Introduction.pdf

Introduction to the study of the Qur'an

by Syed Abul A'la Maududi

We are accustomed to reading books which present information, ideas and arguments systematically

and coherently. So, when we embark on the study of the Qur'an, we expect that this book too will

revolve around a definite subject, that the subject matter of the book will be clearly defined at the

beginning and will then be neatly divided into sections and chapters, after which discussion will

proceed in a logical sequence. We likewise expect a separate and systematic arrangement of

instruction and guidance for each of the various aspects of human life.

However, as soon as we open the Qur'an we encounter a hitherto completely unfamiliar genre of

literature. We notice that it embodies precepts of belief and conduct, moral directives, legal

prescriptions, exhortation and admonition, censure and condemnation of evildoers, warnings to

deniers of the Truth, good tidings and words of consolation and good cheer to those who have

suffered for the sake of God, arguments and corroborative evidence in support of its basic message,

allusions to anecdotes from the past and to signs of God visible in the universe. Moreover, these

myriad subjects alternate without any apparent system; quite unlike the books to which we are

accustomed, the Qur'an deals with the same subject over and over again, each time couched in a

different phraseology.

The reader also encounters abrupt transitions between one subject matter and another. Audience and

speaker constantly change as the message is directed now to one and now to another group of people.

There is no trace of familiar division into chapters and sections. Likewise, the treatment of different

subjects is unique. If a historical subject is raised, the narrative does not follow the pattern familiar in

historical accounts. In discussions of philosophical or metaphysical questions, we miss the familiar

expressions and terminology of formal logic and philosophy. Cultural and political matters, or

questions pertaining to man's social and economic life, are discussed in a way very different from

that usual in works of social sciences. Juristic principles and legal injunctions are elucidated, but

quite differently from the manner of conventional works. When we come across an ethical

instruction, we find its form differs entirely from anything to be found elsewhere in the literature of

ethics.

The reader may find all this so foreign that his notion of what a book should be that he may become

so confused as to feel that the Qur'an is a piece of disorganized, incoherent and unsystematic writing,

comprising nothing but a disjointed conglomeration of comments of varying lengths put together

arbitrarily. Hostile critics use this as a basis for their criticism, while those more favorably inclined

resort to far-fetched explanations, or else conclude that the Qur'an consists of unrelated pieces, thus

making it amenable to all kinds of interpretations, even interpretations quite opposed to the intent of

God Who revealed the Book.

What kind of a book is the Qur'an? In what manner was it revealed? What underlies its arrangement?

What is the subject? What is its true purpose? What is the central theme to which its multifarious

topics are intrinsically related? What kind of reasoning and style does it adopt in elucidating its

central theme? If we could obtain clear, lucid answers to these and other related questions we might

avoid some dangerous pitfalls, thus making it easier to reflect upon and to grasp that meaning and

purpose of the Qur'anic verses. If we begin studying the Qur'an in the expectation of reading a book

on religion we shall find it hard, since our notions of religion and of a book are naturally

circumscribed by our range of experience. We need, therefore, to be told in advance that this Book is

unique in the manner its composition, in its theme and in its contents and arrangement. We should be

forewarned that the concept of a book which we have formed from our previous readings is likely to

be a hindrance, rather than a help, towards a deep understanding of the Qur'an. We should realize

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that as a first step towards understanding it we must disabuse our minds of all preconceived notions.

The student of the Qur'an should grasp, from the outset, the fundamental claims that the Qur'an make

for itself. Whether one ultimately decides to believe in the Qur'an or not, one must recognize the

fundamental statements made by the Qur'an and the man to whom it was revealed, the Prophet

Muhammad (peace be on him), to be the starting point of one's study. These claims are:

1. The Lord of the creation, the Creator and Sovereign of the entire universe, created man on earth

(which is merely a part of His boundless realm). He also endowed man with the capacity for

cognition, reflection, and understanding, with the ability to distinguish between good and evil, with

the freedom of choice and volition, and with the power to exercise his latent potentialities. In short,

God bestowed upon man a kind of autonomy and appointed him His vicegerent on earth.

