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Topics Relating To The Qur'an: I'jaz, Grammarians & Jews
Topics Relating To The
Qur'an: I'jaz, Grammarians & Jews
M S M Saifullah
© Islamic
Awareness, All Rights Reserved.
Last Modified:
9th September 1999
Assalamu-alaikum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
I have been researching on the topic of I'jaz (or
inimitability) of the Qur'an giving more attention to what is there in the
orientalists' books. The information that is available in these books is miniscule
as compared with what is available in the Arabic books. Most of the issues of I'jaz
al-Qur'an have been dealt long time ago. Muslim scholars and grammarians have
systematically analyzed the pre-Islamic (or jahiliyyah) poetry and compared it with
the Qur'an and tested whether the concept of I'jaz is true. This resulted in
great deal of work by the Arab grammarians who dealt with the issue of linguistics,
etymology of the words when analysing the Qur'an. The Jews also say that their
own scholars were heavily influenced by the Arab grammarians and this will be discussed
later in this document, Insha'allah.
The division in this post is like this: The first
part deals with the people who attempted to take up the Qur'anic challenge.
It also deals with their own views which may be philosophical or religious to show
their background. The second part, which is short, deals with the view of orientalists
who studied the Arabic grammar and its history which progressed rapidly due to the
advent of the text of Qur'an. The third part deals with the Arab grammarians
who influenced the Jews in interpretation of their Hebrew Bible.
A Brief History Of People
Who Attemped To Take Up The Qur'anic Challenge
I have tried to quote as many references as possible
to avoid the views of the author who is writing about this topic. The main source
that I used to cross check was Encyclopedia
Of Islam published by E J Brill, Leiden. This
is definitely a monumental source for most of the information regarding the biographies
of the people. So here we go:
Ibn Al-Mukaffa': In the Encyclopedia
Of Islam we see that:
One highly individual aspect of the spiritual
interests of this [i.e., Ibn al-Mukaffa'] writer is finally revealed by the fragments (if
they are authentic, as we believe) of a religious work, a Manichaean apologia, preserved
in the refutation made a century later by Zaydi Imam al Qasim b. Ibrahim, in a treatise
published by M Guidi. We are already familiar with the charges brought against Ibn
al-Mukaffa' of having attemped to make an "imitation" of the sacred book
of Islam: The work refuted by al-Qasim appears rather in our view, to be an attack
on Muhammad, the Kuran and Islam in the name of another faith, namely the Manichaean
faith which several of the friends of Ibn al-Mukaffa' had adopted and of which the
writer himself was suspected.[1]
The reference 2 gives a brief review of his work:
The prominent Arabic prose writer of
Iranian descent who was cruelly put to death in 139/756, is said to have tried to
imitate the Qur'an at the behest of the group of heretics, but he had to abandon
this endeavour because it proved too difficult. This is of course a legend. But Ibn
al-Mukaffa' did compose a polemic in which he took issue with Islam, and especially
with the Qur'an from a Manichaean standpoint. Fragments of this polemic have
come down to us in a refuation written by Zaydi Imam, al-Qasim b. Ibrahim (d. 246/860).
The first four words of this polemic - and they alone - are obviously modelled on
the first our words of the Qur'an. They read: "In the name of Compassionate
and Merciful light - a Manichaean variation of the familiar Islamic basmalah which
must strike any Muslim as blasphemy.[2]
Now does that strike any of us as copying from the
Qur'an or producing a better verse than that of the Qur'an?
and to complete the thoughts on Ibn al-Mukaffa':
It is possible that the celebrated Iranian
convert, the great stylist Ibn al-Mukaffa', actually try his hand at such a mu'arada,
but found it impossible to complete his task - a fate shared by some other writers
to whom tradition imputes the same ambition.[3]
On Ibn al-Mukaffa''s attempt to match the Qur'an,
we read:
When Ibn al-Muqaffa' arrived at the passage
Sura 11:42-46 he realized that it was impossible for any human being to equal the
book. So, he desisted from his mu'arada and tore up what he had done.[4]
Musaylimah: During the time of Prophet Muhammad(P) there arose
a man called Musaylimah who started claiming the Prophethood. So, he also started
saying "revelatory pronouncements". His revelatory pronouncements resembled:
The form of these sayings correspond
to a large extent with that of the earliest surahs, and they are in part prefaced
by strange oaths, just like the surahs. It is however questionable whether Musaylimah
was in fact the source of any of these sayings. Perhaps they were all invented at
a later date and ascribed to him as a clumsy imitator of Muhammad. One of the sayings
is modelled in a particularly obvious fashion on the mode of expression of the Qur'an.
it runs:
"The elephant. What is the elephant?
