The Quran is divided into:--

(1). _Harf_ (plural _Huruf_), letters. The numbers given by different authorities vary. In one standard book it is said that there are 338,606 letters.

(2). _Kalima_ (plural _Kalimat_), words, stated by some to amount to 79,087; by others to 77,934.

(3). _ayat_ (plural _ayat_), verses. ayat really means a sign, and was the name given by Muhammad to short sections or verses of the Quran. The end of a verse is determined by the position of a small circle (.). The early Quran Readers did not agree as to the position of these circles, and so five different ways of arranging them have arisen. This accounts for a variation in the number of verses in various editions. The varieties are:--

(1). _Kufa_ verses. The Readers in the city of Kufa say that they followed the custom of 'Ali. Their way of reckoning is generally adopted in India.

They reckon 6,239 verses.

(2). _Basra_ verses. The Readers of Basra follow 'Asim bin Hajjaj, a Companion. They reckon 6,204.

(3). _Shami_ verses. The Readers in Syria (Sham) followed Abd-ullah bin 'Umr, a Companion. They reckon 6,225 verses.

(4). _Mecca_ verses. According to this arrangement there are 6,219 verses.

(5). _Madina_ verses. This way of reading contains 6,211 verses.

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In each of the above varieties the verse "Bismillah" (in the name of G.o.d) is not reckoned. It occurs 113 times in the Quran.

This diversity of punctuation does not generally affect the meaning of any important pa.s.sage. The third verse of the third Sura is an important exception. The position of the circle (.), the symbol denoting a full stop, in that verse is of the highest importance in connection with the rise of scholasticism ('Ilm-i-kalam) in Islam.

Most of the cases, however, are like the following:--

In Sura xxvii. an account is given of the Queen of Sheba's receiving a letter from King Solomon. Addressing her n.o.bles she said: "Verily, Kings, when they enter a city (by force) waste the same, and abase the most powerful of the inhabitants hereof: and so will (these) do (with us)." Many Readers put the full stop after the word "hereof," and say that G.o.d is the speaker of the words "and so will they do."

(4). _Sura_, or chapter. The word Sura means a row or series, such as a line of bricks arranged in a wall, but it is now exclusively used for chapters in the Quran. These are one hundred and fourteen in number. The Suras are not numbered in the original Arabic, but each one has some approximate name, (as Baqr--the cow, Nisa--women, &c.,) generally taken from some expression which occurs in it. They are not arranged in chronological order, but according to their length. As a general rule, the shorter Suras which contain the theology of Islam, belong to the Meccan period of the Prophet's career,[54] and the longer ones relating chiefly to social duties and relationships, to the organisation of Islam as a civil polity, to the time when he was consolidating his power at Madina. The best way, therefore, to {56} read the Quran, is to begin at the end. The attempt to arrange the Suras in due order, is a very difficult one, and, after all, can only be approximately correct.[55] Carlyle referring to the confused ma.s.s of "endless iterations, long windedness, entanglement, most crude, incondite" says: "nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Quran." When re-arranged the book becomes more intelligible.

The chief tests for such re-arrangement are the style and the matter. There is a very distinct difference in both of these respects between the earlier and later Suras. The references to historical events sometimes give a clue.

Individual Suras are often very composite in their character, but, such as they are, they have been from the beginning. The recension made by Zeid, in the reign of the Khalif Osman, has been handed down unaltered in its form.

The only variations (qira'at) now to be found in the text have been already noticed. They in no way affect the arrangements of the Suras.

5. _Sipara_ a thirtieth portion. This is a Persian word derived from _si_, thirty, and _para_, a portion. The Arabs call each of these divisions a _Juz_. Owing to this division, a pious man can recite the whole Quran in a month, taking one Sipara each day. Musalmans never quote the Quran as we do by Sura and ayat, but by the Sipara and Ruku', a term I now proceed to explain.

