be blotted out fromthe minds of the people and so ordered the Qur'an to bepublished.' 1 There is a well authenti cated tradi ti on by Zaidibn Thll.bit which records 'Umar's speech: ' I fear,' he saidto Abu Bakr, ' that the bat tl e may again wax hot amongstthe' Qur'an reciters in other fields of battle, and that much maybe. lost therefrom; now, tberefore, my advice is that thoushouldst give speedy order s for the collection of the Qur'an.'This' advice approved i ts el f to the Khalifa. He then suminoned to .!:lis presence Zaid, who had been an amanuensisof the Prophet and had a great reputat ion for h is knowledgeof the Qur'an. He said to him : 'T ho u ar t 'a young man' ..

1 R a I l . & 4 a ' ' U . ' ~ - S a J d . Part ii, vol. iii, p. 141.


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6 THE RECENSIONS OF THE QUR'.AN THE DOUBT OF 'UMAR 7and wise; against whom no one amongst us can cast animputation; and thou wer t wont to write down the inspiredrevelations of the Prophet of the Lord, wherefore now searchout the Qur'an and bring it a.ll together.' Za.id collected itfrom the pa.ssages written as we have described, from all whocould remember a.ny portion, and when the whole was com-pleted it wa.s probably given to the Khalifa Abu Bah. I tthen came into the possession of the Khalifa 'Umar whogave it to his daughter J ; [ a . f a ~ a , one of the widows of Mu!;lam-mad. This edition was for ten years the only one in full use.Zaid wa.s a.ssisted by Anas bin Malik and others and thework whilst in progress was superintended by 'Umar , whoit is said accepted nothing as part of the Qur'..n which hadnot been written down a.nd which was not testified to bytwo persons. A case in point is the stoning verse, 'Themarried man a.nd the married woman when they commit a.dul-t ery then stone them without doubt:' 'Umar said he couldnot vouch for this, but that he would have inserted it had henot feared t ha t he might be charged with having added some-thing to the Qur'an. He himself knew the verse, but couldnot find corrobora.tive testimony.' The punishment decreedin the Qur'an for adultery is one hundred stripes,' but asa. mat ter of fact stoning is the Mu!;lammadan legal pnnishmentfor adultery and no other basis for it is known except thisverse which 'Umar withdrew. This seems to show that hehad good authori ty for h is sta tement. Anyhow i ts omissionshows the care taken with this recension.

In the ar.rangement of the Qur'an, Zaid seems to havehad original passages before him and t o have put t hem to-gether without much regard to the sense. Thus we have

1 S y U ~ i , Hiato,..... ;'oj iJJj IJI ~ l ~ l 3 Bee Nltldeke, Geackichtes t1ea Qaram, p. 19'. Margolionth sta.tes that'A.yesha.. said that this verse, in which stoning wa.s enjoined as a punishmentfor adultery, was on a s lip (of parchment) depos ited under her bed and wasa.fterwards lost. --Mohammed, p . 219.In oommentating on S u r a t u ' l ~ W ' i d a . (v) 18, in which the Jews are charged

with conoealing their Soriptures, usain and B ~ i 4 ' w { sa.y that one of the matters".c o n o e a . l ~ was the ("+) 'J- 'the verse of stoning'-which was in the Pentateuch.- T a . f t f . r ~ ' - l J ' U B a i ' " " vol. i, p. 140. Baiq.awi, vol. i , p. 251.

4. B u r a t u ' n ~ n u r (xxiv) 1. This and the suoCleeding four verses are IJ&id tohave a.broga.ted the verse of stoning whioh 'Umar hesitated to put p e r m . ~ueutly in the Qur'iu. .

the name i;lu!;lUf, 'loose leaves'; and SUras, ' the rows,' t hename now given to the various chapters. A tradition recordedby i bn 'Aliya says; 'Zaid a.fter much labour compiled theQur'an without a.ny order of Suras: Some orthodox Muslimshold t ha t t he present form was ordained by God, and followsan a.rrangement made by the Companions of t he P rophe t;in which case it is difficult to see the need of AbU Ba.kr'srecension.It is said by the German critic, Weil, that AbU Bakr alteredsome passages. Thus Weil adduces the tradition that 'Umarwould not believe that the Prophet was dead and vehementlyexpressed his doubts, until Abu Bah recited some passagesfrom the Qnr'an on the subject of the death of Mn!;lammad.Weil considers that 'Umar and other Muslims did not knowof these passages and tha.t Abu Bakr invented them. ButNoldeke, ' Muir, and other competent critics think that this i.a. gratuitous assumption without the least foundation in fact.

