What is the Quran?

Stylistic features of the Quran

The Quran was revealed in 7th century Arabia, where people took so much pride in their mastery of Arabic that literary fairs were commonly held and prized poems were inscribed in gold for all to see. The Quran, which is believed to be God’s inimitable Word, is a literary miracle, unmatched by any other work of Arabic literature. While Arabic has served as the medium for communicating the Quranic message, the Quran has forever changed the landscape of Arabic literary tradition, promoting Arabic to a leading world language and influencing other languages including Farsi, Urdu, Swahili, Turkish, Spanish, and many others. Several sciences have emerged to serve the Quran such as tafsir (Quranic commentary), tawhid (theology), fiqh (jurisprudence), tajwid (phonetic rules of recitation), qirâ‘ât (styles of recitation), nahw and sarf (grammar and morphology), balâghah (rhetoric), and khatt (calligraphy). Algebra was also developed in part to solve issues related to the distribution of inheritance shares laid out in Chapter 4. Together with the Sunnah or the example of the Prophet, the Quran is the bedrock of Muslim civilization and the main source of Islamic law and practice. The following are some of the distinctive stylistic features of the Quran in its original Arabic form.

Structure

The body of the Quran is made up of 6236 verses (or âyât, plural of âyah, which literally means sign, proof, or miracle), composed of 114 chapters in more than 600 pages. A chapter (or súrah) usually takes its name from the main theme, a story, or a distinctive word within it. With the exception of Chapter 9, all chapters begin with the basmalah: “In the Name of God— the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.” Depending on their respective chapter, verses typically rhyme and vary in length-some are long (2:282 is the longest at fifteen lines long), while others are short (20:1 is the shortest at only two Arabic letters). The Quran is divided into 30 parts (or ajzâ‘, plural of juz‘), each with 8 subparts (or arbâ‘, plural of rub‘), making it convenient for reading and memorization.

Of the Quran’s 114 chapters, eighty-six are classified as Meccan because they were revealed before the Prophet’s emigration to Medina. These chapters focus mainly on restoring the belief in One God. The other twenty-eight chapters are categorized as Medinian since they were revealed after the Prophet’s emigration from Mecca with an emphasis on the commandments regarding a Muslim’s relationship with their Lord, their fellow humans, and the rest of God’s creation. Some Meccan chapters may have Medinian verses and vice versa. Chapters and passages were revealed over a period of twenty-three years to address issues facing the Muslim community. As instructed by God through the angel Gabriel, the Prophet ordered his scribes to arrange chapters mostly according to their lengths, with the longest chapters first, not chronologically.

Although the Quran is not arranged chronologically, the chapters are perfectly interrelated. Some of the stories or themes that are touched on passingly in one chapter are explained in detail in the next chapter (see 12:105 and 13:1-17). In some cases, both the end of a chanter and the beginning of the next chapter cover the same subject (see 53:57-62 and 54:1-5). One chapter might give some stories and the next will continue the narrative by adding more stories (see chapters 37 and 38). Additionally, two consecutive chapters might cover the exact same themes, but in a different order (see chapters 55 and 56).

Quranic chapters have diverse themes, with main overarching subjects (e.g., verses 2:221-242), interjected by secondary subjects (e.g., verses 2:238-239), In essence, all themes have a common denominator: one’s relationship with their Creator and the rest of His creation. Assuming that not everyone will read the Quran in its entirety, readers will run into this common denominator at any given chapter. 

Style

With the word ‘Quran’ (lit., recitation) repeated about seventy times, the Quran is unique in that it actually speaks about itself, its Revealer, its purpose, its devotees, and its detractors. The author of this profound book is nowhere to be found on the cover; rather He reveals Himself on every page, speaking with authority, offering compelling proofs, giving commandments to prophets, believers, and all of humanity.