6. _Ruku'_ (plural _Rukuat_). This word literally means a prostration made by a worshipper in the act of saying the prayers. The collection of verses recited from the Quran, ascriptions of praise offered to G.o.d, and various ritual acts connected with these, const.i.tute one act of worship called a "rak'at." After reciting some verses in this form of prayer, the worshipper makes a _Ruku'_, or prostration, the {57} portion then recited takes the name of _Ruku'_. Tradition states that the Khalif Osman, when reciting the Quran during the month of Ramazan, used to make twenty rak'ats each evening. In each rak'at he introduced different verses of the Quran, beginning with the first chapter and going steadily on. In this way he recited about two hundred verses each evening; that is, about ten verses in each rak'at. Since then, it has been the custom to recite the Quran in this way in Ramazan, and also to quote it by the ruku', _e.g._, "such a pa.s.sage is in such a Sipara and in such a ruku'."

The following account of a rak'at will make the matter plain. When the Faithful are a.s.sembled in the mosque, the Imam, or leader, being in front facing the Qibla, the service commences thus:--Each worshipper stands and says the Niyyat (literally "intention"), a form of words declaring his intention to say his prayers. He then says: "G.o.d is great." After this, looking downwards, he says: "Holiness to Thee, O G.o.d! and praise be to Thee, Great is Thy name, Great is Thy greatness, there is no deity but Thee." Then follows: "I seek from G.o.d refuge from cursed Satan." Then the Tasmiyah is repeated: "In the name of G.o.d, the Compa.s.sionate and Merciful."

Then follows the Fatiha, that is, the short chapter at the commencement of the Quran. After this has been recited, the Imam proceeds, on the first night of the month Ramazan, with the first verse of the second chapter.[56]

After saying a few verses, he makes a ruku'; that is, he bends his head and body down, and places his hands on his knees. In this position he says: "G.o.d is great." Then he repeats three times the words: "I extol the holiness of my Lord, the Great." He then stands up and says: "G.o.d hears him who praises Him." To this the people respond: "O Lord, thou art praised."

Again, falling on his knees, the worshipper says: "G.o.d is great." Then he puts first his nose, and then his forehead on the {58} ground and says three times: "I extol the holiness of my Lord, the Most High." Then sitting on his heels, he says: "G.o.d is great;" and again repeats as before: "I extol, etc." He then rises and says: "G.o.d is great." This is one rak'at. On each night in the month of Ramazan this is gone through twenty times, the only variation being that after the Fatiha and before the first prostration, fresh verses of the Quran are introduced. The whole is, of course, done in Arabic, in whatever country the worshippers may be. The name of the prostration (ruku') has been transferred to the portion of the Quran recited just before it is made. There are altogether 557 Rukuat.

(7). The other divisions are not important. They are, a _Sumn_, _Ruba'_, _Nisf_, _Suls_, that is one-eighth, one-fourth, one-half, one-third of a Sipara respectively.

In reciting the Quran the worshipper must be careful to say the "Takbir,"

_i.e._ "G.o.d is great," after the several appointed places. Such a place is after the recital of the 93rd Sura. The custom arose in this way. The hypocrites came to the Prophet and asked him to relate the story of the "Seven Sleepers." He said: "I will tell you to-morrow;" but he forgot to add the words "if G.o.d will." By way of warning, G.o.d allowed no inspiration to descend upon him for some days. Then the hypocrites began to laugh and say: "G.o.d has left him." As it was not G.o.d's purpose to put his messenger to ridicule, the Sura ent.i.tled "The brightness" (xciii) was immediately brought by the ever-ready Gabriel. It begins: "By the brightness of the morning, and by the night when it groweth dark, _thy Lord hath not forsaken thee_, neither doth He hate thee." In remembrance of this signal interposition of Providence on his behalf, the Prophet always concluded the recital of this Sura with the words: "G.o.d is great." The practice thus became a "Sunnat" obligation; that is, it should be done because the Prophet did it.

The doctrine of abrogation is a very important one in {59} connection with the study of the Quran. It is referred to in the verses: "Whatever verses we cancel or cause thee to forget, we give thee better in their stead, or the like thereof." (Sura ii. 100). This is a Madina Sura. "What He pleaseth will G.o.d abrogate or confirm; for with Him is the source of revelation."

(Sura xiii. 39). Some verses which were cancelled in the Prophet's life-time are not now extant. Abdullah Ibn Masud states that the Prophet one day recited a verse, which he immediately wrote down. The next morning he found it had vanished from the material on which it had been written.

