Mariam, as the mother of Jesus Christis called in the Quran, is a righteous woman in her own right: The 19th chapter of the Quran is entitled The Chapter of Mary, and describes the Muslim version of the immaculate conception of Christ. The clearest evidence for al-Suyūṭī’s adherence to the broad-based traditional approach to Qur’an interpretation, with language and grammar as key hermeneutical tools, is this work itself; particularly the chapters selected for this volume (which constitute the second quarter of the work). This encyclopaedic collection of eighty chapters (designated ‘types’, anwā‘) was to serve as the introduction to another planned exegesis , Majma‘ al-Baḥrayn wa-Maṭla‘ al-Badrayn, in which al-Suyūṭī aimed to combine narration ( riwāya) and analysis ( dirāya). [vi] Juz' 7 of the Quran is dedicated, among other things, to an interfaith dialogue. While Abraham and the other prophets call upon the people to have faith and leave false idols, the Quran asks believers to bear the rejection of Islam by nonbelievers with patience and not to take it personally. "But if Allah had willed, they would not have associated. And We have not appointed you over them as a guardian, nor are you a manager over them." (6:107) While the Qur'an is recited aloud, Muslims should behave with reverence and refrain from speaking, eating or drinking, or making distracting noise. Sunnah and Hadith The Quran doesn't reject Christianity or Judaism, but rather refers to Christians as "people of the book," meaning people who received and believe in the revelations from God's prophets. Verses highlight commonalities between Christians and Muslims but consider Jesus a prophet, not a god, and warns Christians that worshiping Christ as a god is sliding into polytheism: Muslims see Allah as the only one true God. "Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians—whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor shall they grieve" (2:62, 5:69, and many other verses).

The Quran possesses an external appearance and a hidden depth, an exoteric meaning and an esoteric meaning. This esoteric meaning in turn conceals an esoteric meaning (this depth possesses a depth, after the image of the celestial Spheres, which are enclosed within each other). So it goes on for seven esoteric meanings (seven depths of hidden depth). [90] :7 T]here was a very early attempt to establish a uniform consonantal text of the Qurʾān from what was probably a wider and more varied group of related texts in early transmission.… After the creation of this standardized canonical text, earlier authoritative texts were suppressed, and all extant manuscripts—despite their numerous variants—seem to date to a time after this standard consonantal text was established. See also: Sanaa manuscript and Birmingham Quran manuscript The basmala as written on the Birmingham mus'haf manuscript, the oldest surviving copy of the Qur'an. Rasm: "ٮسم الله الرحمں الرحىم". Of course, the remaining chapters of al-Itqān contain a great deal of direct relevance to exegesis, including topics in the first quarter, particularly the periods and contexts of revelation (Chs. 1, 9), and knowledge of pauses (Ch. 28) which relates to later chapters on syntax and meaning. The classification of readings (Chs. 22-27) [xv] underlies the grammatical and exegetical discussions found in this volume. More broadly, the earlier chapters touch on fundamental issues which ought to contribute to what I term ‘deep uṣūl’, the core questions on which the whole exegetical enterprise is built. On the one hand, we need to establish what the Qur’an is, how it reached us, and our responsibility concerning it. On the other, exegesis depends upon assumptions or theories about language and meaning. [xvi]