The circumstances are t hese ; 'Umar , on seeing the placidcountenance of the Prophet, said; 'H e is not dead, he hathonly swooned away: To one who tried to convince him hereplied, 'Thou liest, the Apostle of God is not dead .... theProphet of the Lord shall not die, until he has rooted out everyhypocrite and unbeliever:' In words similar to these headdressed the crowd which had now gathered together . ThenAbu Ba.kr said; 'Si lence I 'Umar, sit thee down, be quiet.Hath not the Almighty revealed th is verse to the Prophet,saying, "Verily thou shal t die and they sha.ll die:' ' . And again,a.fter the ba.ttle of U!;lud, the revela.tion ca.me, 'Mu!;la.mma.d isno more tha.n an Apostle; other Apostles ha.ve alrea.dy pa.sseda.way before him. I f he die, therefore, or be killed, will ye tum upon your heels?' Let him then know, whosoever worship-peth Mu!;J.a.mmad, tha.t Mul;tamma.d is dea.d: Then 'Umar wassatisfied.. There are also other pa.ssages which spea.k of dea.th,8uch a8; 'Have we granted to ma.n before thee a life that

1See G88chiohtes des QorlmB, p. 197.51 B 0 I U 4 a t u ' , ~ S ( J , I ( ; , . Part ii, vol. iii, p. 780.' ; ; ' ; ; ;; ; . ; ! l , . ~ ~ . .oiil_Surolu,Zumar (=bt) 81.4i.e. return to idola.try. A report ha.d been sprea.d in the ba.ttle of Ul}.ud tha.tMu1}ammad was slain. , ; , ! ~ , ,. o ; ~ i l J:i;, ~ I : . ~ ( j , J:;ll s;:; ~ 1:.;Smtu Ali 'Imrau (iii) 188.


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8 THE RECENSIONS OF THE QVR'AN THE RECENSION OF 'VTHMAN 9shall l as t for eVer; i f thou then die, shal l they live for ever?Every soul shall t as te of death.' 1 'Every soul shall taste ofdeath: then to us shall ye return." Abu Bakr must, therefore, be pronounced innocent of the f raud charged upon him,for it is unreasonable to suppose that h e interpolated them all.

Weil also considers that verse fourteen of Suratu'I-A!).qif(xlvi) is an interpolat ion: 'W e have' commanded man toshow kindness to his parents, his mother beareth h imand hringeth him forth with pain, and h is bearing and, hisweaning is thirty months; until when he a ttaine th s trengthand the age of forty years, he saith, "0 Lord give me inspintion, tha t I may be grateful for Thy favoUl' wherewith thouhast favoured me and my parents.'" According to t he commentator I;[usain, Abu Bah embraced Islam in his thirtyeighth year. His parents were also converted, and in hisfortieth year he said: '0 Lord give me inspiration that I maybe grateful.' Thus this verse has been supposed to refer tohim, but this by no means proves that he interpolated it, forhad he wished to introduce a verse about himself. he surelywould have invented one fa r less Obscule., This charge thenmay .be, dismissed as having no basis in fact.Although the recension thus made unde r t he direction ofAbu Bakr was of the nature of a private undert aking, aniltoo much impor tance ought not to be attached to it, yet it.was of great value as forming the basis for the authoritativerecension of the Khalila 'Vthma.n. Some authorities considerit uncertain whether Zaid completed his work before the deathof AM Bakr Dr not, and the fact that the work when finishedwas handed over to I ; I : " , f " , ~ , the daughter of 'Vmar, wouldimply that Abu Bakr was now dead. In any case the privatenature of the undertaking is evident.