Astonished at this, he acquainted Muhammad with the fact, and was informed that the verse in question had been revoked. There are, however, many verses still in the Quran, which have been abrogated. It was an exceedingly convenient doctrine, and one needed to explain the change of front which Muhammad made at different periods of his career. Certain rules have been laid down to regulate the practice. The verse which abrogates is called _Nusikh_, and the abrogated verse _Mansukh_. _Mansukh_ verses are of three kinds:--first, where the words and the sense have both been abrogated; secondly, where the letter only is abrogated and the sense remains; thirdly, where the sense is abrogated though the letter remains. Imam Malik gives as an instance of the first kind the verse: "If a son of Adam had two rivers of gold, he would covet yet a third; and if he had three he would covet yet a fourth. Neither shall the belly of a son of Adam be filled, but with dust. G.o.d will turn unto him who shall repent." The Imam states that originally this verse was in the Sura (ix.) called Repentance. The verse, called the "verse of stoning" is an ill.u.s.tration of the second kind. It reads: "Abhor not your parents for this would be ingrat.i.tude in you. If a man and woman of reputation commit adultery, ye shall stone them both; it is a punishment ordained by G.o.d; for G.o.d is mighty and wise." The Khalif Omar says this verse was extant in Muhammad's life-time but that it {60} is now lost. But it is the third cla.s.s which practically comes into 'Ilm-i-usul. Authorities differ as to the number of verses abrogated. Sale states that they have been estimated at two hundred and twenty-five. The princ.i.p.al ones are not many in number, and are very generally agreed upon.

I give a few examples. It is a fact worthy of notice that they occur chiefly, if not almost entirely, in Suras delivered at Madina. There, where Muhammad had to confront Jews and Christians, he was at first politic in his aim to win them over to his side, and then, when he found them obstinate, the doctrine of abrogation came in conveniently. This is seen plainly in the following case. At Mecca Muhammad and his followers did not stand facing any particular direction when at prayer, a fact to which the following pa.s.sage refers:--"To G.o.d belongeth the east and west; therefore, whithersoever ye turn yourselves to pray there is the face of G.o.d." (Sura ii. 109). When Muhammad arrived at Madina, he entered into friendship with the Jews and tried to win them to his side. The Qibla (sanctuary) towards which the worshippers now invariably turned at prayer was Jerusalem. This went on for a while, but when Muhammad claimed to be not merely a Prophet for the Arabs, but the last and the greatest of all the Prophets, when he a.s.serted that Moses had foretold his advent, and that his revelations were the same as those contained in their own Scriptures, they utterly refused allegiance to him. In the first half of the second year of the Hijra the breach between them was complete. It was now time to reconcile the leaders of the Quraish tribe at Mecca. So the verse quoted above was abrogated by: "We have seen thee turning thy face towards heaven, but we will have thee turn to a Qibla, which shall please thee. Turn then thy face toward the Holy Temple (of Mecca), and wherever ye be, turn your faces toward that part." (Sura ii. 139.) The Faithful were consoled by the a.s.surance that though they had not done so hitherto, yet G.o.d would not let their {61} faith be fruitless, "for unto man is G.o.d merciful, gracious." (v. 138.) The doctrine of abrogation is brought in for a more personal matter in the following case: "It is not permitted to thee to take other wives hereafter, nor to change thy present wives for other women, though their beauty charm thee, except slaves, whom thy right hand shall possess." (Sura x.x.xiii. 52.) This is said by Beidawi, and other eminent Muslim divines, to have been abrogated by a verse which though placed before it in the arrangement of verses, was really delivered after it. The verse is: "O Prophet, we allow thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the slaves which thy right hand possesseth out of the booty which G.o.d hath granted thee; and the daughters of thy uncle, and the daughters of thy aunts, both on thy father's side, and on thy mother's side, who have fled with thee (to Madina), and any other believing woman, who hath given herself up to the Prophet; if the Prophet desireth to wed her, it is a peculiar privilege for thee, above the rest of the Faithful." (Sura x.x.xiii. 49.)

The Moghul Emperor Akbar, wishing to discredit the 'Ulama, in one of the meetings so frequently held for discussion during his long reign, propounded the question as to how many free born women a man might marry.