Muslims believe that the present wording of the Quran corresponds to that revealed to Muhammad, and according to their interpretation of Quran 15:9, it is protected from corruption ("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian."). [87] Muslims consider the Quran to be a guide, a sign of the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the religion. xxix] It could be to create an image of people accumulating through time and being led to a shared final destination which is the standing on that Day. The aforementioned problem of synonymy shows up again here. The term ta‘āqub al-ḥurūf (‘particle interchangeability’) describes what is found in this chapter to the effect that some of these adawāt may be used in the meaning of another (e.g. the lām sometimes has the meaning of ilā, ‘alā, fī, ‘inda, ba‘da or ‘an). Again, this can be taken as merely an approximation or shorthand. The issue raises questions for a translator, too, since it is often wrong to translate prepositions literally. What to do, for example, with the verse that says that God “will certainly gather you ilā [lit. ‘to, towards’] the Day of Judgment” (4:87)? The explanation provided is to consider it to mean fī (lit. ‘in’), whereas English demands “on”. However, this is to overlook the possible reason for the unexpected particle in Arabic! [xxix] Robert of Ketton's 1143 translation of the Quran for Peter the Venerable, Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete, was the first into a Western language ( Latin). [148] Alexander Ross offered the first English version in 1649, from the French translation of L'Alcoran de Mahomet (1647) by Andre du Ryer. In 1734, George Sale produced the first scholarly translation of the Quran into English; another was produced by Richard Bell in 1937, and yet another by Arthur John Arberry in 1955. All these translators were non-Muslims. There have been numerous translations by Muslims. Popular modern English translations by Muslims include The Oxford World Classic's translation by Muhammad Abdel Haleem, The Clear Quran by Mustafa Khattab, Sahih International's translation, among various others. It is helpful at this point to introduce the topics covered in these translated chapters, along with some hints to extract maximum benefit and pursue the topics further. Chapter 36 concerns Gharīb al-Qur’ān, a term which denotes what is ‘strange, uncommon, unfamiliar’, but has come to designate the study of Quranic vocabulary more broadly. [xix] Of course, unfamiliarity is a relative and subjective matter, as can be seen in narrations which indicate that some of the Companions knew a certain word of which some others were unaware. The lexical gap naturally increases over time, as it did from the outset of Islamic expansion into non-Arab lands.

The Quran is also broken into 30 equal sections, or juz'. These sections are organized so that the reader can study the Quran over the course of a month. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are recommended to complete at least one full reading of the Quran from cover to cover. The ajiza (plural of juz') serve as a guide to accomplish that task. iii] Al-Durr al-Manthūr was based on al-Suyūṭī’s earlier work Turjumān al-Qur’ān after removing the isnāds. It is available in a 17-volume edition by Markaz Hajr, among others, and its material has been subsumed in the recent Mawsu‘at al-Tafsīr al-Ma’thūr (24 vols. Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2017). Chapter 40 is the most technical, and perhaps the most valuable chapter for interpreters and translators of the Qur’an. It concerns particles and other grammatical agents, outlining the variety of their usages; like the wujūh in the previous chapter, the distinctions between these categories are sometimes debated and may be overstated. The Quranic verses cited under each type of bā’, or lām, or min, etc., are worth memorising as exemplars, just as the exegetes have the habit of citing the same verse to exemplify a usage or rule. In this discussion, linguistics are intertwined with tafsīr and sometimes fiqh (substantive law), and the reader will be rewarded by making frequent reference to the sources and diving into the debates. The chapter is a fine summary of the Mughnī of Ibn Hishām, who gives much greater space to exceptional cases. [xxviii] Qur'anic revelations are regarded by Muslims as the sacred word of God, intended to correct any errors in previous holy books such as the Old and New Testaments. Origin The Quran's message is conveyed with various literary structures and devices. In the original Arabic, the suras and verses employ phonetic and thematic structures that assist the audience's efforts to recall the message of the text. Muslims [ who?] assert (according to the Quran itself) that the Quranic content and style is inimitable. [116]The Quran has sparked much commentary and explication ( tafsir), aimed at explaining the "meanings of the Quranic verses, clarifying their import and finding out their significance." [125] This ARABIC LANGUAGE COURSE will provide you the knowledge to understand the Qur’an in its ORIGINAL MATN (original Arabic Text). The Quran frequently asserts in its text that it is divinely ordained. Some verses in the Quran seem to imply that even those who do not speak Arabic would understand the Quran if it were recited to them. [84] The Quran refers to a written pre-text, "the preserved tablet", that records God's speech even before it was sent down. [85] [86]