And who shall tell you what is the elephant? He has a ropy tail and a long trunk.
this is a [mere] trifle of our Lord's creations."[5]
Concerning the style of his speech:
He followed the kahin style of
rhymed prose, and of the pronouncing of oaths. One such, swearing by mountain goat,
the black smooth-skinned wolf and dark night are suggestive of animals symbolic of
the pagan gods.[6]
And
When Musaylimah met the Prophetess Sajah
they parleyed in rhymed prose, Musaylimah being credited with the use of "Islamic"
turns of phrase such as 'Alay-na min salawati ma'shari abrar, ... yaqumuna 'l-layla
wa-yasumuna 'l-nahar, li-rabbi-kumu'l-kubbar, rabbi 'l-ghuyumi wa 'l-amtar (Upon
us are the blessings from a company of dutful men ... The night they spend in vigil;
during the day they fast for your great Lord, Lord of the cloud and rains).[7]
Al-Baqillanî, who systematically analyzed the
poetry of Musaylimah (apart from Imru' al-Qais and others) has been quoted:
The pieces reported to have been composed
by Musaylimah are so ridiculously poor in style that nobody could seriously compare
them with the Qur'an.[8]
Abu'l-'Ala Al-Marri: According to cAlî Dashti:
It is widely held that the blind Syrian
poet Abu'l-'Ala ol-Ma'arri wrote his Ketab ol-Fosul wa'l-Ghayat, of which
part survives, in imitation of the Qor'an.[9]
This statement is an unfinished thought. If we look
at Rudy Peret's article, we see that:
It was also reported of a sceptic and
writer of the 5th/11th century, the blind Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri who died in 449/1057,
that he tried to produce the imitation of the Qur'an. The accusation refers
to his compendious work al-Fusul wa-'l-Ghayat, only the first seventh of which
has survived, a supreme example of the art of poetry and rhyme that was based on
the classical Arabic literary language, and of which the author was the master. It
is written in elaborate rhyming prose, and individual sections of stanzas occasionally
open with archiac oaths such as: "I swear by him who created horses and the
yellowish white [camels] who lope along in ar-Ruhayl............." These incantations
are reminiscent of early Qur'anic texts (e.g. lxxv. 1-2) which in turn go back
to ancient Arabic oracles; presumably they are indeen modelled on the Qur'anic
texts.[10]
And further more the author went on to say:
But this is not to say that al-Ma'arri
intended his work as a whole to be an imitation of the Qur'an, let alone surpass
it. Furthermore, by the time al-Ma'arri was writing, rhyming prose had long since
being accepted as a stylistic device characteristic of elevated language, so that
it could be employed without second thoughts. If we look beyond the elaborate torrent
of words and try to estabhlish the theme of the work, the subject matter amounts
to little more than songs of praise of God and religious and ethical admonitions
(with pessimistic undercurrents).[11]
In another reference:
Kremer endeavoured to disprove in his
latest writing about the noble free-thinkers, and to explain as a misunderstanding
of later literary historians, the assumption that Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri wrote an
imitation of the Koran. For the sake of completion it may be pointed out that al-Zamakhshari
also presupposes that Abu'l 'Ala' intended to imitate the Koran. It is likely that
he has the title of Abu'l 'Ala's work in mind when he says in the introduction to
his Kashshaf: wa-mayyaza baynahunna bi fusul wa-ghayat. In his commentary
to Sura 77:30-3 he expresses the opinion that Abu'l 'Ala' wished to excel the beauties
of this passage in a verse which he wrote in order to compete with God's word. In
those verses of the Koran the infidels are addressed:
"Go then in shade (of the smoke
of hell) which rises in three columns, verily it is not shady there and there is
no protection from the hell fire. Verily, it throws sparks as big as palaces, as
if they were reddish-yellow camels."
Abu'l 'Ala' in the verse in which he
is said to imitate this passage of the Koran does not speak of the hell fire but
of the fires burning in hospitable houses in order to invite the tired traveller.
Of this fire he says:
"A red one, with hair (rays) which
float far in the darkness, and throws sparks as big as tents."
This verse is in fact contained in a
dirge and consolation which the poet addressed to the family of the 'Alid Abu Ahmad
al-Musawi after his death. Fakhr al-din al-Razi reproves al-Zamakhshari for suggesting
that Abu'l-'Ala' intended this as an imitation of the Koran; but he declares that,
as a parallel was suggested, he is obliged to show in how many respects the expression
of the Koran is superior to that of the poet. After giving twelve proofs he concludes:
"These points came to me in a flash,
but if we were to beseech God to help us in search for more, he would undoubtedly
offer us as many more as we could desire."[12]
Yahya b. Al-Hakam
al-Ghazal: He was a belletrist in Andalus,
Spain in 3rd century.
