CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
A Note on Translations
A Note on Romanization
Introduction
ARAB CORE
1 The Prophet Muhammad:
Merchant and Messenger
2 The Prophet Muhammad:
Organizer and Strategist
3 âAâishah:
Muhammadâs Wife and Custodian of His Memory
4 The Dome of the Rock:
Jerusalem Landmark, Qurâanic Icon
EARLY COMMENTARIES
5 Jaâfar as-Sadiq:
Shiâite Imam and Qurâanic Exegete
6 Abu Jaâfar at-Tabari:
Sunni Historian and Qurâanic Exegete
LATER INTERPRETATIONS
7 Robert of Ketton:
Polymath Translator of the Qurâan
8 Muhyiddin Ibn âArabi:
Visionary Interpreter of Divine Names
9 Jalal ad-din Rumi:
Author of the Persian Qurâan
ASIAN ECHOES
10 Taj Mahal:
Gateway to the Qurâanic Vision of Paradise
11 Ahmad Khan:
Indian Educator and Qurâan Commentator
12 Muhammad Iqbal:
Pakistani Poet Inspired by Qurâanic Motifs
GLOBAL ACCENTS
13 W. D. Mohammed:
Qurâan as Guide to Racial Equality
14 Osama bin Laden:
Qurâan as Mandate for Jihad
15 AIDS Victims and Sick Women:
Qurâan as Prescription for Mercy
Epilogue
Glossary of Key Terms
Further Reading
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My debts are too many to permit more than brief acknowledgement here. My first and enduring debt is to Ibrahim Abu Nab of Amman. A gifted translator, journalist and filmmaker, Ibrahim opened his heart as well as his home to me when I visited him back in the 1980s. We spent long evening hours reading, discussing and translating the Noble Qurâan. I have benefited from his insight into A Book of Signs (the Qurâan is at once the Noble Qurâan and A Book of Signs. See below pp. 8 & 15) and his reverence for its divine origins. I honour his memory by dedicating this book to him.
In several chapters I have used some of the privately circulated translations of Shawkat Toorawa. I am indebted to him for permission both to cite his lyrical renditions and to modify them slightly in this biography of A Book of Signs. Equally am I beholden to five of my former students, Rick Colby, Jamillah Karim, Scott Kugle, Rob Rozehnal and Omid Safi, for their extraordinary insight into the shaping and reshaping of this text. To my colleague, Ebrahim Moosa, who read the whole of the manuscript with the heart of a believer and the eye of a critic, I give special thanks. My lifeâs partner, Miriam Cooke, did so much that no words of mine are adequate. I invoke Rumi. Quoting the Prophetâs dictum, Mawlana once observed that âwomen totally dominate men of intellect and possessors of heartsâ. May this book be its beneficiary!
A NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS
Notes on translation are as necessary with respect to the Qurâan as they are futile. No single translation in English satisfies. The closest is Thomas Cleary, The Qurâan: A New Translation (Starlatch Press, 2004), often cited, or paraphrased, in the chapters above. It completes his earlier, condensed effort, The Essential Koran (HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), which some may still prefer, if only because it, unlike the 2004 rendition, offers an introduction and partial commentary. The most satisfying English translations with commentary and/or textual apparatus are A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Macmillan, 1955) and M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, The Qurâan: A New Translation (Oxford University Press, 2004). For those who want both an English translation and the Arabic original with which to compare it, Ahmed Ali has provided Al-Qurâan: A Contemporary Translation (Princeton University Press, 1988).
The Qurâan exceeds the efforts of the most skilled and dedicated translators. It must be heard to be appreciated in its Arabic cadences, its inexpressible rhythms, its calibrated scales. The most available partial recitations can be found in the audio CD that accompanies Michael Sellsâ original, evocative study, Approaching the Qurâan: the Early Revelations (White Cloud Press, 1999).
For an insiderâs introduction to the elements of traditional and progressive interpretation of the Qurâan, consult Farid Esack, The Qurâan: A Short Introduction (Oneworld Publications, 2002), and for the delights and dilemmas of teaching the Qurâan in the modern European or American university, see Jane D. McAuliffe, âDisparity and Context: Teaching Quranic Studies in North Americaâ in Brannon M. Wheeler (ed.), Teaching Islam (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 94â107.
Jane D. McAuliffe is also the General Editor for what will be the major reference work in English on the Qurâan for at least the next fifty years: Encyclopaedia of the Qurâan (E. J. Brill, 2001â2005). Its five volumes total slightly less than 2,700 pages, and include extensive cross-referencing as well as some illustrations in volume 2.
A NOTE ON ROMANIZATION
There are several styles for rendering Arabic words into English, and throughout I have followed the most popular usage, so that the Prophet Muhammad is spelt differently from Imam W. D. Mohammed, though both are the same word in Arabic, and most feminine names end with âah, though they can also end with just âa. For those who know Arabic these choices are arbitrary, while for others they are minor details worth noting but without lingering on their importance.
INTRODUCTION
The Qurâan discloses key elements about itself. Specific verses clarify the meaning of its name, the affirmation of Islam as true religion, and the priority of peace.
1. The name Qurâan means recitation:
We have sent it down with truth,
and with truth has it come down,
and We have not sent you (Muhammad)
except as a herald and a warner.
And We have divided the Recitation (Qurâan)
that you may recite it to humankind at intervals,
and We have sent it down by (successive) revelations. (17:105â6)1
2. Islam is true religion:
The true religion with God is Islam. (3:19)
If anyone seeks a religion other than Islam,
it will not be accepted from him. (3:85)
Today I have perfected your religion for you,
and I have completed my blessing upon you,
and I have approved Islam for your religion. (5:5)
Whomever God desires to guide,
He expands his breast to Islam. (6:125)
And finally, in a rhetorical question:
Will not he whose breast God has expanded to Islam,
walk upright in a light from his Lord? (39:24)
Since the word âIslamâ means complete devotion or surrender (to God), the rhetorical question of the last verse lays down the fundamental duty incumbent on each Muslim: to âwalk upright in a light from his Lordâ.
3. Peace is the priority:
God summons humankind to the abode of peace (dar as-salam), both in this life and in th...