The Koran

As to the Koran, it consists exclusively of the revelation or commands which the Prophet professed, to have received from time, as a message direct from God; and which under divine direction, the Prophet delivered to those about him.

Every syllable of the Koran is of divine origin, eternal and ‘uncreated’ as the Deity Himself. It is one of the Islamic arguments against the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, that they are not exclusively oracles professing to proceed from the mouth of God.

The Prophet him-self neither read nor wrote. His being an illiterate man, enhances the marvel of his revelation. [6] ‘Learning says the Rev. Margoliouth, ‘he had none, or next to none. [7]

At the moment of inspiration or shortly after, each passage was recited by the Prophet in the presence of friends or followers, and was generally committed to writing by someone amongst them, at the time or afterwards upon palm-leaves, leather, stones, or such other rude material as conveniently came to hand. These divine messages continued throughout the twenty-three years of his prophetic life, so that the last portion was not received till near the time of his death.

The Koran, being the divine revelation and the corner stone of Islam, the recital of a passage from it formed an essential part of daily prayer, public and private; and its perusal and repetition were considered to be a great privilege. The preservation of the various chapters during the life–time of the Prophet, was not altogether dependent on their being committed to writing. The Koran was committed to memory by almost every adherent of Islam, and the extent, to which it could be recited, was one of the chief sources of distinction, in the early stages of Islam. Amongst a crowd of warrior martyrs, he who had been the most versed in the Koran, was honoured with the first burial. The person who in any company could most faithfully repeat the Koran, was ipso facto entitled to conduct the public prayers, and in certain cases to pecuniary rewards.

The retentive faculty of the early Arabs favoured the task; and it was applied with all the ardour of an awakened spirit, to the Koran. Several of the Prophet’s followers could during his life–time repeat with scrupulous accuracy, the whole as then in use. Four or five such persons are named; and several others also who could very nearly repeat the whole before the Prophet’s death. [8]

“However retentive the Arab memory, remarks Sir William Muir, we should still have regarded with distrust a transcript made entirely from that source. But there is good reason for believing, that many fragmentary copies, embracing amongst them the whole Koran, or nearly the whole were during his life–time made by the Prophet’s followers.

“Such as the condition of the next during Mohammed’s life time, and such it remained for about a year after his death, imprinted upon the hearts of his people, and fragmentary transcripts increasing daily” [9]

Further the same writer states: “The contents and arrangement of the Koran speak forcibly for its authenticity. All the fragments have, with artless simplicity, been joined together…

Even the frailties of the Prophet, as noticed by the Deity, have with evident faithful-ness, been entered in the Koran…

In fine, we posses every internal guarantee of confidence (namely in the authenticity of the Koran, as it exists in the present copies).

…. There is otherwise every security, internal and external, that we possess that text which Mohammed himself gave forth and used.

So carefully, indeed, has it been preserved that there are no variations of importance– we might almost say no variations at all– to be found in the innumerable copies scattered throughout the vast bound of the Empire of Islam.

Yet, but One Koran has been current amongst them; and the consentaneous use by all of the same Scripture, in every age to the present day, is an irrefragable proof, that we have now before us the very text prepared by command of the Caliph Othman who was murdered some time after the compilation of the Koran.

There is probably in the world no other work, which has remained twelve centuries (1861), with so pure a text.[10] This is only because the various revelations in the Koran, regarding its divine nature, and its remaining forever free from corruption or contradistinction, are rightly confirmed. Here are a few verses bearing on this point:

“We have surely sent down the Koran; and we will certainly preserve the same from corruption. (Chap. XV)

“This Koran could not have been composed by any, except God; but it is a confirmation of that which was revealed before it, and an explanation of the scripture; there is no doubt therefore; sent down from the Lord of all creatures. Will they say, (Mohammed) hath forged it? Answer, Bring therefore a chapter like unto it; and call whom ye may (to your assistance) besides God, if ye speak truth.” (Chap. X)

“Say, Verily if men and genie were purposely assembled, that they might produce (a book) like this Koran, they could not produce one like unto it, although they assisted each other. And we have variously propounded unto men in this Koran, every kind of figurative argument; but the greater part of men refuse to receive it, merely out of infidelity.” (Chap. XVII.)