2. Although man enjoys this status, God made it abundantly plain to him that He alone is man's Lord

and Sovereign, even as He is the Lord and Sovereign of the whole universe. Man was told that he

was not entitled to consider himself independent and that only God was entitled to claim absolute

obedience, service and worship. It was also make clear to man that life in this world, for which he

had been placed and invested with a certain honor and authority, was in fact a temporary term, and

was meant to test him; that after the end of the earthly life man must return to God, who will judge

him on the basis of his performance, declaring who has succeeded and who has failed.

The right way for man is to regard God as his only Sovereign and the only object of his worship and

adoration, to follow the guidance revealed by God, to act in this world in the consciousness that

earthly life is merely a period of trial, and to keep his eyes fixed on the ultimate objective - success

in God's final judgment. Every other way is wrong.

It was also explained to man that if he chose to adopt the right way of life - and in this choice he was

free - he would enjoy peace and contentment in this world and be assigned, on his return to God the

abode of eternal bliss and happiness known as Paradise. Should man follow any other way - although

he was free to do so - he would experience the evil effects of corruption and disorder in the life of

this world and be consigned to eternal grief and torment when he crossed the borders of the present

world and arrived in the Hereafter.

3. Having explained all this, the Lord of the universe placed man on earth and communicated to

Adam and Eve, the first human beings to live on the earth, the guidance which they and their

offspring were required to follow. These first human beings were not born in a state of ignorance and

darkness. On the contrary, they began their life in the broad daylight of Divine Guidance. They had

intimate knowledge of reality and the Law which they were to follow was communicated to them.

Their way of life consisted of obedience of God (i.e. Islam) and they taught their children to live in

obedience to Him (i.e. to live as Muslims)

In the course of time, however, men gradually deviated from their true way of life and began to

follow various erroneous ways. They allowed true guidance to be lost thru heedlessness and

negligence and sometimes, even deliberately, distorted it out of evil perversity. They associated with

God a number of beings, human and non human, real as well as imaginary, and adored them as

deities. They adulterated the God-given knowledge of reality with all kinds of fanciful ideas,

superstitions and philosophical concepts, thereby giving birth to innumerable religions. They

disregarded or distorted the sound and equitable principle of individual morality and of collective

conduct and made their own laws in accordance with their base desires and prejudices. As a result,

the world became filled with wrong and injustice.

4. It was insistent with the limited autonomy conferred upon man by God that He should exercise

His overwhelming power and compel man to righteousness. It was also inconsistent with the fact that

God had granted a term to the human species in which to show their worth that He should afflict men

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with catastrophic destruction as soon as they showed signs of rebellion. Moreover, God had

undertaken from the beginning of creation that true guidance would be made available to man

throughout the term granted to him and that his guidance would be available in a manner consistent

with man's autonomy. To fulfill this self-assumed responsibility God chose to appoint those human

beings whose faith in Him was outstanding and who followed the way pleasing to Him. God choose

these people to be His envoys. He had His messages communicated to them, honored them with an

intimate knowledge of reality, provided them with the true laws of life and entrusted them with the

task of recalling man to the original path from which he had strayed.

5. These Prophets were sent to different people in different lands and over a period of time covering

thousands and thousands of years. They all had the same religion; the one originally revealed to man

as the right way for him. All of them followed the same guidance; those principles of morality and

collective life prescribed for man at the very outset of his existence. All these Prophets had the same

mission - to call man to his true religion and subsequently to organize all who accepted this message

into a community which would be bounded by the Law of God, which would strive to establish its

observance and would seek to prevent its violation. All the prophets discharged their missions

creditably in their own time. However, there were always many who refused to accept their guidance

and consequently those who did accept it and became a "Muslim" (Muslim would be anyone

obeying God) community gradually degenerated, causing the Divine Guidance either to be lost,

distorted or adulterated.