Perhaps one of the most visible stylistic features of the Quran is repetition, which comes in three different forms:

1) Repetitive phrases such as “Then which of your Lord’s favours will you both deny?” which appears a total of thirty-one times in Chapter 55 and “Woe on that  Day to the deniers!” which appears ten times in Chapter 77. Far from redundancy, the purpose of repetition in these two instances is to create an impact by reinforcing the point being made – to acknowledge God’s many blessings in the former and deter people from denying God in the latter. This rhetorical device is still employed by many modern orators. One of the most notable examples is the repetition of “I have a dream” and “Let freedom ring” in Martin Luther King’s 1963 famous speech.

2) Repetitive themes such as the arguments for God’s oneness, uniqueness, and power in chapters 16, 35, and 112; the comparison between Paradise and Hell in chapters 37, 39, 40, and 41; and the horrors of Judgment Day in chapters 77, 78, 79, 80, and 81. The purpose is to emphasize a recurring theme (e.g., the reward of the believers and disbelievers) or present more details (e.g., the testimony of bodily organs in 41:19-24 and the fruit of the Zaqqûm tree in 37:62-68).

3) Repetitive stories such as the story of Moses in chapters 7, 18, 26, and 28 and Abraham in chapters 2, 6, 19, and 37. The purpose is to reassure the Prophet and focus on a different aspect of the life of these prophets. For example, the highlights of the story of Moses in Chapter 7 are the arrogance of Pharaoh, the defeat of the magicians, and the suffering of the Children of Israel. In Chapter 26, the focus shifts to Moses childhood, his unintentional killing of an Egyptian man, as well as his escape to Midian and his marriage. 

The fact that these repetitive themes and stories are perfectly consistent, despite having been revealed over the course of two decades to an unlettered prophet, is yet another proof of the divine source of the Quran.

Sarcasm is another common feature of the Quran, especially when it talks about the fate of those who ridicule the truth (see 24:53 and 44:49). So readers can expect to see a warning such as: “Give them good news of a painful punishment.” This style aims at paying the ridiculers back in kind as well as adding more intensity to the warning.

Many passages in the Quran utilize a preferential style called tafdil – that is to say, two things share a certain quality but one of them supersedes the other. For example, the Quran says repeatedly that the people of Pharaoh were more powerful and resourceful than the people of Mecca. However, some structures look like tafdil but do not actually signify a comparison in quality. The assumption that both sides share the same quality but one is greater than the other is what causes confusion in most translations of the Quran. For example, when 12:33 suggests that going to prison is dearer to Joseph than committing adultery, this does not mean that either option is dear to him. Similarly, 17:84 suggests that the believers’ Way is better in guidance than that of the pagans, but in truth the latter is not guided at all. Furthermore, 11:78 suggests that Lot instructs men that the single women of his nation are purer for marriage than other men, when other men are not pure for marriage in the first place.

Emphasis

Emphasis is commonplace in the Quran, especially where a concept is likely to be challenged by the skeptics. Sometimes one or more emphasis words are used, such as ‘surely,’ ‘indeed,’ and ‘certainly’ (see 15:9). The repetition of a sentence two consecutive times is also used as emphasis, such as 102:3-4: “But no! You will soon come to know. Again, no! You will soon come to know.” The repetition of a verb in its noun form can also be used to similar effect. If translated literally, 56:4 will read, “When the earth will be shaken with a shaking,” whereas the meaning is: “When the earth will be violently shaken.” Lastly, an oath is one of the most common forms of emphasis. God has the right to swear by any of His creation, such as the sun and the moon, the day and night, the heaven and earth (91:1-6). However, a Muslim can only swear by God.

Persons, time and place

To prove its divine nature, the Quran often refers to past events that were not known to anyone at the time of the revelation (see 12:25-42 and 27:17-28), constantly reminding the Prophet that, since he was not an eyewitness to these events, it was through divine revelation that he came to know about them (see 12:102). The Quran also foretells future events that were later proven true (see 30:1-6 and 48:27).

Unlike English, the Arabic language has only three tenses: past, present, and future. The Quran is unique in using the past tense to refer to future events, particularly when it describes the Day of Judgment (see 39:68-75). In addition to reminding us that God is not bound by the limits of time, the aim is to give the impression that these events are so certain to happen that it is as if they have already happened. However, when these sentences are translated into English (or any other language for that matter), the future tense is used.