The Rev. Rodwell states:

“It must be acknowledged too, that the Koran deserves the highest praise for its conception of the divine nature, in reference the attributes of Power, Knowledge and universal Providence and Unity- that its belief and trust in the One God of Heaven and Earth, is deep and fervent.”

“It is due to the Koran that the occupants, in the sixth century, of an arid peninsula, whose poverty was only equaled by their ignorance, become not only the fervent and sincere votaries of a new creed, but, like Amru and many more, its warlike propagators.”

“The simple shepherds and wandering bedouins of Arabia, are transformed, as if by a magician’s wand, into the founders of empires, the builders of cities, the collectors of more libraries, than they at first destroyed, while cities like Fostat, Baghdad, Cordova and Dehli, attest the power, at which Christian Europe trembled. And thus, while the Koran, which underlies this vast energy and contains the principles which are its springs of actions, reflects to a great extent the mixed character of its author, its merit as a code of laws, and as a system of religious teaching, must always be estimated by the changes which it introduced into the customs and beliefs of those who willingly or by compulsion embraced it. In the suppression of their idolatries, in the substitution of the worship of Allah for that of the powers of nature and genii with Him, in the abolition of child murder, in the extinction of manifold superstitious usages, in the reduction of the number of wives to a fixed standard it was to the Arabians an unquestionable blessing, and an accession through not in the Christian sense a Revelation of Truth; and while every Christian must deplore the overthrow of so many flourishing Eastern churches by the arms of the victorious Moslems, it must  not be forgotten that Europe, in the middle ages, owed much of her knowledge of dialectic philosophy, of medicine and architecture to Arabia writers, and that Moslems formed the connecting link between the West and the East for the importation of numerous articles of luxury and use.”

“For if he (Mohammed) was indeed the illiterate person the Moslems represent him to have been, then it will be hard to escape their inference, that the Koran is, as they assert it to be, a standing miracle.”

([1]) Dr. Ph. Schaff’s Companion to the Greek Testaments and the English Version pp. 88 & 89.

([2]) Translation of the Holy Koran II, 72 : 73 & 74.

([3]) Dr. Weymouth’s Introduction to St. John’s Gospel.

([4]) John XX, 30.

([5]) For a fuller treatment of the subject of the higher criticism of the New Testamant see very interesting treatise entitled ‘ Are the Gospels inspired?’ by Maulvi Sadar-ud-Din, B.A., from whose work the foregoing passage has been chiefly reproduced.

([6]) Sir W. Muir. Life of Mohammad.

([7]) The Rev. Margoliouth’s introduction to Rodwell’s translation of the Koran.

([8]) Sir W. Muir. Life of Mohammad.

([9]) Sir W. Muir. Life of Mohammad.

([10]) It is more than fourteen centuries already (2002). See Sir W. Muir. Life of Mohammad.

The Koranic Conception of Man

The Holy Koran represents man as a free and responsible being, gifted with the faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong. Then according to the Koran, man is capable of obeying the law of God. He needs nobody to atone for his sins, but himself; for the Lord is merciful and will forgive him his sins. The Holy Book of Islam mentions no original sin, which we inherit at our birth. It does not represent man as coming into the world with a load of sin on his back. On the contrary, it represents him as an unconscious Moslem at the moment of creation. The Prophet of Islam says: “Every child is born with a Moslem heart”, and it is the external influences that makes it what it becomes afterwards in life. If bad influences happen to be at work, the child generally surrenders to such influences, unless God Himself undertakes to nurture the little soul. When the child grows into manhood, he may used the God gifted faculty of discrimination and may become what he chooses in life. Indeed, God gives him many a chance in life, that he may recover himself from sin and iniquity. He may make or mar his fortune even in the spiritual sense. If in him, Faith asserts its power, if true repentance places him in the right attitude towards God, if the spirit of God impels him to do virtuous deeds, if he feels the hand of God working in the smallest concerns of his life, and, above all, if he accepts death with a smiling countenance, and loses himself to save himself, why this is sufficient atonement in the sight of the Lord, whose pre- eminent attribute is Mercy.

