Qur'an.
Publié le 10/05/2013
Extrait du document
«
man who profoundly influenced the history of the world.
See Spread of Islam.
Muhammad’s home, the Arab city of Mecca, was a major religious center and site of the revered sanctuary and shrine, the Kaaba.
According to legend, the ancientreligious patriarch of the Hebrew Bible, Abraham, and his son, Ishmael, built the shrine using foundations laid by the first human being and father of humankind, Adam.During Muhammad’s years there, from about AD 570 to 622, Mecca was also an environment of spiritual and intellectual unrest.
The people of Mecca lived under an ancient system of tribes and clans; this system had evolved from their former nomadic lifestyle of herding and moving from place to place according to seasonalchanges.
But the moral values of this tribal social system were breaking down as the people struggled to adapt themselves to the lifestyle of Mecca, a thrivingcommercial town.
As an orphan, dependent on his uncle for protection and a livelihood, Muhammad experienced the bitter competition and politics of his times.
Muhammad was probably exposed to both Christian and Jewish religious dialogues in Mecca.
Prior to his prophetic call, Muhammad had developed the custom ofretreating to a cave outside Mecca to meditate and pray.
During one such retreat when he was 40 years old, he experienced the call to prophethood.
The followingverses (Qur’an 96:1-5) are said to be the first revelation.
Recite: In the Name of thy Lord, who created,Created Man of a blood clot.Recite: And thy Lord is the Most Generous,Who taught by the Pen,Taught Man that he knew not.
According to Islamic tradition, revelations such as this continued to come to Muhammad in Mecca for 13 years, and later in Medina, a city about 300 km (200 mi) to thenorth, where he migrated in 622 and lived until he died in 632.
The revelations came in fragments as responses to the circumstances that he and his emerging Muslimcommunity faced.
The fragmentary nature of the revelations distinguishes the Qur’an from other sacred texts, including many books of the Hebrew Bible, which tell acoherent history or story.
V THE ONE TRUE VERSION
There was no definitive written text of the Qur’an while Muhammad was still alive, but the structure of the suras (chapters) and their titles may have been influenced by the Prophet.
Muslims generally believe that the authorized version of the Qur’an derives its text and the number and order of the chapters from the work of acommission appointed by the third caliph (Islamic political leader), Uthman ibn Affan, during the second half of his reign, roughly 20 years after Muhammad’s death.
The most widely accepted history of this Uthmanic text is that the commission relied upon a written copy of the entire text that was collected from written and oralversions within two years of the Prophet’s death during the reign of the first caliph, Abu Bakr.
Written versions had been created by those who acted as Muhammad’ssecretaries and wrote down the revelations as the Prophet received them.
Oral versions existed because some of Muhammad’s companions had memorized severalchapters.
The commission thus succeeded in establishing a complete text.
Different readings of certain words and verses, however, continued for a long time.
This was due to differences among dialects of Arabic and deficiencies in the scriptused for writing at that time.
Although Arabic script shows the characteristics of a consonantal script, there are several cases where the same form of writing was usedto represent more than one consonant without any distinguishing mark.
Even if there were agreement on the consonants, some words could be read in different waysbecause the earliest copies of the Qur’an were transcribed without symbols to represent certain vowels.
Diacritical marks were added to the text a few generations afterits creation, but the Uthmanic text was probably not accepted as a definitive text until the beginning of the 4th century of the Islamic calendar (10th century AD).
In the 20th century an Egyptian edition printed in 1924 became the official text throughout the Islamic world.
The Uthmanic or canonical text represents a different sequence than the order in which Muhammad reportedly received the revelations.
The chapters, after the shortopening chapter called al-Fatihah, are arranged roughly in descending order of length.
Because the first revelations are the shorter chapters, they are assigned to theend.
It is not known why the chapters were arranged in this way, but this order has been preserved since the Uthmanic text was established.
The Qur’an is divided into 114 chapters, or suras, each of which is further divided into a number of ayat (verses).
The chapter titles were taken from images or events included in the suras.
The chapters are customarily classified as either Meccan or Medinan, in reference to the two cities in which Muhammad lived and reportedlyreceived the revelations.
However, some chapters are composite, with Meccan verses inserted in the midst of a largely Medinan chapter and vice versa.
For the purposeof recitation the Qur’an is divided into various schemes, such as 30 equal ajza (parts) so that it can be read in full during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, by reciting one part per day.
The 1924 Egyptian Qur’anic text is printed with full diacritical marks and other signs that give precise guidance for the pronunciation of each word, especially for thosereaders who do not know Arabic.
Although Arabic can be written without vowels, the meaning of Arabic words depends upon both consonants and vowels.
For centuriesthe Qur’an was transcribed without symbols to represent the missing vowels, so that more than one reading of the text was possible.
Despite the consensus amongMuslim scholars on the authority of the Uthmanic text, seven or more legitimate readings of the Qur’an prevailed during the early centuries of Islam.
VI TRANSLATION
The vast majority of Muslims in the world do not speak Arabic, so the Qur’an in its original language is not accessible to them.
Nevertheless, Muslims have traditionallyobjected to its translation on the grounds that it is the word of God.
Islamic doctrine teaches that the Qur’an is the miracle of Muhammad and neither its compositionnor its contents can be imitated.
However, those Islamic scholars who advocate translation argue that the Qur’anic message is universal.
According to the Qur’an, theyargue, God never sent a messenger who did not speak the language of the people.
For these believers the very verse explaining why the Qur’an was revealed in Arabicimplies an obligation to translate and transmit its message to non-Arabs.
Translations of the Qur’an into other languages, for the express purpose of making themeaning of the text available to all, may have existed as early as the 9th century AD.
For both ceremonial and nonceremonial purposes, however, the Qur’an must be recited in the original Arabic.
The unique Arab literary characteristics of the Qur’an, such as its chantlike rhythms and dramatic images, remain formidable obstacles to translation.
The Qur’an wasthe first prose book in Arabic and it has remained the model of excellence for Arabic literature.
As a sacred book the Qur’an has a value beyond that of literature, but ithas also been judged by literary critics of the Arabic language to be artistically unequalled in its beauty.
It was due to the position of the Qur’an in Arab Muslim societythat Arabic became a world language..
»
↓↓↓ APERÇU DU DOCUMENT ↓↓↓