The lawyers answered that four was the number fixed by the Prophet. "Of other women who seem good in your eyes marry two and two, and three and three, and four and four." (Sura iv. 3.) The Emperor said that he had not restricted himself to that number, and that Shaikh 'Abd-un-Nabi had told him that a certain Mujtahid had had nine wives. The Mujtahid in question, Ibn Abi Lailah reckoned the number allowed thus 2+3+4=9. Other learned men counted in this way 2+2, 3+3, 4+4=18. The Emperor wished the meeting to decide the point.

Again, the second verse of Sura lxxiii reads: "Stand up all night, except a small portion of it, for prayer." According to a Tradition handed down by 'ayesha the last verse {62} of this Sura was revealed a year later. It makes the matter much easier. "G.o.d measureth the night and the day; he knoweth that ye cannot count its hours aright, and therefore turneth to you mercifully. Recite _then so much of the Quran as may be easy to you_." (v.

20.)

The following is an ill.u.s.tration of a verse abrogated, though there is no verse to prove its abrogation. However, according to the Ijma' it has been abrogated. "But alms are only to be given to the poor and the needy and to those who collect them, and to those whose hearts are won to Islam." (Sura ix. 60.) The clause--"to those whose hearts are won to Islam"--is now cancelled.[57] Muhammad, to gain the hearts of those, who lately enemies, had now become friends, and to confirm them in the faith, gave them large presents from the spoils he took in war; but when Islam spread and became strong, the 'Ulama agreed that such a procedure was not required and said that the order was "mansukh."

The other verses abrogated relate to the Ramazan fast, to Jihad, the law of retaliation, and other matters of social interest.

The doctrine of abrogation is now almost invariably applied by Musalman controversialists to the Old and New Testaments, which they say are abrogated by the Quran. "His (Muhammad's) law is the abrogator of every other law."[58] This is not, however, a legitimate use of the doctrine.

According to the best and most ancient Muslim divines, abrogation refers entirely to the Quran and the Traditions, and even then is confined to commands and prohibitions. "Those who imagine it to be part of the Muhammadan creed that one law has totally repealed another, are utterly mistaken--we hold no such doctrine."[59] In the Tafsir-i-Itifaq it is written: "Abrogation affects those {63} matters which G.o.d has confined to the followers of Muhammad, and one of the chief advantages of it is that the way is made easy." In the Tafsir-i-Mazhiri we find: "Abrogation refers only to commands and prohibitions, not to facts or historical statements."[60] Again, no verse of the Quran, or a Tradition can be abrogated unless the abrogating verse is distinctly opposed to it in meaning. If it is a verse of the Quran, we must have the authority of Muhammad himself for the abrogation; if a Tradition, that of a Companion.

Thus "the word of a commentator or a Mujtahid is not sufficient unless there is a 'genuine Tradition' (Hadis-i-Sahih), to show the matter clearly.

The question of the abrogation of any previous command depends on historical facts with regard to the abrogation, not on the mere opinion of a commentator." It cannot be shown that either Muhammad or a Companion ever said that the Bible was abrogated. This rule, whilst it shows that the a.s.sertion of modern controversialists on this point is void of foundation, also ill.u.s.trates another point to which I have often called attention, _viz._; that in Islam all interpretation must be regulated by traditionalism.

Additions were occasionally made. Thus when it was revealed that those who stay at home were not before G.o.d as those who go forth to war, Abdullah and Ibn Um-Maktum said: 'and what if they were blind.' The Prophet asked for the shoulder-blade on which the verse was written. He then had a spasmodic convulsion. After his recovery he made Zeid add the words, "free from trouble." So now the whole verse reads thus: "Those believers who sit at home _free from trouble_ (_i.e._, bodily infirmity), and those who do valiantly in the cause of G.o.d, with their substance and their persons, shall not be treated alike." (Sura iv. 97). Years after, Zeid said: "I fancy I see the words now on the shoulder-blade near a crack."