With t he g reat mass of th e people th ere was no criticalstudy of the Qur'an, for they were far too busy with the

1 '1< ,""- ,-., - ' , " _ . , - "':"J"" ~ l Js. (:lJ",:",,1 /"'f ....1 ,.., ':"J"" ~ i r v=--ur&tU'l-'4nk&biit (nix) 51:

ceaseless fighting that went on, and in the accumulation ofbooty. The resul t was that they went on reci ting the Qur'anas they had been accustomed to do and paid lit tle attentionto Zaid' s arrangement, and many knew very litt le abou t it.Mter the battle of Qadislya (A.D. 636), 'Vmar ordered the leaderof the victorious army to divide the booty amongst the warriorswho were best acquainted with, the Qur'an. One was calledup and he replied that he had been so engaged in fightingthat he did not know anything by hea rt. Another said thathe only knew the 'Bismillah ' - ' In the name of God mostmerciful and compassionate.' As t ime went on, even amongstprofessed scholars, discrepancies arose, and those who, in theirseveral distr icts, were looked upon as authorities maintainedthe superiority of the readings they favoured and quarrelscommenced on the subject. The inhabitants of Hims stoodby the readings of al-Miqdad bin al-Aswad; the 'Kufites bythose of ibn Mas 'li d; 1 the B a ~ i t e s by those of Abu MUsa,and so on.' The consequences threatened to be very serious,for men wondered how there could be different texts asthe Qur'an sent down by God was one, and so the Khalifa'Vthman determined to bring out a new and authoritativerecension. He appointed Zaid, who was a native of Madina,and some learned men amongst the Qllraish 3 to do the work.They took AbU Bakr's compilation as the basis of the newbook, and collected all the copies they could get. When theyhad finished the work, 'V thman destroyed all the books ofthe old edi tion he could get, except the copy which belongedto I ; [ a f a ~ a . This, however, was destroyed soon after by Manoan, the Governor of Madina. The edition now authorizedwas sent f orth into all the provinces as the only recognizedbook. '

III the ca.se of iLny difference of opinion Zaid had to givewiLy, and the final decision lay with the Quraish membersof the revision committee, or with the Khal ifa himself. ThusI One of the Prophet's sayings is thus reoorded: I Whosoever wishes to recite

the Qur'80 oorrectlya.nd with elega.nce let him follow the reading of,ibn Mas'ud.Ibn "Mas'6.d refused aot f irst to giveup his copy to the revision committee. TheKhaJifa ordered -him to be beaten, from the effects of whioh ho died.-.Toumal~ u e ~ Decembre 184.8, p. 885.

I N6ldeke gives an excellent account of the way in which these difJerenceso", .. .-G .. .hichle, des Qiwans, pp.280-0.. '"3 ~ was the.Me'ccan tribe or family to which the Prophet b e l o ~ g e d .2 "


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10 TH E RECENSIONS OF THE QUR'AN CURIOUS LETTERS 11the Qur 'an was preserved in the Meccan dialect. An exampleof the Khallfa 's interference is given in the tradition whichrecords that 'Ali wished to write ')!\.; with.: the otbers with

as -=:..>y.1:i and 'Dthman decided in favour of tbe lat ter. asbeing according to the ..oT........u 0/ tlls AlJiatic Sooisty oj Bsngal. vol. 20, p. 2S0.


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12 THE RECENSIONS .OF THE QUE'AN THE SEVEN DIALECTS 13that Zamakhshari considered that these letters indicated that thestyle of t he Qur 'an was perfect and that imitation was de:6ed.1This is in accordance with the idea that just as men knowthese let ters but ca.n make nothing out of them, so no oneca n compose anything equal to the Qur'an. Several expla.nations are given by Sale in the preliminary discourse to hist rans la tion of the Qur'an. Noldeke considers them to havebeen private marks of the owners put on the copies len t toZaid, which have inadvertently crept into the text.Muslims believe that the Qur'an is incorruptible-' a bookwhose verses are established in wisdom, and then set forth withclearness' ' ; bu t the fact that 'U thl11an and his company ofrevisers had to consider a variety of readings, to weigh theirauthori ty , and if necessary to discard them in favour of theMeccan readings, caused no small scandal. But a way wasfonnd Ollt of the difficulty. Abli ibn Ka'b, one of theCompanions, became so famous as a reciter of the Qur'an thatth e Prophet himself said: 'Read the Qur 'an under ibn Ka'b.'Ibn Ka'b one day stated tha t, scandalized at man af te r manwho entered th e Mosque repeated the Qur'an in differentwa.ys, he spoke to Mul;lammad about it. The Prophet said:'0 Abli i1:ln Ka'b! intelligence was sent to me to read theQnr'an in one dialect, and I was attentive to the. Court ofGod , and said: "Make easy the reading of the Qur' an to mysects." Then ins tructions were sent to me a second t ime saying, "Read the Qur'an in two dialects." Then I turned myselfto the Court of God, saying, "Make easy the reading of t heQur'an to roy sects," Then a voice was sent to me the thirdtime, saying, "Read the Qur'an in seven dialects.'" There isalso a tradi tion t ha t 'Umar said: 'During the lifetime of theProphet I heard a man read a chapter of the Qur'an. I heardthe readings which he followed, and, as they were differentfrom those which I knew and which I had heard from themouth of the Prophet, I feared the nawaz. would be spoilt..At the close of the prayers I was angry with him and struckhim a blow, and demanded to know where he had heard thesereadings. He declared that he had heard them from Muhammad. We then went to the Prophet to sett le the dispute.

