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Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim Sources on Spirituality and Religious Life

University of California Press

The Qur'an's 114 chapters (suras) offer a wide array of literary styles, lengths, tones, themes, and textures. Some of the earliest suras, dating from the first years of Muhammad's public ministry (610615), are only a few verses in lengthSura 112, for instance: "Say: He, God, is one; God is everlasting; he does not beget and he is not begotten, and there is none like him"; or Sura 110: "When the help of God and victory arrive, and you see humankind entering God's religion in throngs, then break forth with praise of your Lord and seek his forgiveness, for he is ever turning back [to forgive]." After the community left Mecca for Medina in 622, the qur'anic texts gradually shifted in style and tone from more poetic and exhortatory to more prosaic, and in content from pedagogical narrative and apocalyptic imagery to regulatory and practical instruction.

The two complete suras that follow represent the early and later Meccan periods; both are particularly suitable for recitation even in translation. Surat ar-Rahman (55), presented first, needs to be read aloud to be appreciated, while Surat Yusuf (12) offers an excellent opportunity for group dramatization. It is the only sura dedicated entirely to a single narrative, and Joseph is the only one of the prophets whose story the Qur'an tells without interruption.

Surat ar-Rahman, the Merciful
Anthony H. Johns

From the litany of divine blessings in this expansive paean one gets a vivid sense of the earliest Muslim teaching about the creator and sustainer of all, about this world as a theater of God's revelation, and about the ultimate consequences of faith and unbelief. Intensity builds with the insistent refrain.

1   The Merciful

2   He taught the Qur'an.

3   He created the human being.

4   He taught him speech.

5   Sun and Moon follow their courses.

6   Creeping plants and trees both bow before Him.

7   He has raised up the heavens and set the Scale of Justice

8   [so firmly] that you cannot play it false.

9   Apply this scale with justice;
you must not give short measure by this scale.

10   The earth God has set out for His creatures;

11   in it are fruits of every kind

12   and date palms packed with blossom,
unwinnowed grain and fragrant herbs

13   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

14   He fashioned the human being like earthen ware from potter's clay;

15   He fashioned the jinn from fire with smokeless flame

16   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

17   He is Lord of the furthest points of the sun's rising
and  its setting

18   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

19   He has let the two great waters flow to a point of meeting,

20   yet between them rests a barrier they cannot breach

21   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

22   From them come forth pearls and coral

23   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

24   His are the ships on the sea with sails aloft like mountains

25   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

26   Everything upon the earth is to perish,

27   yet the face of your Lord will remain
full of might and honor

28   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

29   Everything in the heavens and on earth is supplicant to Him;
every day He is attentive [to them]

30   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

31   We have ample time to deal with you,
you and your burdens

32   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

33   You, company of jinn and humankind,
try, if you can, to enter the regions of heaven and earth,
try to enter them!

      Enter them you shall not other than with the power

      [We alone can give]

34   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

35   Smokeless flame and flameless smoke will be hurled against you;
no help shall reach you

37   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

38   Then when the heaven is sundered and glows rose like tanned hide

39   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

40   on that day neither human creatures nor jinn need be questioned of
their sins

41   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

42   Evildoers will be known by the marks they bear, then will they be seized by
their feet and forelocks.

43   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

44   Here is the hell the evildoers denied.
They circle between it and scalding water

45   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

46   But for one who fears his encounter before his Lord
there are two gardens

47   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

48   in each of them boughs giving shade

49   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

50   in each of them two flowing springs

51   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

52   in each of them of every fruit two kinds

53   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

54   as they recline on couches, lined with
thick textured silk,
and the fruit of both gardens at hand hanging low

55   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

56   In them are maidens of modest gaze
neither man nor jinn having yet touched them

57   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

58   their beauty like that of jacinth and coral

59   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

60   Can goodness receive aught but goodness?

61   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

62   And below them both are two other gardens

63   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

64   both of deep green

65   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

66   In each of them two springs abundantly flowing

67   which then of your Lord's blessings can you deny?

68   In...