Here you can read the first installment of this analysis.
The term "Koran" is derived from the Semitic root qaraʼa, in the sense of recitation or recited reading, hence psalmody. Already in antiquity, Christians and Near Eastern Jews used the equivalent Aramaic voice, qeryan, to indicate the solemn recitation of sacred texts. However, the use of the same root is even older: ʼAnī qōl qōreʼ ba-midbar (Hebrew: voice of one crying out in the wilderness, as in the book of the prophet Isaiah, later quoted in Greek in the New Testament) has the meaning to cry out, to call, to proclaim, to sing.
The Koran is the sacred text of Muslims. For most of them it is the uncreated word of God. It is divided into one hundred and fourteen chapters, called sūra, with their respective verses, called ayāt. For any non-Islamic exegete, there are many passages in the text that are identical or parallel to those in other older documents, the Old and New Testaments in the first place, as well as pre-Islamic practices, traditions and customs such as belief in goblins, ǧinn, pilgrimage rites, legends of vanished peoples and the veneration of the Ka‛ba.
El problema de las fuentes coránicas es, por lo tanto, muy importante. Dichas fuentes no pueden sin duda alguna ser algo escrito, ya que Mahoma, considerado universalmente autor (por los académicos) o portador (por los creyentes musulmanes) de la revelación reportada en el Corán, era analfabeto y no podía, por supuesto, tener acceso personal a la lectura de libros sagrados cristianos y judíos.
Por consiguiente, es en forma oral que muchas nociones religiosas del cristianismo y el judaísmo llegaron a sus oídos, y esto en dos fases: los festivales populares que se celebraban periódicamente en La Meca, donde los prosélitos de sectas heréticas cristianas y judías a menudo se refugiaban para escapar de la persecuciones en el Imperio Bizantino (eso se puede deducir de muchas nociones cristianas heréticas y reminiscencias de los libros de haggadah y de libros apócrifos de los que abunda el Corán) y, como dijimos, los viajes comerciales que M. realizó más allá del desierto (también en este caso las nociones que tuvo que aprender son pocas, imprecisas e incompletas, como se desprende de las citas coránicas).
We have seen, then, that Muḥammad was immediately convinced that he was the subject of a revelation already communicated to other peoples before him, the Jews and the Christians, and that it came from the same source, a heavenly book which he called umm al-kitāb. However, the communications in his case occurred intermittently, which caused opponents to laugh at him. We have also seen that Allah often provided the latter with incredibly appropriate responses to his demands and difficulties and admonitions, such as the following:
"The disbelievers say: 'Why has not the Qur'an been revealed to you all at once? But [know, O Muhammad, that] We have revealed it to you gradually, that We may thus strengthen your heart. And whenever they present an argument [against the Message] We will reveal to you the Truth, so that you may refute them with a clearer and more evident foundation.[1]".
The result of such intermittency, and of Muhammad's habit of often changing his version, is the fragmentary character of the Qur'an, as well as the lack of a logical and chronological order: everything is for immediate use and consumption. This was already obvious to the early Qur'anic commentators, shortly after the death of the "prophet" of Islam, particularly with regard to the question of verses abrogated by later ones. To try to resolve the matter in the best way, the sūra were classified into Meccan and Medinan, according to the period in which they were revealed.
La caligrafía y ornamentación antigua del Corán India probablemente antes de 1669 DC.
It is divided into three phases: a first, corresponding to the first four years of Muhammad's public life, characterized by brief, passionate and solemn sūra, with short verses and teachings full of force intended to prepare the minds of the listeners for the day of judgment (yawm al-dīn); a second, covering the next two years, in which the enthusiasm, at the beginning of the persecutions, cools down and stories are told about the lives of the previous prophets, in a form very similar to the haggadah (rabbinic literature of a narrative and homiletic type); a third, from the seventh to the tenth year of public life in Mecca, also full of prophetic legends, as well as descriptions of divine punishments.
We find the great change undergone by M. after the hegira. The sūra are addressed to Jews and Christians, and the friendly and laudatory tone reserved for them in the first phase is gradually lost, culminating, in the last years of the life of the "prophet" of Islam, in a real attack. It is of this age, for example, the sūra 9, in which, in verse 29, it is demanded: the humiliation of:
"Fight those who believe neither in Allah nor in the Day of Judgment, do not respect what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the true religion [Islam] from among the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], unless these agree to pay a tax [whereby they are allowed to live under the protection of the Islamic state while retaining their religion] with submission."