1 Ib n KhaldW>. (de 81"".'0 tran.lation), "01. iU, pp, 68-9. .Co'J:i ...0\ \ . Co . .c. G \ _ f"lI.:

1 JournaZ Asiatique, Decem-bra. 1848, p. 878 . Thi s t radi ti on conaerning thelBeven readings' is referred to in well-known books thus:~ ! ; ~ - rfi ~ ' P ' J ; ~ _ I The Qur'an was revealed in seven readings'

(word,).-1Ili8kk4tti'l-Mas4b1(,;.,,:,1 ,f i ~ , ) ' , J t ~ - ' The Qur'an was revealed in seven dialects. '-

Jfajtna'u'Z-3harl1'ib.':!.... ';!\ lJ'.S ....".\ ~ I ) I J j - ' Th . Qur'i.u d. . . .nd.d with

seven readings, all perfect and B a . c r e d , - M ~ m a ' ' U l - B i h 4 r .It is said that the seven dialects were those of the Quraish, Hawa.d.hin, ':I!a.i,Hasn, Himyar, Shaqif, a.nd Yama.n.tll ........, r - , J


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14 THE RECENSIONS OF THE QUR'ANthe middle, and a short one at the end, arranged all welland handed them over to men; bu t the Qur'ans which theyhad I collected and burnt." The probability is that 'Uthmanmade the best recension then possible, but there are traditionsregarding other forms of the book, for they did not all becomeextinct at once. Of these the II I ost important are those ofUbai ibn Ka'b and of Ibn Mas'ud. Ubai is said to have broughttogether Suras (cv) and (cvil, contrary to the sellse. He variesthe order of t he SUras and is sa.id to have added two newones, called SUratu'I-Khalll,' and Stlratu'I-Hafd, or, as it is alsocalled, Stlratu'l-Qanut. These are:

'I n the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.'0 God we pra.y Thee for help and forgiveness: we praiseThee and are not unthankful towards Thee, and we let go andforsake everyone who trespasses against Thee.''I n the name of God, the Merciful, the'Compassionate., 0 God we serve Thee, and to Thee do we pray, and 1'heedo we worship; we hasten to Thee; we strive after Thee; wehope for Thy pity, and we fear Thy punishment. Tru ly , Thypunishment overcomes the unbelievers.'These may have been simple prayers, written on the marginof a Qur'an, but it is not clear whether this is the case ornot. The oldest book in which Noldeke found them is onewritten in the fifth century of the Hijm. They are taken from

the codex of Ubai. Noldeke considers them to be authentic.'The second Sura of these two, it is said, should be placed inthe Qur'an after the words of Suratu-YUnus (x) 10, 'Glory be'to Thee, 0 God, and their salutat ion therein "Peace." , Thereare expressions in these Sums not found in the authorizedQur'an, e.g., and J..i:>.. Then jS is not constructed withthe accusative, but with y. Again in the sense of trespassdoes not take the accusative.

