Qu’ran Review – Flashcards

Suras- 114 Ayahs-6236

1/30 of the Qu'ran

1/7 of the Qu'ran

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It is standard practice to arrange literary works in such ways in European literature, Arabic poetry would arrange works from longest to shortest, the Qu'ran clearly starts off with longer sure that become shorter throughout.

1. Sura 2 would be first 2. Sura 4 would be second 3. Sura 7 would be fourth 4. Sura 6 would be fifth 5. Sura 5 would be 6th This may be due to the fact that suras 2 and 3 start off with the same severed letters of LM and the Qu'ran as compiled now has the suras arranged in a certain way were suras with similar severed letters that begin them are placed together. Additionally, the Fatiha comes first due to the fact that it is a prayer that frames the rest of the Qu'ran. Allah knows best.

Islahi arranged the Qu'ran in seven groups of suras, each that begin with Meccan suras in the first part and end with Medinian suras. This was done to emulate the Prophetic career, as it began in Mecca and then moved to Medina. Each sura has an amud, or pillar, which describes the overarching theme within each sura. The seven groups likewise have an overarching amid in which the Meccan suras often given the theoretical framework for those a muds', while the Medinian give the practical application of them. Often times suras within each groups are paired, as one may give a premise while the other gives a conclusion based on that. Although there are several exceptions such as the Fatiha, Sura Nur, and Sura Azhab. Islahi draws proof and legitimacy for his theory form the Qu'ran and Sunna. Allah knows best.

The decreasing length rule has often been given to explain this phenomenon, although th erule is not followed in any of the copies of the Qu'ran we have today including the standard Uthmani text, Ibn Masud's, or Ubayd's. In general, it is not known why. However, I believe the reason that they are arrange din such a a way is that those compiling the Qu'ran wanted to set down the practical and dogmatic understanding of the religion and the Qu'ran in the beginning as it presupposed an Islamic audience. This is to establish th ebeliefs and practices of the ummah, while the shorter more emphatic Meccan suras come at the end to bracket the litanies and oft repeated prayers many use in prayers as to give practical application of the guidelines and practices outlined in the earlier longer suras which place prayer and charity among the chief practices of all believers should practice. THEOLOGICALLY THIS IS THE ORDER THE ANGEL JIBRIL AS REVEALED IT TO THE PROPHET SAW. Allah knows best.

It is an embodiement of the entire Qu'ran like the fatiha. However, the fatiha is an abridgement of the entire Qu'ran that give its overall broad and general teachings, beliefs, and practices, while Baqarah is a very practical, extended abridgement of the entire Qu'ran. It begins as an answer to the prayer made in the Fatiha that asks Allah to keep the beleivers on the straight and narrow path, and it has a verse numerically in the middle that describes the Muslim ummah as a middle nation.

He follows Nockeleke's model of dividing the Meccan suras into three periods; early, middle, and later periods. All of them are made up of "building blocks" or oft-recurring themes that appear in all the suras compromising of a period of revelations such as the rider oaths which make oaths on certain aspects of nature such as time, olives, etcs, end time depcitions, references to ayats or signs in nature, punishment stories that relate the history of varoius Prophets PBUTA that relate how they come to their people, are rejected, and for that Allah punishes them. Early Meccan suras have a greater number of different rhymes, a strong range of structural composition, and are compromise the majority of suras that come at the end of the Qu'ran and once recited in muslim prayers. Middle Meccan suras. Middle Meccan suras shift from rider oaths to affirmation of revelation, while Later Meccan suras features more debates. Both are considerably longer than the early Meccan suras, and have tripartite sructures which appeared slightly in the early Meccan suras now become the norm. The tripartite structure of Middle and Later Meccan suras have a ring structure with parrallel beginnings and endings that praise God, list virtues and vices, debate unbeleivers, and affirm the revelation; the third part ending with a powerful affirmation of revelation.

They are unique from Meccan suras as they feature communication with the Prophet Muhammad SAW through the customary address you as well as the title Prophet and Messenger that did not appear in the Meccan suras. Additonaly, it features debates with pagans as well as Jews and Christians, narratives focus on Israelites and their Prophets. Significantly reduced themes from the Meccan period which includes end tie materials, affirmation of revelation, and description of the signs of God in nature. He proposes to outline their structure and form through ring structure or chiasmus. An example includes Michel Cuypers breakdown of Sura Baqarah which he outlines in greater detail in his book The Banquet as well as a breakdown of Sura 60 which has a concentric structure that goes A (v. 1-20) Faith vs. unbelief, B (v. 21-39) God's creation, His ecompassing knowledge, C (v. 40-103) Moses delievers law to Children of Israel, D (v. 104-141) Abraham was tested, Ka'ba buildt by Abraham and Ishamael, E (v. 142-52) The Ka'ba is the new qibla; this is a test of fiath, D1 (v. 153-77) Muslims will be tested; Ka'ba and Meccan pilgrimage sites, C1 (v. 178-253) Prophet delivers law to Muslims PBUH, B1 (v. 254-84) God's creation, His encompassing knowledge, A1 (v. 285-86) Faith vs. unbelief.