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The question of the eternal nature of the Quran does not properly come under the head of 'Ilm-i-usul, but it is a dogma fondly cherished by many Muslims. In the days of the Khalif Al-Mamun this question was fiercely debated. The Freethinkers, whilst believing in the Mission of Muhammad, a.s.serted that the Quran was created, by which statement they meant that the revelation came to him in a subjective mode, and that the language was his own. The book was thus brought within the reach of criticism. In the year 212, A.H. the Khalif issued a decree to the effect that all who held the Quran to be uncreated were to be declared guilty of heresy. But the Khalif himself was a notorious rationalist, and so the orthodox, though they remained quiet, remained unconvinced. The arguments used on the orthodox side are, that both the words and their p.r.o.nunciation are eternal, that the attempt to draw a distinction between the word as it exists in the Divine Mind and as it appears in the Quran is highly dangerous. In vain do their opponents argue that, if the Quran is uncreated, two Eternal Beings are in existence. To this it is answered: "This is the honourable Quran, written in the preserved Tablet." (Sura lvi. 76). A Tradition is also adduced which states: "G.o.d wrote the Thora (Law) with His own hand, and with His own hand He created Adam; and also in the Quran it is written, 'and We wrote for him upon the tables a monition concerning every matter,' in reference to the tables of the Law given to Moses." If G.o.d did this for former prophets and their works, how much more, it is argued, should he not have done it for the last and greatest of the prophets, and the n.o.ble Quran? It is not easy to get a correct definition of the term "the uncreated Quran," but it has been put thus: "The Word as it exists in the mind of G.o.d is 'Kalam-i-Nafsi'

(spiritual word), something unwritten and eternal. It is acknowledged by the Ijma'-i-Ummat (consent of the Faithful), the Traditions, and by other prophets that G.o.d {65} speaks. The Kalam-i-Nafsi then is eternal, but the actual words, style, and eloquence are created by G.o.d; so also is the arrangement and the miraculous nature of the book." This seems to be a reasonable account of the doctrine, though there are theologians who hold that the very words are eternal. The doctrine of abrogation clashes with this idea, but they meet the objection by their theory of absolute predestination. This accounts for the circ.u.mstances which necessitated the abrogation, for the circ.u.mstances, as well as the abrogated verses, were determined on from all eternity.

This concludes the consideration of the exegesis of the Quran, a book difficult and uninteresting for a non-Muslim to read, but one which has engaged and is still engaging the earnest thoughts of many millions of the human race. Thousands of devout students in the great theological schools of Cairo, Stamboul, Central Asia and India are now plodding through this very subject of which I have here been treating; soon will they go forth as teachers of the book they so much revere. How utterly unfit that training is to make them wise men in any true sense of the word, how calculated to render them proud, conceited, and scornful of other creeds, its rigid and exclusive character shows. Still, it is a marvellous book; for twelve hundred years and more it has helped to mould the faith, animate the courage, cheer the despondency of mult.i.tudes, whether dwellers in the wild uplands of Central Asia, in Hindustan, or on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. The Turanian and the Aryan, the Arab and the Negro, alike learn its sonorous sentences, day by day repeat its opening clauses, and pray in its words as their fathers prayed before them.

Next to the act of testifying to the unity of G.o.d, the Quran is the great bond of Islam. No matter from what race the convert may have come, no matter what language he may speak, he must learn in Arabic, and repeat by rote portions of the Quran in every act of public worship.

The next subject for consideration is that of the {66} Traditions, or the second branch of the science of 'Ilm-i-usul. The Traditions contain the record of all that Muhammad did and said. It is the belief of every Muslim, to whatever sect he belongs, that the Prophet not only spake but also acted under a divine influence. The mode of the inspiration is different from that of the Quran. There the revelation was objective. In the Prophet's sayings recorded in the Traditions the inspiration is subjective, but still a true inspiration. This belief places the Traditions in a place second only to the Quran; it makes them a true supplement to that book, and thus they not only throw light on its meaning, but themselves form the basis on which doctrines may be established. Without going so far as to say that every Tradition by itself is to be accepted as an authority in Islam, it may be distinctly a.s.serted that there can be no true conception formed of that system if the Traditions are not studied and taken into account. So important a branch of Muslim theology is it, that the study of the Traditions is included in the 'Ilm-i-usul, or science of exegesis. Some account of them, therefore, naturally forms part of this chapter.

The first four Khalifs were called the Khulafa-i-Rashidin that is, those who could guide others aright. They had been friends and Companions of the Prophet, and the Faithful could always appeal to them in cases of doubt.

