Information About ™Qur'an |
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The , , ( as Q'uran, '''Qu'ran''', '''Quran''', '''Koran'''), is the Holy Book of Islam . Muslim s believe that the Qur'an is the literal word of God (Arabic Allah ) as revealed to Muhammad , over a period of twenty-three years by the angel Gabriel (see Jibril ). They regard it as the only revelation of God that has been preserved from textual distortion and God's final revelation to mankind. Muslims also call the Qur'an the "Final Testament", "The Book", "Book of God" and "The Revelation." ETYMOLOGY The word "Qur'an" is the noun derived from the Arabic verb qara'a which means “to read” or “to recite”. One scholar, Christoph Luxenberg , believes that there is a connection between the word "Qur'an" and the Syriac ''qeryana'', “reading,” used for the scriptural lessons in the Syria n Church. http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:2AzvTv5Os2kJ:www.britannica.com/eb/print%3FtocId%3D9105854%26fullArticle%3Dtrue+qery%C4%81n%C4%81&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9 Luxenberg's views are not widely accepted by the academic community. FORMAT OF THE QUR'AN See Also: Surah The Qur'an consists of 114 Surah (chapters) with a total of 6236 Ayat (verses). The surahs, or chapters, are generally known by an Arabic name derived from the surah (see List Of Surah Names ). The surahs are not arranged in chronological order (in the order in which Islamic scholars believe they were revealed) but in a different order, roughly descending by size. THE QUR'AN FOR READING AND RECITATION In addition to and largely independent of the division into surahs, there are various ways of dividing the Qur'an into parts of approximately equal length for convenience in reading, recitation and memorization. The seven ''manazil'' (stations) and the thirty ''ajza''' (parts) can be used to work through the entire Qur’an in a week or a month, one manzil or one juz' a day, respectively. A juz' is sometimes further divided into two ''ahzab'' (groups), and each hizb is in turn subdivided into four quarters. A different structure is provided by the '' Ruku'at '', semantical units resembling paragraphs and comprising roughly ten ayat each. A '' Hafiz '' is one who has memorized the entire text of the Qur'an, and is able to recite it properly ( Tajweed ). There are believed to be millions of these worldwide. All Muslims must memorize at least some parts of the Qu'ran, in order to perform their daily Prayers . Qur'an recitation The very word ''Qur'an'' is usually translated as "recital," indicating that it cannot exist as a mere text. It has always been transmitted orally as well as textually. To even be able to perform Salat (prayer), a mandatory obligation in Islam, a Muslim is required to learn at least some Sura s of the Qur'an (typically starting with the first sura, Al-Fatiha , known as the "seven oft-repeated verses," and then moving on to the shorter ones at the end). A person whose recital repertoire encompasses the whole Qur'an is called a Qari' (قَارٍئ) or Hafiz (which translate as "reciter" or "memorizer," respectively). Muhammad is regarded as the first hafiz. Cantillation ('' Tilawa '' تلاوة) of the Qur'an is a fine art in the Muslim world. Schools of recitation There are several schools of Qur'anic recitation, all of which are permissible pronunciations of the Uthmanic Rasm . Today, ten canonical and at least four uncanonical recitations of the Qur'an exist. For a recitation to be canonical it must conform to three conditions: # It must match the rasm, letter for letter. # It must conform with the syntactic rules of the Arabic Language . # It must have a continuous Isnad to Prophet Muhammad through '' Tawatur '', meaning that it has to be related by a large group of people to another down the isnad chain. Ibn Mujahid documented seven such recitations and Ibn Al-Jazri added three. They are: # Nafi` of Madina (169/ 785 ), transmitted by Warsh and Qaloon # Ibn Kathir of Makka (120/ 737 ), transmitted by Al-Bazzi and Qonbul # Ibn `Amer of Damascus (118/ 736 ), transmitted by Hisham and Ibn Zakwan # Abu `Amr of Basra (148/ 770 ), transmitted by Al-Duri and Al-Soosi # `Asim of Kufa (127/ 744 ), transmitted by Sho`bah and Hafs # Hamza of Kufa (156/ 772 ), transmitted by Khalaf and Khallad # Al-Kisa'i of Kufa (189/ 804 ), transmitted by Abul-Harith and Al-Duri # Abu-Ja`far of Madina, transmitted by Ibn Wardan and Ibn Jammaz # Ya`qoob of Yemen , transmitted by Ruways and Rawh # Khalaf of Kufa, transmitted by Ishaaq and Idris These recitations differ in the vocalization (''tashkil'' تشكيل) of a few words, which in turn gives a complementary meaning to the word in question according to the rules of 's name is pronounced Ibrāhām in another. The more widely used narrations are those of Hafs (حفص عن عاصم), Warsh (ورش عن نافع), Qaloon (قالون عن نافع) and Al-Duri according to Abu `Amr (الدوري عن أبي عمرو). Muslims firmly believe that all canonical recitations were recited by the Prophet himself, citing the respective Isnad chain of narration, and accept them as valid for worshipping and as a reference for rules of Sharia . The uncanonical recitations are called "explanatory" for their role in giving a different perspective for a given verse or Ayah . Today several dozen persons hold the title "Memorizer of the Ten Recitations," considered to be the ultimate honour in the sciences of Qur'an. Writing and printing the Qur'an |
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