His paper is based off two main convictions 1) that the Qu'ran has its own integrity and strrong impact on its readers, and 2) position is hermeneutic, and proper attention to composition and structure can contribute significantly to understanding the meaning of the sura. In terms of heurmenutic structure he employs the identification of several hermeneutic devices such as verse structure, rhyme patttern, and concatentation. He divides the sura into 5 main blocks; the first being the woman block, the second and fourth relating to the People of the book, the third beig the Battle block, and the last having a women cluster at the beginning, women verse at the end, and a hallow break in the middle that relates to verses 48 and 116 that are in blocks 2 and 4 respecitively. He states that literary research into the Qu'ran is the new biggest emerging field of research into the Qu'ran, and can reveal many interesting and insightful discoveries into the Qu'ran.

They are both begin with the same letters of LM and are amongst the longest suras in the entire Qu'ran. They are both of the Later Medinan period and thus have very similar themes that are common in the Later Medianian suras. While Sura Baqarah makes more references to the Jews, Sura Imran focuses more on Biblical characters such as Mary AS and Isa AS. They both give various legal injuctions to the new Muslim community, and discuss how the Qu'ran and Islam are the fulfillment of the pervious Prophetic traditions of Judaism and Christianity; the former being more stressed in Sura Baqarah and the later in Imran.

Since Sura Tawbah does not begin with the standard Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem that often begins every other sura besides it, it has been thought that this was due to it being a continuation of Sura Anfal. Many contemporary critics of the Qu'ran states that this is because the Sura has the infamous sword verse and various other abrograting verses that call for jihad, killing, etc. that offset more peaceful verses in the previous suras, and as such this sura has less mercy than the other suras and does not begin with Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem accordingly. However, if one were to read Sura Tawbah and Anfal they have very similar themes in relation to jihad, contracts with hypocrites and People of the Book, and references battles the Muslims participated in. Allah knows best.

Both are Medinian suras that come at the end of a group of Meccan suras, as outlined in Islahi's breakdown of the Qu'ran. Both do not have a corresponding pair sura according to Islahi's outline, histrically they were revealed back to back, Sura Nur coming before the Battle of the Trench and during the infamous rumor of Ayesha RA, Azhab coming after the Battle of the Trench, both around the middle historical portion of the Medinian period when the muslims gained more miliatary and political sway, yet had to deal more with internal strife and hypocrisy. Both suras relate themes of not being hypocritical in obedience to the Prophet SAW, marriage and gender relations with Sura Nur giving more broad and general rulings that pertain to the entire community, and Azhab giving specific rulings to the wives of the Prophet SAW, although Sura Nur was revealed to address the scandal relating to Ayesha.

Rider oaths such as the opening of Sura Asr which states by time, referenes to ayats such as Sura Rahman which relates to the numerous blessings in nature, punishment stories such as in Sura Fajr and Shams which talks about Pharoah and Thamud and how they rejected revelation and were thus punished for their rejection. Medinian suras feature debates with the People of the Book such as in Sura Baqarah and Imran and how Abraham AS was a believer before the Torah and Gospel, thus invalidating the claim religioius authority of the Jews and Christians, and how Isa AS was made from now father like Adam AS, thus invaldating the claim that he AS is divine. Other major themes in Medinan suras include references to Battles that replace punishment stories in Meccan suras such as the reference to Badr and other battles in Sura An-Fal and Tawbah that relate how the punishment of Allah will now be carried out by the Believers, although He is still the One ultimately responsible and in control of it. Addtionally, the Medinan suras are much more legislative in nature as seen in Sura Nur which relays how believers are to handle and punish fornicators.

The fatiha is seen as a prayer and an abridgement of the entire Qu'ran which is expanded on in more detail in Sura Baqarah. Furthermore, it is dovetailed with Sura Baqarah in that it makes a prayer for guidance from Allah, and Sura Baqarah opens with an affirmation that it is guidance for those with faith.

