What is the

Qur’ân?
The Discover Islam Project|

The Qur’ân is the name given to Allah’s speech that

He revealed to His servant and Messenger
Muhammad (peace be upon him); speech that is
recited as an act of worship, is miraculous, and cannot
be imitated by man. It is the name of Allah’s Book,
and no other book is called by this name. The most
common names for Allah’s Book are al-Qur’ân (the
Recital) and al-Kitâb (the Book). This is an indication
of how much care has been taken in its preservation,
both in the memories of people as well as in written
form. Each way of preserving it reinforces the other.
The Qur’ân is revelation from Allah

Revelation is where Allah imparts whatever

knowledge He wills to those whom He chooses to
receive it. Allah gives this knowledge to them in order
for them to convey it to whomever else He wishes.

All the Messengers of Allah experienced revelation.

Allah says:
 Verily, We have sent Revelation to you (O
Muhammad) as We have sent Revelation to Noah and
the prophets who came after him. We had sent
revelation to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the
Tribes, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon. And
to David We gave the Psalms. And Messengers We
have told you about before, and Messengers We have
not told you about – and to Moses We spoke directly.
The possibility of divine revelation cannot be denied
by anyone who believes in the existence of Allah and
in His omnipotence. Allah maintains His creation in
any manner that pleases Him. The connection
between the Creator and his Creation is by way of His
Messengers, and these Messengers only know what
Allah wants from them by way of revelation, either
directly or indirectly. The rational mind cannot
dismiss the possibility of revelation, since nothing is
difficult for the all-powerful Creator.

The Nature of Revelation

Revelation is not a personal experience that a Prophet

brings forth from within himself. It is not a spiritual
state that a person can attain by doing certain
meditations or spiritual exercises. Quite the contrary,
revelation is a communication between two beings:
one that speaks, commands, and gives, and another
who is addressed, commanded, and receives. Prophet
 Muhammad (peace be upon him) – as with every
Prophet – never confused himself with the One who
gave the revelation to him. As a human being, he felt
his weakness before Allah, feared Allah’s wrath if he
should disobey, and hoped for Allah’s mercy.

He sought help from Allah, submitted to what he was

commanded to do, and was on occasion even sternly
reprimanded by Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon
him) admitted his absolute inability to alter even one
word of Allah’s Book.

Allah says:
And when Our clear signs are recited to them, those
who hope not for a meeting with Us say: ‘Bring a
Qur’ân other than this or change it.’ Say (O
Muhammad): ‘It is not for me to change it of my own
accord. I only follow what is revealed to me. I fear, if
I were to disobey my Lord, the punishment of an
awful day.’ Say: ‘If Allah had willed, I would not
have recited it to you nor would He have made it
known to you. I have lived with you a whole lifetime
before it came to me. Have you no sense?’
This should make perfectly clear the difference
between the essence, attributes, and ways of the
Creator and those of His Creation.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) took great care to

 maintain a distinction between his own speech (the
Hadîth) and the direct speech of Allah, though both
were the result of revelation. For this reason, in the
early period of revelation, he used to prohibit anything
that he uttered to be written down except for the
Qur’ân. This preserved for the Qur’ân its
distinctiveness as being the very word of Allah,
unmixed with the speech of people.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) would also make a

distinction in his own speech between his own
opinions and what came from Allah as revelation.

He said: “I am only a human being like yourselves.

Opinions can be right or wrong. But, when I say to
you that Allah said something, then know that I will
never attribute something false to Allah.”

The Prophet (peace be upon him) had no hand in the

revelation that he received. Revelation is a force
external to the being of the Prophet (peace be upon
him). He was not able to manipulate it in any way.
This is supported by the fact that certain crises would
befall the Prophet (peace be upon him) or one of those
around him that required an immediate solution, but
he found no verse of Qur’ân to recite to the people.
He had to remain silent and wait, sometimes in
desperation, until Allah, in His wisdom, revealed what
 was needed.

A good example of this is the time when `A’ishah, the

wife of the Prophet (peace be upon him) was accused
of adultery by some of the hypocrites, though she was
innocent. People began to say things that were painful
for the Prophet (peace be upon him) until his heart
was about to burst. He was unable to prohibit this. All
he could say was: “O `A’ishah, I have heard this or
that. If you are innocent, then Allah will show your
innocence, and if you fell into sin, then seek Allah’s
forgiveness.”

