ITS COMPOSITION
Procedures of transmission and preservation demand that the word of God conform to recognizable patterns of human utterance. From the foregoing analysis of rhetorical schemata and of variant tradition, exegetical gloss, and conceptual assimilation, it may be supposed that the Quranic revelation is no exception to the general rule. But the mimetic process is a complex one. Isolation of such monotheist imagery as is characteristic of themes like divine retribution and sign, covenant and exile, indicates the perpetuation in Muslim scripture of established literary types. And yet, the merely allusive style of that document would appear to preclude positing the relationship of figural interpretation (typology) admitted to exist between the Old and New Testaments. The pattern of fulfilment (figuram implere) cannot, or at least hardly, be elicited from a comparison of Muslim with Hebrew scripture. That this is not merelya negative inference from the absence of an explicit connection of the sort established between the Christian and Hebrew scriptures ought to be clear from examination of the Quranic forms themselves, which reflect, but do not develop, most of the themes traditionally associated with literature of prophetical expression.
If the claim to place the Qur'an within that clearlydefined literary tradition is conceded, it would none the less be inaccurate to describe that document as exhibiting essentially a calque of earlier fixed forms. The relationship is rather more complicated, due at least in part to the origins of Muslim scripture in polemic. Illustration of that is provided by analysis of the confused and conflicting theories about the manner of its composition.
Muslim views on the mechanics of revelation consist for the most part of exegetical speculation on the content of Q. 42: 5I. That verse may be set out as follows.
It is not granted to any man that God address him except:
(A) directly
(B) or from behind a screen
(C) or by sending a messenger
who utters with His permission
that which He wishes
He is indeed exaltedand wise.
A primary difficulty in this passage is its implication for a fundamental dilemma of Islamic theology: revelation as the unmediated speech of God, or revelation as the prophetical (angelic) report of God's speech. My translation of element (A) diverges from the consensus doctorum of Muslim tradition, according to which wal}y is synonymous with ilhiim (inspiration), the verbal noun of Quranic alhama (91: 8, a hapax legomenons» It seems clear, however, from element (C), in which the pronominal components of [a-yiihiya and bi-idhnihi can hardly share a single referent, that the use here of awl}ii is 'to reveal/present oneself' and, in conjunction with kallama, 'to utter directly (without mediation)'. That interpretation has the additional advantage of offering the required degree of contrast between the three ( 1) alternative kinds of theophany. Zamakhshari, drawing upon the imagery of delegated authority (wakil, rasal), permitted element (C) to be so interpreted, but alluded in the same passage to what had become a traditional link. between elements (A) and (C), namely, that the concept waJ;y presupposed dispatch (irsiil) of a messenger.> Now, that Quranic awJ;a may in some contexts be a synonym of arsala is clear from the very next verse (Q. 42: 52) liri ~b.-'J ~I ~.Ji ~~(cf.17:86, 41: 12). Application of the equivalence to elements (A) and (C) of Q. 42: 51, producing ultimately an interpretation of nearly the same currency as wal}y: ilhiim, may, I suspect, be traced to the elliptical style of earlier exegetes. Muhammad Kalbi, for example, glossed 'We reveal to you' with 'We send Gabriel to you with it' in the sense of 'to inform you of it',3 Muqatil b. Sulayman improved upon that method by adding to his own gloss 'God revealed to him' the phrase 'Gabriel came to him and informed him of it'. I But that wa/:ty may signify communication, without recourse to an emissary, is confirmed not only by
Q. 42: 51 but also by the use of awIJa in 6: 19, 112, 12: 3,18: 27, etc.
The significance of the tripartite description of the word of God in Q. 42:5I lies in its allusion to the uniqueness of the Mosaic revelation, explicitly adduced three times by Zamakhshari in his commentary to this verse. According to that exposition divine communication to all prophets other than Moses was conveyed by an emissary (mode C); Moses and the angels alone was/are addressed by God, but indirectly (mode B); the Jewish claim that Moses had been directly.and personally spoken to by God (mode A) was denied. This report, adduced without authentication, is found also in Muqatil, and is symptomatic of the polemical atmosphere in which Muslim views were formulated.
