Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
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56 t CHAPTER THREE<br />
patterns, short verse units, <strong>and</strong> recurrent <strong>for</strong>mulaic themes. More,<br />
the putative occasions of those suras correspond to the circumstances<br />
of oral composition: a society of mixed orality-literacy in<br />
which, although writing was known <strong>and</strong> practiced by a few, oral<br />
composition or per<strong>for</strong>mance was still the st<strong>and</strong>ard <strong>for</strong>m of expression.<br />
The earliest setting of the Quran was preaching: the Meccan<br />
suras constituted a message <strong>for</strong> the society as a whole <strong>and</strong> delivered<br />
to a public audience that noted the resemblance to the compositions<br />
of oral bards <strong>and</strong> seers in that society.<br />
The revelations of the Quran were memorized, the tradition assures<br />
us <strong>and</strong> which we have no reason to doubt. But under what<br />
circumstances were those inspired utterances committed to memory<br />
by their audience? Here we may invoke the word “Quran”<br />
itself. The Arabic derives from qeryana, “recitation,” a Syriac<br />
word with distinct liturgical connotations, <strong>and</strong> it may safely be<br />
assumed, in the light of the Quran’s own remarks (17:78; 75:16–<br />
18) that almost from the beginning parts of what had been revealed<br />
were memorized, doubtless under Muhammad’s own direction,<br />
<strong>for</strong> purposes of liturgical recitation. This is the most plausible<br />
guess as to the trajectory of the Quran’s transmission history: that<br />
Muhammad’s followers—perhaps certain professional reciters, or<br />
rawis, as they were called in Arabia—memorized portions of his<br />
“oracles,” which were then recited in private gatherings as a <strong>for</strong>m<br />
of prayer.<br />
At Medina the circumstances of the Quran were drastically<br />
changed. As we shall see, Muhammad was no longer simply a<br />
preacher in the style of Jesus or John the Baptist but the Solemn<br />
Pontiff of a religio-political community of believers whose chief<br />
needs were confirmation, regulation, instruction. It is near impossible<br />
to determine the exact sequence of the Medina suras, a fact<br />
that renders somewhat problematic any attempt to unfold the various<br />
quranic meanings of the oft used word <strong>for</strong> “book” (kitab) <strong>and</strong><br />
its synonyms. One use is certainly that of “Scripture,” that is, the<br />
Book of God. In one telling passage, God tells Muhammad to seek<br />
confirmation of the truth of this revelation by questioning “those<br />
who recite the Book be<strong>for</strong>e you” (10:95), that is, the <strong>Jews</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Christians</strong>, <strong>and</strong> he is further instructed (13:43) to give that same