A whole month passed like this before the revelation

came down declaring `A’ishah’s innocence and
exonerating the household of the Prophet (peace be
upon him).

In brief, revelation has nothing to do with the choices

and wishes of the one who receives it. It is an unusual,
external occurrence. It is a force of knowledge,
because it gives knowledge. It is free from error. It
comes only with the truth and guides only to what is
right.
How revelation comes to the angels and to the
Messengers

In the Qur’ān it is mentioned that Allah speaks to the

 angels. Allah says:
And (remember) when your Lord revealed to the
angels: ‘Verily I am with you, so keep firm those who
have believed’
Revelation to the angels happens by Allah speaking to
them and the angels hearing from Him.

Revelation comes to Allah’s human Messengers either

directly or through an intermediary. In the case of an
intermediary, it is the angel Gabriel who brings the
revelation. There are two ways that this occurs:

1. The angel would come to him with a voice like the

clanging of a bell. This is the severest way revelation
would come to the Messenger (peace be upon him).
Such a harsh sound demands the full attention of the
one being addressed with it. When the revelation
came in this manner, it was extremely demanding
upon all of the Messenger’s faculties (peace be upon
him).

2. The angel would come to him in the form of a man.

This was easier than the previous way, since the form
of the angelic Messenger was familiar to the human
Messenger (peace be upon him) and easier to relate to.

Both of these ways are mentioned by the Prophet

 (peace be upon him) in his answer to al-Hârith b.
Hishâm when he asked how the revelation came to
him. Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said:
“Sometimes he comes to me like the clanging of a
bell, and this is the most difficult for me. It weighs
upon me and I commit to memory what he says. And
sometimes the angel comes to me in the form of a
man and speaks to me and I commit to memory what
he says.”

Revelation without an intermediary happens in two

ways:

1. A good dream: `A’ishah relates: “It began as a good

dream during sleep. He would not have a dream
except that it would come as clear as day.”

This was to prepare Allah’s Messenger (peace be

upon him) to receive revelation while awake. The
whole Qur’ân was revealed while the Prophet (peace
be upon him) was awake.

The story of Abraham (peace be upon him) when he

was commanded to sacrifice his son demonstrates
how a dream can be revelation that must be acted
upon.

Allah says:
So We gave him glad tidings of a forbearing boy. And
when he was old enough to walk with him, he said:
“My son, I have seen in a dream that I am sacrificing
you. So look, what do you think?” He said: “O my
father, do what you are commanded. By Allah’s will,
you shall find me to be among those who are patient.”
Then, when they had both submitted themselves and
he had laid him prone on his forehead, We called out
to him: “O Abraham, you have fulfilled the dream.”
Thus do We reward the righteous. That was indeed a
manifest trial. And We ransomed him with a great
sacrifice. And We left for him a goodly remembrance
for later generations. Peace be upon Abraham! Thus
indeed do We reward the righteous. Verily, he was
one of Our believing servants.
If that dream had not been revelation that had to be
obeyed, Abraham (peace be upon him) would never
have gone forward to sacrifice his son, but in fact he
almost did so. He was only stopped because Allah
commanded him to stop and ordered him to sacrifice
something else instead.

The good dream is not only for the Prophets. It

remains for the believers, even though it is not
revelation. Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him)
said: “Nothing remains of prophecy except for glad
tidings.” When he was asked what these glad tidings
were, he said: “Dreams.”
2. Allah speaking directly from behind a barrier: This
happened to Prophet Moses, (peace be upon him).
Allah says:
When Moses came to Our appointed meeting, his
Lord spoke to him.
Allah also says:
And Allah spoke to Moses directly.
This also happened to Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) on the night of his Journey and Ascension
when he was taken up into the heavens and his Lord
spoke to him.

All of these ways of receiving revelation are

mentioned in the Qur’ân. Allah says:
It is not for a human being that Allah should speak to
him except as revelation or from behind a barrier, or
by sending a Messenger who reveals by His leave
whatever He wishes. Verily, He is All-Knowing, All-
Wise.
The Qur’ân is the Speech of Allah

The Qur’ân is Allah’s speech, literally not

****phorically. He revealed it to His Messenger
(peace be upon him) to convey His warning to all the
worlds.

Muhammad (peace be upon him) merely conveyed the

Message. Anyone who doubts this has to assume that
either the Prophet himself made it up or someone else
taught it to him.

