The Qur’an
The Qur’an is considered to be the main sacred text in Islam. It is the central religious text for all Muslims, which they believe to be a revelation from the God.
In Islamic world, people believe the Qur’an’s text was verbally delivered from the God to the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. For this reason, no human authorship is acknowledged. According to a number of sources, the Qur’an had been written for approximately y twenty-three years, starting on Muhammad’s 40th birthday, namely on 22 December 609 CE, and till the year of the Prophet’s death, namely 632 CE (Fisher, 1997). The Qur’an is regarded by the Muslims as a proof of Muhammad’s prophethood (Brannon, 2002).This Islamic sacred text consists of 114 suras (chapters of different lengths).
There are Meccan or Medinan suras. They are classified into the two groups mentioned before depending on the time they were revealed to Muhammad, namely before or after the prophet’s arrival to the city of Medina. However, sometimes Median suras may contain some Meccan verses, as well as vice versa. Suras are comprised of several verses, ayats.
The literary style of the Qur’an is specific due to numerous phonetic and thematic structures, as well as literary devices. The language of this sacred text is often described as rhymed prose because there are both poetry and prose in the Qur’an. Very often the text makes references to its self. There is no clear chronological or thematic order in the Qur’an (Boullata, 2013).The process of translating the Qur’an was extremely difficult.
It is believed by many Muslims that this text cannot be reproduced in any other language than Arabic. Nevertheless, this sacred text has been translated into a wide range of European, African and Asian languages. The first translation was made in the 7th century to Persian. The first translation of this text into English was made only in the 17th century.
References
Boullata, I. J. (2013). Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qu'ran. Routledge.
Brannon, M. W. (2002). Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-4957-3.
Fisher, M.P. (1997). Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths, Tauris …