6. At last the Lord of the Universe sent Muhammad (peace be on him) to Arabia and entrusted him

with the same mission that He had entrusted to the earlier Prophets. This last Messenger of God

addressed the followers of the earlier Prophets as well as the rest of humanity. The mission of each

Prophet was to call men to the right way of life, to communicate God's true guidance afresh and to

organize into one community all who responded to his mission and accepted the guidance

vouchsafed to him Such a community was to be dedicated to the two-fold task of molding its own

life in accordance with God's guidance and striving for the reform of the world. The Qur'an is the

Book which embodies this mission and guidance, as revealed by God to Muhammad (peace be on

him).

If we remember these basic facts about the Qur'an it becomes easy to grasp its true subject, its central

theme and the objective it seeks to achieve. Insofar as it seeks to explain the ultimate causes of man's

success or failure the subject of the Book is MAN.

Its central theme is that concepts relating to God, the universe and man which have emanated from

man's own limited knowledge run counter to reality. The same applies to concepts which have been

either woven by man's intellectual fancies or which have evolved thru man's obsession with animal

desires. The ways of life which rest on these false foundations are both contrary to reality and

ruinous for man. The essence of true knowledge is that which God revealed to man when He

appointed him his vicegerent. Hence, the way of life which is in accordance with the reality and

conducive to human good is that which we have characterized above as "the right way". The real

object for the Book is to call people to this "right way" and to illuminate God's true guidance, which

has often been lost either thru man's negligence and heedlessness or distorted by his wicked

perversity.

If we study the Qur'an with these facts in mind it is bound to strike us that the Qur'an does not

deviate one iota from its main subject, its central theme and its basic objective. All the various

themes occurring in the Qur'an are related to the central theme; just as beads of different sizes and

color may be strung together to form a necklace. The Qur'an speaks of the structure of the heavens

and the earth and of man, refers to the signs of reality in the various phenomena of the universe,

relates anecdotes of bygone nations, criticizes the beliefs, morals, and deeds of different peoples,

elucidates supernatural truths and discusses many other things besides. All this the Qur'an does, not

to order to provide instruction in physics, history, philosophy or any other particular branch of

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knowledge, but rather to remove the misconception people have about reality and to make that

reality manifest to them.

It emphasizes that the various ways men follow, which are not in conformity with reality, are

essentially false, and full of harmful consequences for mankind. It calls on men to shun all such

ways and to follow instead the way which both conforms to reality and yields best practical results.

This is why the Qur'an mentions everything only to the extent and in the manner necessary for the

purpose it seeks to serve. The Qur'an confines itself to essentials thereby omitting any irrelevant

details. Thus all its contents consistently revolve around this call.

Likewise, it is not possible fully to appreciate either the style of the Qur'an, the order underlying the

arrangement of its verses or the diversity of the subjects treated in it, without fully understanding the

manner in which it was revealed.

The Qur'an, as we have noted earlier, is not a book in the conventional sense of the term. God did not

compose and entrust it in one piece to Muhammad (pbuh) so that he could spread its message and

call people to adopt an attitude to life consonant with its teachings. Nor is the Qur'an one of those

books which discusses their subjects and main themes in the conventional manner. Its arrangement

differs from that of ordinary books, and its style is correspondingly different. The nature of this Book

is that God chose a man in Makkah to serve as His Messenger and asked him to preach His message,

starting in his own city and with his own tribe (Quraysh). At this initial stage, instructions were

confined to what was necessary at this particular juncture of the mission. Three themes in particular

stand out:

1. Directives were given to the Prophet on how he should prepare himself for his great mission and

how he should begin working for the fulfillment of his task.

2. A fundamental knowledge of reality was furnished and misconceptions commonly held by people

in that regard - misconceptions which gave rise to wrong orientation in life - were removed.

3. People were exhorted to adopt the right attitude towards life. Moreover, the Qur'an also elucidated

those fundamental principles which, if followed, lead to man's success and happiness.

In keeping with the character of the mission at this stage the early revelations generally consisted of

short verses, couched in language of uncommon grace and owner, and clothed in a literary style

suited to the taste and temperament of the people to whom they were originally addressed, and

whose hearts they were meant to penetrate. The rhythm, melody and vitality of these verses drew

rapt attention, and such was their stylistic grace and charm that people began to recite them

involuntarily.