As for the first of these two possibilities – the idea

that the Qur’ân, in all of its eloquence, was a product
of the brilliance, insightfulness and spiritual
sensitivities of

Muhammad (peace be upon him) – it is rejected for a

number of reasons:

1. No matter how brilliant or insightful a person might

be, there is no way that he could discuss the
happenings of nations lost to antiquity, issues of belief
and Divine Law, the rewards and punishments of
Heaven and Hell, and future events, all in such great
detail without any contradiction and with a most
perfect style and literary form. The Prophet (peace be
upon him) had never once read a book nor met with
any historian.

2. The Qur’ân makes to the disbelievers a stern

challenge that they will never be able to produce a
chapter similar to it. Such a challenge would never
have come from the Messenger (peace be upon him),
who was known for his wisdom and good judgment,
to the most eloquent and fluent speakers around,
especially since he wanted his Message and his call to
be successful and enjoy wide acceptance.

3. The Qur’ân, in some places, sternly rebukes

Muhammad (peace be upon him) where he acted upon
his own judgment in something and did not decide on
what is best. The Qur’ân clarified the truth and
showed the error of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
No rational person would come with declarations of
his own error and circulate them among the people. If
he had any say in the Qur’ân at all, he would have
hidden these passages from the people. Allah says:
And if he had forged a false statement concerning Us,
We surely would have seized him by his right hand
and would certainly have ripped out his artery of life.
And none of you could have withheld us from
punishing him.
4. Many verses of the Qur’ân begin with the
imperative verb “Say!” As a matter of fact, this occurs
more than three hundred times, addressing
Muhammad (peace be upon him) and directing him
with respect to what he should say. He, thus, did not
follow his own desires; he followed only what was
revealed to him. He was the one being addressed, not
the speaker; he was quoting what he had heard, not
expressing what he felt.

5. Complete harmony exists between what the Qur’ân

 says regarding the physical world and what has been
discovered by modern science. This has been a source
of amazement for a number of contemporary western
researchers. Though the Qur’ân makes mention of a
number of very specific scientific issues – from fields
such as embryology, oceanography, and astronomy –
it does not contradict any scientific fact.

The second possibility offered by the doubtful is that

the Prophet (peace be upon him) learned the Qur’ân
from someone else. There are a number of reasons
why this claim is false:

1. Muhammad (peace be upon him) was illiterate. He

grew up among a people who were generally illiterate.
They knew only how to speak eloquently and fluently.
Due to their idolatry, they did not associate with the
Christians and Jews.

Allah says:
This is of the news of the unseen that We reveal unto
you (O Muhammad). Neither you nor your people
knew it before this. So be patient. Surely, the good
outcome is for the pious.
This verse clearly mentions that the Arabs had no
knowledge of these things. It is not recorded in history
that any of the Arabs objected to the fact that this
verse declared them ignorant of the things that this
 verse is referring to.

2. The Arabs never attempted to contradict the Qur’ân

or take credit for any part of it, in spite of their violent
rejection of it. Though the Qur’ân challenged their
most eloquent speakers to bring a chapter like it, none
of them ever attempted it. They knew the truth of the
situation and did not want to face the disgrace of
defeat, since they were the masters of eloquence in
poetry, prose, and persuasive speaking.

3. The Qur’ân is in Arabic and the Jews and

Christians spoke other languages. None of the
historical references mention that the Prophet (peace
be upon him) ever sat with monks and rabbis to learn
from them.

The Qur’ân is in the most fluent Arabic, a language

foreign to the Jews and Christians. Allah says:
The tongue of the one they refer to is foreign, while
this is in clear Arabic.

4. The Qur’ân takes a stance against the Jews and

Christians, refuting their misconceptions and
arguments and inviting them to believe in the
Messenger and the Message that he came with. It is
very unlikely that these same Jews and Christians
 would be the source of the Qur’ân, especially
considering how they turned away from it, disbelieved
in it, and rejected the Messenger