...the Andalusian belletrist Yahya b.
al-Hakam al-Ghazal, called by his biographers the 'The sage of al-Andalus, its poet
and oracle', dared to attempt to produce a pendant to surah 112 containing the Islamic
credo. 'But he has overcome by terrible fear and shuddering when he embarked upon
this work and thus returned to God.'[13]
Sayyid 'Ali
Muhammad (Also known as Bab): A work from
the middle of the nineteenth century by Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad from Shiraz, known as
Bab, the founder of the Babi sect (which survives to this day in the Bahai sect)
deserves to be mentioned.
Bab felt that he had been caled upon
to replace Muhammad as a Prophet and to replace the outmoded Islam with a new religion.
In the Bayan he summed up his doctrine. The mode of expression is prosaic, the arrangement
of the material unsystematic despite the division into eleven units (Wahid)
of the nineteen chapters (bab) each. The work was designed not to outdo the
Qur'an in rhetorical power but to supercede it as a sober statement of the
new faith. Yet it accords with the Qur'an in one respect - that the revelations
derive from God himself. Moreover, there are several points, both in the subject
matter and in the formulation, which are not only inspired by the Qur'an but
modelled on it, consciously or unconsciouly.[14]
Ibn al-Rawandi: He was a Mu'atazili and a heretic, born in the beginning
of 3rd/9th century. At first he was an adherent of Mutazilism, then left his friends
and attacked them mercilessly.
In the Encyclopedia
Of Islam we read:
The plentiful extracts from the K. al-Zumurraudh
provide a fairly clear indication off the most heterodox doctrine of Ibn al-Rawandi,
that or which posterity has been least willing to forgive him: a biting criticism
of prophecy in general and of the prophecy of Muhammad in particular; he maintains
in addition that religious dogmas the not acceptable to reason and must, therefore
be rejected; the miracles attributed to the Prophets, persons who may reasonably
be compared to sorcerers and magicians, are pure invention, and the greatest of the
miracles in the eyes of orthodox Muslims, the Kuran, gets no better treatment: it
is neither a revealed book nor even an inimitable literary masterpiece. In order
to cloak his thesis, which attacks the root of all types of religion, Ibn al-Rawandi
used the fiction that they were uttered by Brahmans. His reputation as irreligious
iconoclast spread in the 4th/10th century beyond the borders of Muslim literature.[15]
Very tersely, Ibn al-Rawandi's attitude has been
put as:
He resembled somewhat the so-called free
lance journalist of these days and could write for or against the same cause without
any scruple.[16]
Bassar bin Burd,
Sahib Ibn 'Abbad & Abu'l - 'Atahiya:
I am clubbing all of them together because they both seem to have claimed that their
composition is better or slight less better than the Qur'an. I crossed checked
their work in the Encyclopedia
Of Islam but there is no mention of their composition
against the Qur'an.
Bassar bin Burd rates some of his verses
superior to surah 59. Towards the end of the 10th century the Sahib Ibn 'Abbad could
still publicly accept the compliment made to him by a Jew from Isfahan that the style
of the Koran was only slightly superior to his own.[17]
Or in another reference:
Bashshar b. Burb is quoted as freely
comparing to its disadvantage Kur'anic with contemporary verse and as having boasted
of having personally surpassed surah LIX; a similar statement is attributed to Abu'l-'Atahiya
with reference to surah LXXVII.[18]
Bashar did in fact praise one of his
own poetic products when he heard recited by a singing girl in Baghdad as being better
than the Surah al-Hashr.[19]
But the surprising thing is that al-Baqillani in
his I'jaz al-Qur'an compares the work of Bassar bin Burd and others with the
Qur'an and there is no mention of Bassar bin Burd's work being better than
the Qur'an!! Reference [2], which is a rather comprehensive book on Arabic
literature pre-Islamic as well as post-Islamic, also mentions about Bassar bin Burd
being a great post-Islamic poet who introduced new ideas in the poetry. Again there
is no mention by Rudy Paret about he surpassing the style of the Qur'an.
In the article Rhetorical
Interpretation of the Qur'an: I'jaz and related topics,
Issa J Boullata deals with the modern writers who dealt the Qur'an from a literary
point of view. One such work of A'isha cAbd al-Rahman who goes by the pseudonym of Bint
Shacati
has received a lot of attention. It is said that her work will provide new insights
on the concept of I'jaz of the Qur'an. Issa Boullata says:
A'isha cAbd
al-Rahman studies inductively other aspects of Qur'anic usage
and offers fresh ideas and new interpretation, uncovering certain consistencies never
observed before, such as those regarding the use of passive voice in the Qur'anic
scenes of the day of resurrection, which in her view, emphasize the passivity of
the universe and the spontaneity of all creation in obeying the overwhelming events
of the day. These and other observations of hers transcend traditional Arabic syntax
and rhetoric as she attempts to capture the reality that lies behind Quranic expression.