The objection is taken to these SUras that in them manaddresses God and not God man; but Sumtu'l-Fatiha (i) issimilar in style, and in any cllse the word J.i, 'say,' ~ a beunderstood, so this objection has no weight. According to

t See Brw4w',-$afd, Pa.rt ii, 'vol. iii, p. 166. Sk


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16 THE RECENSIONS OF THE QUR'AN SHI'AH OBJECTIONS 17submitted to any changes and altera.tions which might befound necessary in the other copies. He said that he intendedto hand down his copy to his descendants to be kept uutil theadvent of the IIWl.m Mahdi .' Assuming that this tradition iscorrect, the question natural ly arises as to how it was that'Ali did not get his own copy recognized as t he one and onlyauthorized book. The reply is tha t, in the trol1blous times inwhich he lived, he had neither the le isure nor the opportunityto convince the Muslims. who supported his rivals tha t theyhad been unjustly dealt with, nor could he circulate his owncopy of the Qur'an withont calling in all of 'UU!man's copiesand this was an ac t he dared not venture on. I t would havesimply increased the already existing dissensions and havehastened his downfall, so he lef t the matter alone. After theassassination of 'Ali, h is sons IJasan and IJusain were subjugated by Mu'awiya, and outwardly, s.t least, acknowledged theauthorized Qur'an as the true one, and said that the Faithfulshould use it as it was, without any regard to other passages orfragments regarded by some of their followers as intrinsicportions of the true text, In secret, however, they assured theirpa.rtisans that t he complete Qur 'an would remain concealeduntil the appearance of s.l-Mahdi, the ls.st Imam, at the clcseof the present dispensation.

According to Shaikh AbU Ja'fs.ru'l-Qumi their case stoodthus:' 'W e believe that th e Qur 'an given to the Prophet isconts.ined within its Covers, and is now found in use. Thenumber of Stlras is generally acknowledged to be one hundred'

1 Journal Asiatique. Decembre, 1843, p. 38'1.In the R B l 1 4 a . t u ~ - $ a . f . & & long l et te r from 'Ali to M'u'awiya. is quoted inwhich 'Ali says;' the Prophet honoured me by revealing sevenl verS6& concerni.Dg

me .. t h ~ s elevating the bMmersof favour over my head.'- .Part ii, vol. iii, p. 386.. - - "-""I;> ",1J'l\ ",\ "Js>.1< ,.L:-!I a."L. &l'l, a."L. dill ..j..o &lIt J,....) JI>~ \ i;,::I1 o"e.ll L..":' . 1, . , ,-.1) 'M .,.."Jo\j'll, f t ~ \ , ~ d

. " ' - I ....... ., ,., .~ " l"lo IlllI J.. " '- ...... "Js>. ..}.... Illll &lil


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18 THE REOENSIONS OF THE QUR'AN THE SURA OF THE TWO LIGHTS 19In SUratu Ali ' Imran (iii) 106, ' Ye are th e best nation that

hath been raised up unto mankind: ye enjoin the just and forbidthe evil.' For ' nations' read' Imams,' tbat is, for .i-o...1 readWI The Shi'ahs support their reading by saying that thedescription given of the enjoining and the forbiddingapplies more correctly to the Imams as rulers than to a nati onin its corporate capacity.In Soratu'l-Furqan (xxv) 74, ' 0 our Lord! give us in ourwives and offspring the joy of our eyes and make us examplesto those that fear Thee. ' For ' make us examples to thosethat fear Thee'- t.L.l " , , ~ I LiLt.;-- \ read 'make for us In:ul.ms,from those that fear Thee,'-t.L.1 ""o'il-oJ1 "",< UI ~ that is,from 'Ali and his descendants..In Soratu'r-Ra'd (xiii) 12, 'Each one has angels beforehim and behind, who watch over him by God's order. ' TheShi'ahs read 'El>Ch one has angels behind him and l1uardiamC..,.,......;) who watch over him by God's order.'In Sorntu'l-Hild (xi) 20, '(With such can they be compared) who rest upon clear proofs from their Lord; t o whoma witness from him reciteth (the Qur'an) preceded by theBook of Moses, a guide and mercy.' 1 The other reading is,'T o whom a witness from him a guide and mercy, reciteth(the Qur'an), preceded by the Book of Moses." This witness,according to this reading, is the ' gui de and mercy,' andis '.Ali who comes from him, that is, Mul).ammad. Thus iti s not, as in the received text, the Book of Moses which isthe 'guide and mercy.' One day after 'Ali had finished hissermon a member of the congregation said to him, 'whichverse of the Qur 'an refers to thee?' 'All replied, 'Hast thounot read t he verse "who res t upon olear proofs from theirLord: to whom a witness, a guide and mercy, reciteth theQur 'an preceded by the Book of Moses.'" This tradition isaccepted by Im.&m Fakhru'd-Din Razi. 3 The whole verseis .. difficult one. It is a very good example of a mujmalverse, as it cont..ins words, to ' which different meanings maybe given.' Some say that the 'who' is Mul).a=ad or Jewish

1 &';:;j; 1.C.l J , ~ r 0-:;'; ~ \ O . . ; c ; ; ~ Js1" ~ \ . S , ~ J,--r . ; . ; ~ ~ ~ . ; C . ~ l ~ I : i . i , ~ ; .3 JOUfMl Asia;tiq'UB, ~ o e m b r e , 1S42 t p. 4:12., FaUn of 1$!