i] See for example his autobiography al-Taḥadduth bi-Ni‘mat Allāh, with E.M. Sartain’s introductory volume. Sufi interpretation, according to Annabel Keeler, also exemplifies the use of the theme of love, as for instance can be seen in Qushayri's interpretation of the Quran: Committing the Qur'an to memory acted as a great aid for its preservation and any person who is able to accomplish this is known as a hafiz. Respect The Quran is believed by Muslims to be not simply divinely inspired, but the literal words of God, and provides a complete code of conduct that offers guidance in every walk of their life. [22] In Muslim theology, the Quran is considered to be either " created" or "uncreated". [23] According to tradition, several of Muhammad's companions served as scribes, recording the revelations. [24] Shortly after the prophet's death, the Quran was compiled by the companions, who had written down or memorized parts of it. [25] Caliph Uthman established a standard version, now known as the Uthmanic codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with mostly minor differences in meaning. [24] xxxi] See the debate in and surrounding the volume from Tafsir Center, Riyadh: al-Ta’līf al-Mu‘āṣir fī Qawā‘id al-Tafsīr.Traditionally great emphasis was put on children memorizing the 6,200+ verses of the Quran, those succeeding being honored with the title Hafiz. "Millions and millions" of Muslims "refer to the Koran daily to explain their actions and to justify their aspirations," [xiii] and in recent years many consider it the source of scientific knowledge. [81] [82] The Quran does not demand blind belief, but instead it invites all human beings to study, reflect and follow the evidence. These are some of the broad aspects which lead Muslims to be convinced of the truth and accuracy of the Quran as the revealed Word of God:

xx] Thus argues Ibn ‘Āshūr ( al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 1/198) concerning the designation in Sūrat al-Fātiḥa of “the objects of anger” as the Jews, and “the straying ones” as the Christians. Whilst the majority of Islamic scribes were men, some women also worked as scholars and copyists; one such woman who made a copy of this text was the Moroccan jurist, Amina, bint al-Hajj ʿAbd al-Latif. [170] That being said, there is also a danger in exaggerating the distinctions between these wujūh, and a translator may well use a single word – especially where the target language enjoys comparable expansiveness. Whereas the list provided by al-Suyūṭī describes eighteen different senses of the word hudā (typically ‘guidance’), al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī (d. 255/869) responded to such lists by identifying the essential meaning common to all these usages (in this case, it is mayl, ‘inclination’). [xxvii] This same tension applies to the qawā‘id (often termed kulliyyāt: norms and rules) found in this chapter: are they as absolute as they sound? Often, they are intended as ‘rules of thumb’, comparable to legal maxims which are not designed to be applied automatically. Not only are there exceptions to many of the rules (which are sometimes the very point of formulating the rule!), but some face consistency problems in the light of the Canonical Readings – see my notes on kisf/ kisaf, sadd/ sudd and rīḥ/ riyāḥ. Other sources which al-Suyūṭī lists in his introduction [x] as having been eclipsed by his new compendium include Funūn al-Afnān by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201), Jamāl al-Qurrā’ by al-Sakhāwī (d. 643/1245) and al-Murshid al-Wajīz by Abū Shāma (d. 665/1267). Unlike these published works, many of the sources cited by al-Suyūṭī are now lost – a point which underscores the value of his efforts. A serious study of the Itqān also reveals the unfairness of those among his contemporaries, and some modern scholars, who characterised him as “a compiler without originality”! [xi] Fortunately, some of the author’s key sources for the chapters in the present volume (whether accessed directly or via al-Zarkashī’s Burhān) are extant and published, so I consulted them whenever possible to clarify points in the Itqān: not least Mughnī l-Labīb by Ibn Hishām (d. 761/1359). The oldest Gurmukhi translation of the Quran Sharif has been found in village Lande of Moga district of Punjab which was printed in 1911. [150]While all these topics are most worthy of translation and study, we have chosen to produce this manual which touches on the fundamentals of Arabic and its role in understanding the Qur’an. This is appropriate to a divine communication in human language, which should first be understood on its own terms; then these linguistic possibilities should be evaluated alongside other key hermeneutical concerns, especially historical and textual contexts, explanations from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and other authorities, and the general principles of religion and reason. Mujawwad refers to a slow recitation that deploys heightened technical artistry and melodic modulation, as in public performances by trained experts. It is directed to and dependent upon an audience for the mujawwad reciter seeks to involve the listeners. [158]