The Qu’ran; the Last Scripture from God (1)

Let us now make a swift survey of the Qu’ran. I shall content myself with a number of quotations of what was written on the Qu’ran by the pen of non–Muslim critics, as giving a sufficiently true picture of the Qu’ran. However, it must ever be remembered that, as miraculously Divine Book, the Qu’ran, when translated into a foreign language, necessarily loses a great deal of its elegance and purity of style.

Mr. Sale addresses the reader of his English version– praise-worthy as it is – in the following words:

“… Though he [the reader] must not imagine the translation to come up to the original, notwithstanding my endeavours to do it justice” In another place, the same writer comments on the Qu’ran as follows: “The Qu’ran is universally allowed to be written with the utmost elegance and purity of language in the dialect of the tribe of the Quraish, the most noble and polite of all the Arabians; but with some mixture though very rarely, of other dialects. It is confessedly the standard of the Arabian tongue and as the more conservative believe and are taught by the book itself, inimitable by any human pen, and therefore insisted on as a permanent miracle, greater than that of raising the dead, and alone sufficient to convince the world of its origin.

“And to this miracle Muhammad himself chiefly appealed for the confirmation of his mission, publicly challenging the most eloquent men in Arabia which was at the same time stocked with thousands whose sole study and ambition it was, to excel in elegance of style and composition; to produce even a single chapter that might be compared with it I will mention but one instance out of several, to show that this book was really admired for the beauty of its composition by those who must be allowed to have been competent judges.” [1]

Von Geothe renowned German author, speaking of the Qu’ran in his West Oestlicher Divan, states: “However often we turn to it, [the Qu’ran], at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds and in the end enforces our reverence…. Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim, is stern, grand, terrible, ever and anon truly sublime…thus this book will go on exercising, through all ages, a most potent influence.” [2]

Dr. Steingass, the learned compiler of an English Arabic and Arabic English Dictionary [W.H. Allen and Co,] has recorded his opinion on the Qu’ran in Dr. Hughes’ Dictionary of Islam. After refereing to the above words of Goethe Dr. Steingass writes: “These words seem to me so much the more weighty and worthy of attention, as they are uttered by one who, whatever his merits or demerits in other respects may be deemed to be, indisputable belongs to the greatest masters of language of all times, and stands foremost as a leader of modern thought and the intellectual culture of modern times;” [Here Dr. Steigngass quotes the words of Goethe and then says]. “A work then which calls forth so powerful and seemingly incompatible emotions, even in the distant reader – distant as to time and still more so, as to mental development a work which not only conquers repugnance with which he may begin its perusals, but changes this adverse feeling into astonishment and admiration. It is indeed, a problem of the highest interest to every thoughtful observe of the destinies of mankind. Much has been said, in the preceding pages, to acknowledge, to appreciate, and to explain the literary excellences of the Qu’ran, and a more or less distinct admission, that Buffon’s much–quoted saying: “Le style est I’homme”, is here more justified than ever, underlies all these verdicts. We may well say, the Qu’ran is one of the grandest books ever written because it faithfully reflects the character and life of one of the greatest men that ever breathed. “Sincerity writes Carlyle, ‘sincerity, in all senses, seems to me the merit of the Qu’ran,’. This same sincerity, this ardour and earnestness in the search for truth, this never – flagging perseverance in trying to impress it, when partly found, again and again upon his unwilling hearers, appears to me as the real and undeniable ‘seal of prophecy’ in Muhammad…” [3]

But the approaches to truth are many, and he who devoted all his powers and energies, with untiring patience and self–denial, to the task of leading a whole nation by one of these approaches, from a rude idolatry, to the worship of the living God, has certainly a strong claim to our warmest sympathies, as a faithful servant and noble champion of truth.