This will be translated into laws that will impose various restrictions on those who profess the Jewish or Christian religion, such as dressing in a special way, not being able to carry weapons and ride horses, etc.
Aunque el Pentateuco, los Salmos y el Evangelio son admitidos explícitamente como revelados por el Corán, existen diferencias considerables entre el islam y el judaísmo, y aún más entre el islam y el cristianismo. Estas divergencias, como dijimos, reflejan los contactos entre Mahoma y las sectas heréticas cristianas, cuya existencia en esa época era algo bastante común tanto en el Imperio Bizantino como, sobre todo, justo fuera de sus fronteras.
Entre las divergencias más evidentes, están aquellas relacionadas con la figura de Cristo, por las cuales los libros apócrifos cristianos ejercen una particular influencia sobre el Corán. En el libro sagrado del Islam, por ejemplo: Jesús es el hijo de María y nació de un nacimiento virginal, y sin embargo, esta María es la hermana de Moisés; los milagros realizados por Jesús desde la infancia se narran con gran detalle, y se le atribuyen los nombres de Mesías, Espíritu de Alá y Palabra, colocándolo en un nivel de superioridad con respecto a los otros profetas, pero se especifica que Cristo no es más que un siervo de Alá, un hombre como los demás; se establece, entre otras cosas, que su muerte en la cruz nunca habría ocurrido: en lugar de Jesús, solo un simulacro habría sido crucificado[2].
Another considerable difference, which for Islam is something absolutely earthly (another reason why we speak of Islam as a natural religion), made to impress the simple and rough inhabitants of the desert: green gardens, enchanting streams, wine that does not intoxicate, virgins always untouched. There is nothing there to express the concept of the beatific vision and the participation of believers in the very life of God: Allah is inaccessible to human vision (6/103).
Finally, among other differences, there is the predetermination of human actions by Allah (in this respect Islam is very similar to Calvinism). There are passages of the Koran more or less in favor of or completely opposed to free will, but it is the latter that have been accepted, with skillful corrections, by Sunni orthodoxy, and that to give Islam its predeterminist mark (the maktub, the destiny of each man, is rigidly written and predetermined by God).
The actual compilation of the Qur'an is subsequent to Muhammad's death, at which time the compilation of all the fragments of the revelation that he himself had entrusted to his followers began. The sūra were ordered by length (from the longest to the shortest, although with several exceptions, also due to the impossibility of a logical or chronological order). To this same period goes back the beginning of the fierce struggles and internal divisions, between various parties and currents, struggles all suffocated in blood, with each side fabricating verses and Koranic quotations à la carte that supported the respective claims.
It is an Arabic word meaning "beaten path", like halakhah in Hebrew, and indicates the written law From a semantic point of view, both terms, Arabic and Hebrew, can be assimilated to our "law" ("direct" path, way to follow). The Šarī‛a, Islamic law or law (according to the "orthodox" Sunni view), is based on four main sources:
As we have already spoken of the Koran, let us analyze directly the other three sources, starting with the sunna (habit, tradition, line of conduct of the ancestors), which is a word that indicates, even before Muhammad, the traditional customs that regulated the life of the Arabs. In the Islamic context, the same term defines the set of sayings, deeds and attitudes of Muhammad according to the testimony of his contemporaries. And it is here that the ḥadiṯ comes into play, i.e., the narration or account of Muhammad's sunna made according to a given scheme, based on isnād (support and enumeration in ascending order of the persons who reported the anecdote until reaching the direct witness of the episode) and matn (the text, body of the narration). This source was extremely necessary when, at the death of M., Islam was only a draft of what would later become. It was also necessary, after the conquest of such vast territories and the consequent confrontation with new cultures, to find solutions to problems and difficulties with which the "messenger of God" had never been directly confronted.
Y fue precisamente a Mahoma a quien se recurrió para que él mismo pudiera especificar, aunque ya había fallecido, una serie de puntos que solo se intuyen en el Corán o que nunca se abordaron, en relación con varias disciplinas. Así, se creó un conjunto de tradiciones verdaderas, presuntas o falsas en un momento en que cada una de las facciones que luchaban dentro del islam afirmaba tener a Mahoma de su lado y le atribuía esta o aquella afirmación, construyendo aparatos enteros de testimonios totalmente desconfiados.