The exact nature of that polemic emerges from examination of the imagery employed for mode (B). Quranic /:tijab (screen) may be of literal application(Q. 33: 53) or metaphorical (19: 17,38: 32, 83: 15); its function in 7:46 is eschatological, and in 17: 45 and 41:5 it is a reflex of Biblical masoehjkalymma» In Q. 42: 51,however, the symbolism is Rabbinic, being the locution “????????“ descriptive of the distinction between Israelite and foreign prophets in their reception of the word of God.s And within the circle of Hebrew prophets the Biblical distinction accorded Moses (Exodus 33: II, Numbers 12: 8, Deuteronomy 34: 10) and elaborated in the Rabbinic tradition," is also and not unexpectedly found in Muslim exegesis, e.g. ad Q. 2: 253, 4: 164 (~ f".J-4 .uJI ~~), 7:143-4,28: 30, where it reflects a transition frommode (B) to mode (A). Biblicalattestation of the unique relationship betweenGod and Moses found a second expression in the criterion of angelic mediator, essential to all but the Mosaic revelation and, as mode (C) of Q. 42: 51, of considerable significance in the development of Muslim prophetology." The unmediated theophany of the Pentateuch and earlier prophets was recast in prophetical literature proper, to which the Qur'jin maybe reckoned, by recourse to the messenger formulae and the divine imperative." Quranic waIJy in its final form was an inclusive concept, expanded by Suyiiti to cover not only the express utterance of God but also that which men among themselves perceived to be His intention (i.e. inspirationj. As set out in Q. 42: 51, and shorn of profane and rhetorical amplification, the notion drew almost certainly upon Rabbinic formulations of the Mosaic tradition, even to the extent of adopting in modified form arguments designed originally to demonstrate the precreation of the Torah.
Muslim discussion of the mode of Quranic revelation is characterized by a predominant concern to distinguish it from the manner in which the Torah was revealed. Expressed in the polarity jumla (integral): munajjam (serial), the distinction derived moment from a widely accepted interpretation of Q. 25: 32 “???????????????” The necessary link.between the locution jumlatan wli~idatan (all of one piece) and the Mosaic revelation was provided by interpreting alladhina kafaru (those who reject/disbelieve) as reference to the Jews. Inaprophetical hadith. traced to (Abdallah b. (Abbas such was the primary interpretation, mushrikun (polytheists) being adduced as an alternative. For Zamakhshari the roles were reversed. The spokesmen are Quraysh or, it is said (wa-qila), the Jews. The contrast may be understood as polemical rather than historical, and exhibits a major theme of Muslim exegetical literature. Priority of the Jews over Quraysh in that particular context was early attested, e.g. in Kalbi's gloss to Q. 17: 2 “???????????????”. Quranic proof-texts for this interpretation, containing reference to the Mosaic tablets (alwah, e.g. Q. 7:144-5, IS0, 154, 171 ) , were easily found and frequently adduced, as in Suyiiti.4 Preoccupation with the precise difference between the two revelations generated a number of near-synonYms for the adverbial munajjaman (also nujuman): in the second half of Q. 25: 32 the term tartilan, properly an elocutionary designation (tajlij aI-asnlin) was often interpreted as a reference to serial revelation; from Q. 17: 106 “???????” the expressions mufarraqan (separately) and tanzilan (by descent) could be seen to embody the same concept.s Similarly, nujuman, somewhat arbitrarily related to Quranic ?????? (56: 75), became the point of departure for speculation on the likely extent/capacity of an in stalment (najm), generally agreed to contain about five verses. The notion of a time-lag may also be elicited from Q. 20: 114 “?????????” in which the terms qur'an (publication) and walty (communication) are balanced by implicit reference to a period required for hearing, understanding, and learning the content of each revelation.
The antithesis jumla :munajjam was further differentiated. Lest the concept of piecemeal revelation be seen to thrown doubt upon the origins of Muslim scripture, two verses ??????????? (Q. 2: 185) and ???????? (97: I) were adduced and interpreted to demonstrate that the Quranic revelation had consisted of two separate processes: transfer in its entirety to the nearest heaven and thence serially to the prophet during a period of approximately twenty years ??????????????. The chronological expressions in the two verses, Ramadan and Laylat alqadr, did not remain exclusive to the Muslim revelation: the scriptures of Abraham, of Moses, of David, and of Jesus had also been revealed at ascertainable dates in Ramadan." But it is the Mosaic revelation which furnished almost alone a point d'appui in the polemical discourse, exhibiting the Rabbinic (and Patristic) view of the origins of the Pentateuch. On the other hand, references to Christian scripture in the Qur'an provoked inevitably a similar description, as in Suyiiti, where the interpretation of Q. 3: 3 stressed that both Torah and Gospel (injil) had been revealed all of a piece, or in the observation of Ibn Ishaq on the material contained in
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