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20 THE RECENSIONS OF THE QUR'AN'For those who obey the orders of God and of His Prophet,

for them, according to these verses, there is a Paradise ofDelights; but those who disbelieve a.fter they have believed,and who break their ..romise and that which the Prophetha d stipu!l,ted for them,sha.1l be cast into Bell., They who have injured their own souls and have been dis-obedient to the executor of the Prophet 1 (Le., 'Ali), theyshall drink of the scalding water.'Truly, God is He who gives light to the hea.vens and toth e earth, and who chooses the angels, the prophets, a.nd whoma.kes believers; they a.re His creation, He creates what Hewills: there is no God but Be , the merciful and gracious.

'Truly, those who were before them ha.ve deceived theirprophets. I have punished them for their deceit, and mypunishment is severe and strong.'Truly, God has destroyed 'Ad a.nd E?amUd' on account of

what they did an.d hoo made them as a memorial to you, butye did not believe. And Be did the same with regard toPharaoh for his opposition to Moses and his \>rother Aaron.He drowned him and all who followed h im as a. sign to you,ye t most of you are perverse. Truly, God will gather themtogether in the da.y of resurrection, and they will not be ableto answer when quest ioned: for them is the Hell, for God isknowing and wise.

' 0 ProphetI publish my wa.rnings, perhaps they will followthem. In truth, they who turned from my signs and myorders bve perished. As to those who keep thy covenant, Ireward them with the Para.dise of Delights. Truly, God i sth e pa.rdoner and the great rewarder..1All is ""Ued Ill J,..) U"'.r"xeeutor of the Prophet of God... The tribe of 'A.d dwelt to the north of Ueces . and tha.t of ~ m u . d nea,t by.The p ~ G p h e t Rnd W8IS rejected by the IAdites a.nd the prophet ee.lil}. by the~ a m u d l t e s . These men were probably Jewish tea.ehers ox Christis.n. evangelists..The destruction 01 the.tribes is referred to in Bura.tu'l-ILaf ( v i i ~ 71-7'1, and theS u t a t u ' l ~ F a i r (lxxxix) 5-18. Mu:ta.ammad attributed the diBa.ppea.ra.noe of thesetribes to supernatural causes, but a very simple explanll.tion of the i:aot oan begiven. The Rom.8J1 merohants, by opening up direct communioa.t ion betweenthe Indian Ooea.n and Suez, destroyed to a great extent the caravan trade oJArabia. Syria. and Northern Ara.bi& also beca.me the llIxena. of conftict between:1?'el'Sia and : B Y . l ~ n t i u m . The whole country feU into disoTderj cities were ruinedand th e people lIl. large numbers returned to a. wa.ndering life and some tribesdisappeared e J . t o g e t ~ e r . Mul}.amma.d made Bkilful ute of a. perfectly naturalevent toshowhow divine vengeance followed a. people who rejected a prophet,and thus gave a warning to people who might be tempted to -rejeot him.

THE SURA OF THE TWO LIGHTS 21'Truly, 'Ali is one of the pious men, and we will res torehis rights to him at the Day of Judgment. We are notignora.nt of the injustice done to Bim. We have exa.lted himabove aJl thy family, and he and his posteri ty are patient andhis enemies are the chief of sinners., Say to those who have disbelieved after they had believed,