To understand the Koranic conception of man, a reference to the following verses is necessary: “Of goodliest fabric We created man, then brought him down to be the lowest of the low; save who believe and do things that are right, for theirs shall be a reward that faileth not”. These verses indicate that man, at the moment of his creation, is perfectly sinless. It is afterwards, that sin tries to assert itself and bring him down to the level of the brutes. But he has also the divine in him, – the power to offer if he so wills, a stubborn resistance; and by the help of this power, he may “grow up to a saint”. Although his own force is feeble, there is the Spirit of God which will cooperate with him in this work of self–regeneration only if he shows genuine desire to turn to God, to believe and to do things that are right. The Holy Koran is very clear on this point. It does not ask to believe in the doctrine of original sin; and so atonement, in a Christian sense, has no place in the Islamic Scripture. What God wants of us, is this that we for our part, should make the utmost endeavour to secure His pleasure and grace while He for His part, undertakes to direct us into His ways. “And whoso maketh his utmost endeavour towards Us, We will surely direct him into Our ways,” says the Koran. This utmost endeavour on our part, to reach God, involves the idea of personal atonement and sacrifice which the Moslem is required to offer. We find the same thought clearly expressed elsewhere in the Word of God. “They who set their face with resignation God–ward, and do what is right, their reward is with their Lord; nor fear shall come on them, neither shall they be grieved.” Turning his face towards God, gradually proceeding towards Him, till he realizes himself in Him-herein lies the salvation of man, according to the Koran. The Moslem is taught the high truth, that “the good drives away the evil in man”, and so he requires not anyone to take the burden of his sin and to undergo punishment as his ‘substitute’. He develops his faculties, and tries his very best, to make use of them in doing good deeds and working out the will of his Maker; and hopes that his little will be accepted as much by the Most Merciful Lord.

Everywhere, in the Holy Koran, man is represented as the crown and glory of creation. He is the central figure of this beautiful universe. In Adam, he is God’s vicegerent on earth. Out of love, God hath created man. And he hath created for him the heavens and the earth, and sendeth down water from the heaven, and so bringeth forth the fruits for his food and to him He hath subjected the ships, so that by His command they pass through the sea; and to him He hath subjected the sun and the moon in their constant courses; and to him He hath subjected the day and the night; of everything which he may ask Him, giveth He to him; and if he would reckon up the favours of God, he can never count them.

“And the cattle. For you He created them; from them ye have warm garments, and they are useful in many ways; and of them ye eat; and they obey you well when ye fetch them home and when ye drive them forth to pasture: and they carry your burdens to lands which ye could not else reach, but with travail of soul: truly, your Lord is full of Goodness, and Merciful: And He hath given you horses, mules and asses, that ye may ride them, and for your pleasure: And things, of which ye have no knowledge, hath He created. Of God it is, to point out the way. Some (of you) turn aside from it; but had He pleased, He had guided you all aright.” [1]

According to the Koran, God hath endowed us with the power of self–government which is an almost incredible trust. By this power, God not only trusts our destinies to ourselves, but He actually trusts, or seems to trust, the whole final outcome of His creative work to our treatment of it. This earth, at least, is put into our hands, to make what we will of it and ourselves, its inhabitants. It is stored with all possible helps to us, in natural forces and materials; we are given intelligence, to find them out and to use them for the enrichment and beautifying of our lives; we are given the understanding of a Rule of Right in our conduct towards each other, that will keep us in perfect harmony and happiness together, for the common good; we are given a complete code of regulations, to guide us as to what is right and what is wrong; we are drawn towards well–doing, in accord with the Rule of Right, by a feeling created in us, which will not let us forget it or violate it, without willful intent; but (and here lies the grandeur of the part, man performs in creation) we are trusted with the freedom, to do with all this what we will. The out come, good or evil, is what we and our fellows of the human race, past and future, are helping, or have helped, or will help to make it. The glory of triumph or the shame of failure, in the creation of mankind, is to belong to the race itself.

([1]) Koran, XVL, 5-9.