Her conclusion is that the Qur'an, being neither prose nor verse, is a literary
genre of its own that is of the highest eloquence and of matchless stylistic perfection.[20]
cAlî bin Rabban at-Tabarî who was
Nestorian Christian, and at the age of 70 converted to Islam, asserts that he has
never in any language found stylistic perfection equaling that of the Qur'an:
When I was a Christian I used to say,
as did an uncle of mine who was one of the learned and eloquent men, that eloquence
is not one of the signs of prophethood because it is common to all the peoples; but
when I discarded (blind) imitation and (old) customs and gave up adhering to (mere)
habit and training and reflected upon the meanings of the Qur'an I came to
know that what the followers of the Qur'an claimed for it was true. The fact
is that I have not found any book, be it by an Arab or a Persian, an Indian or a
Greek, right from the beginning of the world up to now, which contains at the same
time praises of God, belief in the prophets and apostles, exhortations to good, everlasting
deeds, command to do good and prohibition against doing evil, inspiration to the
desire of paradise and to avoidance of hell-fire as this Qur'an does. So when
a person brings to us a book of such qualities, which inspires such reverence and
sweetness in the hearts and which has achieved such an overlasting success and he
is (at the same time) an illiterate person who did never learnt the art of writing
or rhetoric, that book is without any doubt one of the signs of his Prophethood.[21]
What Do Orientalists
Say About The Arab Grammarians?
On this issue two quotes will suffice, Inshallah:
The Arab grammarians were excellent linguists
in both the realm of phonetics and in that of grammar and syntax. Jonathan Owens'
The Foundation of Grammar (1988) as well as a new book just completed by
him on medieval Arabic grammar have convincingly demonstrated that, in many ways,
the Arab grammarians were way ahead of their time.[22]
Guillaume in his preface of the book The Legacy Of Islam
writes:
Since the beginning of the nineteenth
century there has been a constant recourse to Arabic for the explanation of rare
words and forms in Hebrew; for Arabic though more than a thousand years junior as
a literary language, is the senior philosophically by countless centuries. Perplexing
phenomenon in Hebrew can often be explained as solitary and archaic survivals of
the form which are frequent and common in the cognate Arabic. Words and idioms whose
precise sense had been lost in Jewish tradition, receive a ready and convincing explanation
from the same source. Indeed no serious student of the Old Testament can afford to
dispense with a first-hand knowledge in Arabic. The pages of any critical commentary
on the Old Testament will illustrate the debt of the Biblical exegesis owes to Arabic.[23]
Actually this phenomenon of the use of Arabic words
and grammar by Jews goes back to the times of Saadia Gaon.
The Qur'an: How
It Influenced The Jews and What They Say About it?
The Jews were greatly influenced by the work of Arab
grammarians who analysed the Qur'an. Their influence was primarily on the linguistic
and contextual interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Most of the quotes are self explanatory.
According to the Jewish scholars:
Jewish scholars in Arab lands for the
first time in history acquired the tools for proper contexual study of the scriptures.
Islam had spread the tenets of rationalism, mediating in part the philosophical teachings
of classical Greece.[24]
In addition, Arab grammarians had
developed a systematic method for analyzing the style and the structure of classical
Arabic, the language of the Koran. This enabled them not only to interpret the Koran
but also to compose new works in the strict standards of the classical idiom.[25]
Jews in Arab lands had the potential
to become comparative semitic linguists.[26]
Jews who studied Arabic language and
literature, as well as other academic disciplines, learned the new linguistic science
and desired to exploit it in their exegesis of the Bible and the analysis of Hebrew
grammar. Only those who knew Arabic grammar developed the proper understanding of
the Hebrew verb as the stem built upon three consonants. Hebrew verb stems in
which the letters alef, vav and yod appear for example, do not display these weak
consonants in all forms. These weak consonants do appear in the various forms of
Arabic verb, However. Jewish scholars with linguistic sophistication realized that
the weak consonants were part of the Hebrew verb even where they are not evident.