The local color of these early messages is conspicuous, for while the truths they contained were

universal, the arguments and illustration used to elucidate them were drawn from the immediate

environment familiar to the first listeners. Allusions were made to their history and traditions and to

the visible traces of the past which had crept into the beliefs, and into the moral and social life of

Arabia. All this was calculated to enhance the appeal the message held fro its immediate audience.

This early stage lasted for four or five years, during which period the following reactions to the

Prophet's message manifested themselves:

1. A few people responded to the call and agreed to join the ummah committed, of its own volition,

to submit to the Will of God.

2. Many people reacted with hostility, either from ignorance or egotism, or because of chauvinistic

attachment to the way of life of their forefathers.

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3. The call of the prophet did not remain confined to Makkah, it began to meet with favorable

response beyond the borders.

In spite of the strong and growing resistance and opposition, the Islamic movement continued to

spread. There was hardly a family left in Makkah one of whose members at least had not embraced

Islam.

During the Prophet's long and ardous struggle God continued to inspire him with revelations. These

messages instructed the believers in their basic duties, inculcated in them a sense of community and

belonging, exhorted them to piety, moral excellence and purity of character, taught them how to

preach the true faith, sustained their spirit by promises of success and Paradise in the Hereafter,

aroused them to struggle in the cause of God with patience, fortitude and high spirits, and filled their

hearts with such zeal and enthusiasm that they were prepared to endure every sacrifice, brave every

hardship and face every adversity.

This stage was unfolded in several phases. In each phase, the preaching of the message assumed ever

wider proportions, as the struggle for the cause of Islam and opposition to it became increasingly

intense and severe, and as the believers encountered people of varying outlooks and beliefs. All these

factors had the effect of increasing the variety of the topics treated in the messages revealed during

this period. Such , in brief, was the situation forming the background of the Makkan SURAS of the

Qur'an.

It is now clear to us that the revelation of the Qur'an began and went hand in hand with the preaching

of the message. This message passed thru many stages and met with diverse situations from the very

beginning and throughout a period of twenty-three years. The different parts of the Qur'an were

revealed step by step according to the multifarious, changing needs and requirements of the Islamic

movement during these stages. It therefore could not possibly possess the kind of coherence and

systematic sequence expected of a doctoral dissertation. Moreover, the various fragments of the

Qur'an which were revealed in harmony with the growth of the Islamic movement were not

published in the form of written treatises, but were spread orally. Their style, therefore, bore an

oratorical flavor rather than the characteristics of literary composition.

Furthermore, these orations were delivered by one whose task meant he had to appeal

simultaneously to the mind, to the heart and to the emotions, and to people of different mental levels

and dispositions. He had to revolutionize people's thinking, to arouse in them a storm of noble

emotions in support of his cause, to persuade his companions and inspire them with devotion and

real, and with the desire to improve and reform their lives. He had to raise their morale and steel

their determination, turn enemies into friends and opponents into admirers, disarm those out to

oppose his message and show their position to be morally untenable. In short, he had to do

everything necessary to carry his movement thru to a successful conclusion. Orations revealed in

conformity with requirements of a message and movement will inevitably have a style different from

that of a professorial lecture.

This explains the repetitions we encounter in the Qur'an. The interests of a message and a movement

demand that during a particular stage emphasis should be placed only on those subjects which are

appropriate at that stage, to the exclusion of matters pertaining to later stages. As a result, certain

subjects may require continual emphasis for months or even years. On the other hand, constant

repetition in the same manner becomes exhausting. Whenever, a subject is repeated, it should

therefore be expressed in different phraseology, in new forms and with stylistic variations so as to

ensure that the ideas and beliefs being put over find their way into the hearts of the people.

At the same time, it was essential that the fundamental beliefs and principles on which the movement

was based should always be kept fresh in people's minds; a necessity which dictated that they should

be repeated continually through all stages of the movement... If these ideas had lost their hold on the

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