El método que se adoptó para detener este flujo desbordante fue extremadamente arbitrario. De hecho, no se utilizó el análisis textual y ni la evidencia interna de los textos (lo mismo se puede decir con respecto a la exégesis coránica que es casi inexistente), que es el criterio por excelencia, en el cristianismo, para determinar y verificar la autenticidad de un texto. Por lo contrario, se confió exclusivamente en la reputación de los garantes: si, por lo tanto, la cadena de testigos era satisfactoria, cualquier cosa podía ser aceptada como verdadera. Hay que señalar, con relación a ello, las tradiciones definidas como más antiguas y cercanas a Mahoma son las menos confiables y que más han sido construidas artificialmente (algo que también es posible averiguar por la excesiva afectación del idioma).
The third source of Islamic law, or Šarī‛a, is the qiyās, or deduction by analogy, through which, from the examination of determined and resolved questions, the solution was found for others not foreseen. The criterion used, in this case, is ra'y, i.e. point of view, intellectual view, judgment or personal opinion. The source in question became necessary from the dawn of Islam, since, as we have seen, the inconsistency of the Qur'an and the ḥadīṯ had produced considerable confusion and led to the entry into force, for the first two sources, of the tradition of the abrogator and the abrogated.
However, if in case the qiyās had not been sufficient to resolve all unresolved issues, a fourth source, the vox populi or iǧmā‛ (popular consensus) was inserted to provide a solid basis for the entire legal and doctrinal apparatus. This source seemed more than justified for both Qur'anic quotations and for some hadīṯ, in one of which Muhammad claimed that his community would never err. The iǧmā‛ may consist in a doctrinal consensus reached by the doctors of the law; in a consensus of execution, when it concerns customs established in common practice; in a tacit consent, even if not unanimous, by the jurisconsults, in the case of public acts not involving the condemnation of anyone.
El trabajo constructivo para deducir el derecho de las cuatro fuentes indicadas (Corán, sunna, qiyās e iǧmā‛) se llama iǧtihād (da ǧ-h-d, la misma raíz que el término ǧihād), o “esfuerzo intelectual”. El esfuerzo en cuestión, una verdadera elaboración del derecho positivo islámico, basado sin embargo en una palabra “revelada”, duró hasta alrededor del siglo X, cuando se formaron las escuelas jurídicas (maḍhab), después de lo cual “las puertas iǧtihād” se consideran oficialmente cerradas. Desde entonces, tan solo se puede aceptar lo que ya se ha resuelto, sin introducir más innovaciones (bid‛a).
Los más rígidos en este sentido son los wahabitas (fundados por Muḥammad ibn ‛Abd-el-Waḥḥab: la doctrina wahabita es la oficial del reino de los Sa‛ūd, monarcas absolutos de Arabia Saudita) y los salafistas (fundadores y principales exponentes: Ǧamal al-Dīn al-Afġāni e Muḥammad ‛Abduh, siglo XIX; los Hermanos musulmanes son parte de esta corriente). Según la visión de ambos movimientos, dentro de la doctrina islámica se introdujeron innovaciones excesivas; por lo tanto, es necesario volver a los orígenes, a la edad de oro, la de los padres (salaf), en particular la de la vida de Mahoma en Medina y de sus primeros sucesores, o califas.
Before proceeding further, we may say a few words regarding the concept of ǧihād. Muslim law considers the world divided into two categories: dār al-islām (house of Islam) and dār al-ḥarb (house of war): against the latter, Muslims are in a state of constant war, until the whole world is not subject to Islam. The ǧihād is so important, in Islamic law, that it is almost considered a sixth pillar of Islam. In this sense, there are two obligations to fight: a collective one (farḍ al-kifāya), when there is a sufficient number of troops; an individual one (farḍ al-‛ayn), in case of danger and defense of the Muslim community.
There are two types of ǧihād, one small and the other large. The first is the duty to fight to propagate Islam; the second is the daily and constant individual effort in the way of God, in practice, a path of conversion. It is through the ǧihād that many Christian lands have fallen, most often by capitulation, into Islamic hands and, in this case, their inhabitants, considered "people of the covenant" or ahl al-ḏimma, or simply ḏimmī, have become state-protected subjects, second-class citizens subject to the payment of a capitulation tax, called ǧizya, and of a tribute on lands owned, ḫarāǧ.
Gerardo Ferrara
BA in History and Political Science, specializing in the Middle East.
Head of the student body at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