There are seven groups group 1 (s. 1-5) relates to the Shari'ah or Law- Sura Baqarah with its dietary laws and restrictions on usury group 2 (s. 6-9) relates to the Abrahamic religion- Sura 6 verses 83-86 which mentions various past Prophets PBUTA by name and that the Qu'ran is a confirmation of their shared prophetic legacy group 3 (s. 10-24) which talk about the struggle between Truth and Falsehood and the Divine law concerning it.- Sura 24 and how false rumors and scandals will perish and only harm those who spread them and not who they are spread about, such as with Ayesha RA group 4 (s. 25-33) which relate to the Proof of the Messenger Status (risalah).- Sura 26 which relays stories of past Prophets PBUTA and how they were rejected yet, and how Prophet SAW is the inheritor of this tradition group 5 (s. 34-49) which talk about the Unity of God.- Sura Ya Sin and talks about the dominion of the Heaven and Earth which is in God's hands group 6 (s. 50-66) which talks about the Hereafter- Al Waq'iah and the three groups of people in the Hereafter group 7 (s. 67-114) which relates the Warning of the Unbelievers.- Sura 113-114

Al Fatiha 1 - Al Baqarah 141 (1:1-2:141)

Al Baqarah 252 (2:142-2:252)

Al Baqarah 253 - Al Imran 92 (2:253-3:92)

Al Imran 93 - An Nisaa 23 (3:93-4:23)

• Juz' 5 - An Nisaa 24 - An Nisaa 147 (4:24-4:147)

• Juz' 6 - An Nisaa 148 - Al Ma'idah 81 (4:148-5:81)

• Juz' 7 - Al Ma'idah 82 - Al An'am 110 (5:82-6:110)

• Juz' 8 - Al An'am 111 - Al A'raf 87 (6:111-7:87)

• Juz' 9 - Al A'raf 88 - Al Anfal 40 (7:88-8:40)

• Juz' 10 - Al Anfal 41 - At Tauba 92 (8:41-9:92)

• Juz' 11 - At Tauba 93 - Hud 5 (9:93-11:5) Yunus 10

• Juz' 12 - Hud 6 - Yusuf 52 (11:6-12:52)

• Juz' 13 - Yusuf 53 - Ibrahim 52 (12:53-14:52) Ra'd 13

• Juz' 14 - Al Hijr 1 - An Nahl 128 (15:1-16:128)

• Juz' 15 - Al Isra (or Bani Isra'il) 1 - Al Kahf 74 (17:1-18:74)

• Juz' 16 - Al Kahf 75 - Ta Ha 135 (18:75-20:135) Maryam 19

• Juz' 17 - Al Anbiyaa 1 - Al Hajj 78 (21:1-22:78)

• Juz' 18 - Al Muminum 1 - Al Furqan 20 (23:1-25:20) Nur

• Juz' 19 - Al Furqan 21 - An Naml 55 (25:21-27:55) Shu'ara 26

• Juz' 20 - An Naml 56 - Al Ankabut 45 (27:56-29:45) Qasas 28

• Juz' 21 - Al Ankabut 46 - Al Azhab 30 (29:46-33:30) 30 Rum, Luqman 31, Sajdah 32

• Juz' 22 - Al Azhab 31 - Ya Sin 27 (33:31-36:27) 34 Saba', 35 Fatir

• Juz' 23 - Ya Sin 28 - Az Zumar 31 (36:28-39:31) 37 Saffat, 38 Sad

• Juz' 24 - Az Zumar 32 - Fussilat 46 (39:32-41:46) 40 Mu'min

• Juz' 25 - Fussilat 47 - Al Jathiya 37 (41:47-45:37) 42 Shura, 43 Zukhruf, 44 Dukhan

• Juz' 26 - Al Ahqaf 1 - Az Zariyat 30 (46:1-51:30) 47 Muhammad, 48 Fath, 49 Hujurat

• Juz' 27 - Az Zariyat 31 - Al Hadid 29 (51:31-57:29) 52 Tur, 53 Najm, 54 Qamar

• Juz' 28 - Al Mujadila 1 - At Tahrim 12 (58:1-66:12) 59 Hashr, 60 Mumtahinah, 61 Saff

• Juz' 29 - Al Mulk 1 - Al Mursalat 50 (67:1-77:50) 68 Qalam, 69 Haqqah, 70 Ma'arij

• Juz' 30 - An Nabaa 1 - An Nas 6 (78:1-114:6) 79 Nazi'at, 80 Abasa, 81 Takwir

1. Al-Fatihah (chapter 1) through An-Nisa' (chapter 4) consisting of 4 chapters. Baqarh, Imran

2. Al-Maida (chapter 5) through At-Tawba (chapter 9) consisting of 5 chapters. An'am 6, A'raf 7, Anfal 8

3. Yunus (chapter 10) through An-Nahl (chapter 16) consisting of 7 chapters. Hud 11, Yusuf 12, Ra'd 13

4. Isra' (chapter 17) through Al-Furqan (chapter 25) consisting of 9 chapters. Kahf 18, Maryam 19, Ta Ha 20

5. Ash-Shuara' (chapter 26) through Ya-Seen (chapter 36) consisting of 11 chapters. Naml 27, Qasas 28, Ankabut 29

6. As-Saffat (chapter 37) through Al-Hujarat (chapter 49) consisting of 13 chapters. Sad 38, Zumar 39, Ghafir 40

7. Qaf (chapter 50) through An-Nass (chapter 114) consisting of 65 chapters. Dhariyat 51, Tur 52, Najm 53