The Prophet had declared that Islam must be written in the hearts of men.

There was therefore an unwillingness to commit his sayings to writing. They were handed down by word of mouth. As no argument was so effectual in a dispute as "a saying" of the Prophet, the door was opened by which spurious Traditions could be palmed off on the Faithful. To prevent this, a number of strict rules were framed, at the head of which stands the Prophet's saying, itself a Tradition: "Convey to other persons none of my words except those which ye know of a surety. Verily, he who purposely represents my {67} words wrongly will find a place for himself nowhere but in fire."

To enforce this rule, it was laid down that the relator of a Tradition must also repeat its "Isnad," or chain of authorities, as: "I heard from such an one, who heard from such an one," and so on, until the chain reaches the Prophet himself. Each person, too, in this "Isnad," must have been well known for his good character and retentive memory. This failed, however, to prevent a vast number of manifestly false Traditions becoming current; so men set themselves to the work of collecting and sifting the great ma.s.s of Tradition that in the second century of Islam had begun to work untold evil. These men are called "Muhadisin," or "collectors of Tradition." The Sunnis and the Wahhabis recognise six such men, and their collections are known as the "Sihah-Sittah," or six correct books. They are the following:--

(1). The _Sahih-i-Bukhari_, called after Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn-i-Isma'il, a native of Bukhara. He was born A.H. 194. He was a man of middle height, spare in frame, and as a boy totally blind. The grief of his father was on this account intense; but one day in a dream he saw the Patriarch Abraham, who said to him: "G.o.d on account of thy grief and sorrow has granted sight to thy son." The sight being thus restored, at the age of ten he went to school, and began to learn the Traditions by heart. After his education was finished, a famous Muhadis named Dakhli came to Bukhara.

One day the youthful Bukhari ventured to correct the famous man. It was an astounding piece of audacity, but the youth was proved to be in the right.

This set him on the work of collecting and sifting the Traditions. At the early age of sixteen he was able to remember fifteen thousand. In course of time he collected 600,000 Traditions. The result of his examination and selection was that he approved of seven thousand two hundred and seventy-five. These are now recorded in his great work, the Sahih-i-Bukhari. It {68} is said that he never sat down to examine a Tradition without first performing a legal ablution, and repeating two rak'at prayers. He then said: "O Lord, let me not make a mistake." For sixteen years he lived in a mosque and died much respected at the age of sixty-four.

(2). _Sahih-i-Muslim._ Muslim Ibn-i-Hajjaj was born at Nishapur, a city of Khorasan. He collected about 300,000 Traditions, from which he made his collection. He is said to have been a very just man, and willing to oblige all who sought his advice. In fact, this willingness to oblige was the indirect cause of his death. One day he was sitting as usual in the mosque when some people came to ask him about a Tradition. As he could not discover it in the books he had with him, he went to his house to search there. The people brought him a basket of dates. He went on eating and searching, but unfortunately he ate so many dates that he died. (A.H. 261.)

(3). _Sunan-i-Abu Daud._ Abu Daud Sajistani, a native of Seistan, was born A.H. 202. He was a great traveller, and went to all the chief places of Musalman learning. In knowledge of the Traditions, in devotion, in piety, he was unrivalled. He collected about 500,000 Traditions, of which he selected four thousand eight hundred for his book.

(4). _Jami'-i-Tirmizi._ Abu Isa' Muhammad Tirmizi was born at Tirmiz in the year A.H. 209. He was a disciple of Bukhari. Ibn Khallikan says this work is "the production of a well-informed man: its exactness is proverbial."[61]

(5). _Sunan-i-Nasai._ Abu Abd-ur-Rahman Nasai was born at Nasa, in Khorasan, in the year A.H. 214, and died A.H. 303. It is recorded of him, with great approbation, that he fasted every other day, and had four wives and many slaves. This book is considered of great value. He met with his death in rather a sad way. He had compiled a book on the virtues of 'Ali, and as the people of {69} Damascus were at that time inclined to the heresy of the Kharigites, he wished to read his book in the mosque of that place.

After he had read a little way, a man arose and asked him whether he knew aught of the praises of Muavia, 'Ali's deadly enemy. He replied that he did not. This answer enraged the people, who beat him so severely that he died soon after.