Jewish exegetes, such as those in France, who did not read Arabic, failed to comprehend
the triconsonantal basis of the Hebrew verb-stem and as a result, confused certain
stems and misinterpreted them. C'est la vie. Characteristic of the Spanish Jewish
scholars was their superior interest and training in linguistic analysis, a benefit
of having grown up in an Arabic milieu.[27]
His (Rabbi Saadiah) Arabic translation
of the Bible, however continues in use as the official version of Jews from Arab
lands. It is also a mine of original insight into the meaning of difficult Hebrew
words and phrases in the Bible, of which the modern scholars have barely taken advantage.[28]
(Ibn Janah's) two-volume analysis of
biblical vocabulary, grammar, and style remains the most brilliant and valuable contribution
of all time to the study of biblical language. The two volumes The Book of Roots
and The Book of Embroidery (his figure for grammar) exist only in the original
Arabic and a medieval Hebrew translation.[29]
In the words of the famous Hebrew linguist Saadia
Gaon:
Saadia expresses himself unreservedly
about his indebtness to Arabic authors, who served him as models in the composition
of his work. "It is reported," he says, "that one of the worthies
among the Ishmaelites, realizing to his sorrow that the people do not use the Arabic
language correctly, wrote a short treatise for them. From which they might learn
proper usages. Similarly, I have noticed that many of the Israelites even the common
rules for the correct usage of our (Hebrew) language, much less the more difficult
rules, so that when they speak in prose most of it is faulty, and when they write
poetry only a few of the ancient rules are observed, and majority of them are neglected.
This has induced me to compose a work in two parts containing most of the (Hebrew)
words." [30]
The author went on to say:
The rules of the Hebrew grammer adverted
to in the fragments of this work possessed by us - only a little more than the introduction
has been preserved - like wise reveal the influence of the school of Arabic grammarians.[31]
And in another place in the same book, we read:
In all probability the language of
the Koran had become the vernacular of most of the Jews and the Samaritans soon after
the Hegrah. This being the case, it is obvious that Saadia could make use of the
literature of the Arabs as well as the works of Judeo-Arabic authors.[32]
In this document, I tried to deal with I'jaz al-Qur'an,
Arab grammarians who worked on the Qur'an and their influence on the Jews.
There are, of course, many other references which I have not yet dealt with. I will
be dealing with them as soon as I get them, Inshallah.
References
[1] The
Encyclopedia Of Islam, 1971, Volume 3, E J Brill,
Leiden, p. 885.
[2] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and
G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic Literature
To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, 1983, Cambridge
University Press, p. ??.
[3] The
Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 1019.
[4] Gustave E Von Grunebaum, A Tenth-Century Document Of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism, 1950, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p. xiv.
[5] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and
G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic Literature
To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit.,
p. 212.
[6] Ibid., pp. 127-128.
[7] Ibid., p. 128.
[8] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz
ul Qur'an, 1933, Islamic Culture, Volume
VII, Hyderabad Deccan, p. 221.
[9] cAlî Dashti (Translated from the Persian by F R C Bagley),
Twenty Three Years: A Study Of
The Prophetic Career Of Mohammad, 1985, George
Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, p. 48.
[10] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and
G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic Literature
To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit.,
p. 213.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ignaz Goldziher, Ed. S M Stern, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien) II, 1971, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, pp. 364-365.
[13] Ibid., p. 364.
[14] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and
G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic Literature
To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit.,
p. 213.
[15] The
Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 905.
[16] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz
ul Qur'an, Islamic Culture, Op.
Cit., p. 232.
[17] Gustave E Von Grunebaum, A Tenth-Century Document Of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism, Op. Cit., p. xiv.
[18] The
Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 1019.
[19] Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien) II,
Op. Cit., p. 363.
[20] Andrew Rippin (Ed.), Approaches of The History of Interpretation of The Qur'an, 1988, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 154.
[21] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz
ul Qur'an, Islamic Culture, Op.
Cit., pp. 222-223.
[22] Review of Grammaire
Fonctionnelle de l'arabe du Coran
(Bahmani Nedger) by Alan S Kaye, 1990, The Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Volume 35(4), The Canadian Linguistic Association, p. 381.
[23] Alfred Guillaume, The Legacy Of Islam, 1931,
Oxford, p. ix.
[24] Barry W Holtz (Ed.), Back to the Sources: Reading The Classic Jewish Texts: The
First Complete Modern Guide To The Great Books of Jewish Tradition: What They Are
And How To Read Them, 1992, Simon and Schuster,
p. 221.
[25] Ibid., p. 222.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid., pp. 222-223.
[29] Ibid., p. 223.
[30] Henry Malter, Saadia
Gaon: His Life And Works, 1921, The Jewish Publication
Society of America, Philadelphia, pp. 39-40.
[31] Ibid., p. 40.
[32] Ibid., p. 37.
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