Generalizations are also common in the Quran, where “the people,” or “the Jews,” etc., actually refers to a small group that said or did something that was not challenged by the larger group (see 5:64).

With some exceptions, the Quran does not dwell on the names of persons, places, or times (see for example 2:259 and 18:9-26). Rather, attention is usually focused on the moral of the story, making it valid for every people, time, and place.

To express the greatness and magnitude of a definite noun (such as the Straight Path, the Merciful Lord, etc.), the Quran often uses that name in an indefinite form (a Straight Path, a Merciful Lord, etc.), but this translation uses the definite form in these instances in order to maintain the true meaning in English.

The Quran states that the pleasures which God has prepared for the believers in Paradise are beyond human comprehension (see 32:17). Hence, generic terms (e.g., rivers, gardens, fruits, garments of silk, bracelets of gold, etc.) are often used to describe these pleasures in an appealing way, bringing it down to our level of understanding, whereas the realities of Paradise are far beyond these descriptions. These terms are no different than those one would have used in 1876 C.E. to describe a cutting-edge smartphone to Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.

Letters and pronouns

Of the twenty-nine letters of the Arabic alphabet, only fourteen appear in various combinations at the beginning of twenty-nine chapters of the Quran. These letters are: Nũn, Sãd, Ha, Kãf, Ya, Mĩm, Qãf, Alif, Ta, ‘Aĩn, Lãm, Ha, Sĩn, and Ra. According to Ibn Kathir, a renowned Quran commentator, in his explanation of 2:1, these letters can be arranged into an Arabic sentence that reads “” which roughly translates to: “A wise, decisive text, full of wonders.” Although several theories have been suggested by scholars regarding the meaning of these letters, it is commonly believed that these letters are among the miracles of the Quran and, as such, no one knows their actual meaning except God.

Unlike other conjunctions like fa (then/right after) and thumma (then/later), wa, (and) does not signify an order of events. The subjects of “and” clauses have Sometimes been rearranged for better flow in English, such as “day and night” instead of “night and day,” “seen and unseen” instead of ‘unseen and seen,” etc. (see 35:19-22).

One of the first things that strikes novice readers of the Quran is that the word ‘We’ is frequently used when God speaks (see 15:9-23). This plural form, known as the royal we, is employed to indicate reverence and not number. Almost always, ‘God,’ ‘I,’ or ‘He’ is mentioned either before or after to emphasize God’s oneness.

Another visible stylistic feature is the ‘rotation of pronouns’ (iltifât) found throughout the Quran, alternating between first person, second person, and third person (see 17:1). If rendered verbatim into English this rhetorical device becomes entirely meaningless, as it is rarely found in any Indo-European language at all, and almost never in English.

A similar feature is found in the referential nature of pronouns in either language. In Classical Arabic, especially in the Quran, the repeated use of a single pronoun (such as ‘he’) rotates in reference, which is to say it first speaks of the first speaker, then the next use speaks of the second speaker, then back to the first, all using the same pronoun (see 26:24-31). In this way, repeatedly using “he said” would indicate a dialogue, whereas a direct translation of the conversation would be rendered as a monologue in English. The same can be said of other pronouns such as ‘they?

The Quranic challenge

Unlike any other scripture, the Quran poses a falsification test to those who challenge its authenticity which, over time, was made easier and easier. The first challenge was to produce a similar book in Arabic (17:88). Next, the challenge was reduced to only ten chapters (11:13). Finally, the challenge was to only produce one chapter similar to it (10:38), and despite the shortest chapter being only ten words (Chapter 108), none have been able to match it. The Quran also challenges readers to find contradictions (4:82). Some have attempted these challenges, only to prove their inability to match the elegance and eloquence of the divine revelation or their ignorance of the nuances of Arabic syntax and grammar.

source: The clear Quran by Dr. Mustafa Khattabt