"You ha.ve sought the glory of worldly life and have hastenedto gain it, and ha.ve forgotten what God and His prophetpromised you, and you broke the promises after a s tr iot orderabout them." We have given you examples, perhaps , you maybe guided.'0 Prophet I We have sen t the manifest s igns; in themare shown who will believe on him ('Ali) and who after theewill turn away from him ('Ali).'Turn from them; certainly they turn aside and certainlyWe will summon them on the Day (of Judgment) , Whennothing shaJI avail them a.nd no' one shall pity them. Truly,there is a place for them in Hell and they shall not return.Pl'lIise the name of thy Lord and be of those who worshipHim.'Truly, we sent Moses and Aaron with what was neededand they rebelled against Aa.ron. Patience is good, so wechanged them to monkeys and pigs,' and have cursed themtill the day of resurrection. Be patient, they will be punished. We have sent thee an order, as We did to precedingprophets. We have appointed to thee a successor ' from amongthem: perhaps they will return. He who turns from myorder, from him I will turn, tbey get but l it tle benefit fromtheir unbelief. Do not ask about those who break the law.'0 Prophet I We have made for thee a oompact on theneck 3 of those who believe; possess it and be of the numberof those who are thankful.'Truly, 'Ali is constant in prayer a.t night making theprescribed prostra.tions (sajidan), and he fears the Last Dayand hopes for mercy from his God.1S


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22 THE REOENSIONS OF THE QUR'AN TH E SlmA OF THE TWO LIGHTS 23'Say, how can those be compared who make tyranny , andthose who know my troubles. They will place charms on theirnecks and they will repent of their works.'W e gave good news to thee of pions descendants, and theywill not be disobedient; my peace and my mercy i s on them,living IIr dead, and on the day when they shall rise again.

My s.nger is on those who after thee transgress amongstthem. Truly, they are a bad people and will wander from theright ws.y; but those who go on in the ws.y, on them is .mymercy and they will be safe i n th e lofty rooms (of Parlldise),'Prs.ise be to the Lord of both worlds. Arnen.'The following is the Arabic text of this Sura.

,p GI II.~ ) ~ ) .ill! ( ' - i.. C o" _ _ .. c. .... J - e . ~ _01- .. . . ~ _ .. $ ,,__;\,,\' , ' \ ' ; . L..J> W'! -'II\" . , ' I ' I ~ J . l \ I . , \" - ' oJ ,...-.:< ". _f . ~ Co .....dll .,;1, l ; ~ l , l . rl-:".,,,ll .,;1 8 ",/i..il t::l-1 J,-)\ 4!.' 'i1, 0 F- - (, "" ,;' ~ '" " .# - , , t. - "J) . i J ~ ",,';;;1 < : i t ~ 1 I J;i.. 6 < : J ; ' - ; ~ " ' ~ , .j,\r.\ ,: f \ , ; ~

'" " " , l .o . - . , .,.11 .. r "" ... &;,., ..~


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1The following are somo %8,mples :, '-\' ,f ..... ' . ~ " r ~ "-1""' _, la' \j 8Ura . 59; .,j\j1,..=.>" ill. 8?' : I : ~ ! ~ i ';';.l!i;'=':' :>i 81". 'VI. 28:' , . . s . ~ ' ~ r ~ f : U SUrt. v. ~ ;:.;. llum .ii. lS ; ~ ) ~ \ , , , ; ~ ;.:J.: \t;;; Sur. v. 65;ft ,: . c.... ,;fI


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26 THE REOENSIONS OF THE QUll'ANThe way in which the various recensions were made, andthe need of them show that the Qur'an is open to criticism, andtha t the orthodox view of inspi ra tion needs to be very muchmodified, but do not prove that t he pre sent copies are notauthentic, The conclusion arrived at by Muir, with whichmost scholars agree, seems to me sound s.nd good, He says:'

'The conclusion, which we may now with confidence draw, isthat the editions both of AM Bakr and of 'U tnman were, notonly faithful, but complete as far as the materials went; andthat whatever omissions there may have heen, they were noton the part of the compilers intentional. The real drawbackto the inestimable value of the Qur'an, a.s a. contemporary and..uthentic record of Mn!).amm ..d's oh..ra.cter ..ild ..ctions, is thewant of arrangement ..nd connexion which pervades it; sothat, in inquiring into the meaning and force of a passage, noinfallible dependence can be pla.ced on the adjacent sentencesas being the true context, But , bat ing this serious defect, wemay upon the strongest presumption affirm th..t every versein the Qur'an is t he genuine and unalte red composition ofMul;1ammad himself, and conclude with at least a, close ap-proxima,tion to the verdict of Von Hammer "That we holdtlw Qttr'an to be as fII...ly Mul],arnmad's WQ1'd, as the Itrttl],aml-madans hold it to be the word of God." ,

1 Life oj Mahomet, vol. i. p. nvi.

sell - recensions of the quran

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