Work record

The Koran

Anonymous (Islamic scripture)

c. 610–632 CE · Medieval · Religious Scripture · Classical Arabic

Public domainmedium medical relevanceRead full text Five-minute digest

Summary

The Koran, or Quran ('recitation'), is the central scripture of Islam. It consists of 114 chapters called suras, of very unequal length, each made up of verses (ayat). Except for the short opening sura, al-Fatiha, a prayer recited in every unit of Muslim worship, the suras are arranged roughly in order of decreasing length, so that the long Medinan suras come first and the short, intense early Meccan suras come at the end. The N. J. Dawood translation originally followed a different order, but later editions adopted the traditional sequence. Unlike the Bible, the Quran is not a narrative history. It speaks in the voice of God, often addressing the Prophet, believers, unbelievers or humanity, and it moves between praise, warning, law, argument, parable and story. The early Meccan suras, short and rhythmic, proclaim the oneness and power of God, the signs of God in nature, the resurrection of the dead, the Day of Judgement, and the rewards of Paradise and torments of Hell, and call people to gratitude, prayer and generosity to the poor. Later Meccan suras retell the stories of earlier prophets, among them Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Joseph, Moses, Jonah, David, Solomon and Jesus, to show that God has always sent messengers and that those who rejected them were destroyed; the sura of Joseph is the most sustained narrative. Mary, the mother of Jesus, has a sura named after her and is honoured above all women. The Medinan suras, revealed when Muhammad led a community, contain legislation on prayer, fasting in Ramadan, almsgiving, pilgrimage, diet, marriage, divorce, inheritance, orphans, contracts, warfare and relations with Jews and Christians, as well as commentary on the battles and crises of the early Muslim community. Recurring themes include the absolute unity of God and the rejection of associating partners with him, the prophethood of Muhammad as the seal of the prophets, the reality of judgement, social justice and care for orphans and the poor, and the mercy of God, invoked at the opening of every sura but one. The Quran's Arabic is considered inimitable by Muslims, and its recitation is a central art of Islamic culture; all translations are regarded as interpretations of meaning rather than the Quran itself.

Plot or Argument

Al-Fatiha (Sura 1)
The opening prayer praising God, Lord of the worlds, and asking guidance on the straight path.
The long Medinan suras (e.g. 2–5)
Law and guidance for the community: worship, fasting, diet, family law, inheritance, war, and relations with Jews and Christians.
Prophetic narratives (e.g. Suras 7, 11, 12, 19, 28)
Stories of earlier prophets, including the extended sura of Joseph and the sura of Mary.
Middle and late Meccan suras
Arguments for God's oneness and the resurrection, drawn from the signs of nature and history.
Early Meccan suras (end of the book)
Short, powerful proclamations of the Day of Judgement, God's power and mercy, and moral duty.

Characters

Muhammad, the Prophet
Recipient of the revelation, often addressed directly.
Abraham (Ibrahim), prophet
Model monotheist who rejects his people's idols and builds the Kaaba with Ishmael.
Moses (Musa), prophet
The most frequently mentioned prophet, confronting Pharaoh.
Joseph (Yusuf), prophet
Subject of the sura that bears his name, the Quran's longest continuous narrative.
Mary (Maryam), mother of Jesus
The only woman named in the Quran, honoured above all women.
Jesus (Isa), prophet
Born of a virgin, a messenger who healed the sick by God's permission.
Job (Ayyub), prophet
Patient sufferer whose affliction is relieved by God.

Lessons

Signs in nature
The Quran repeatedly invites reflection on the natural world, rain, stars, animals, the growth of the embryo, as signs of God. Wonder at creation is presented as a path to faith.
- Which natural signs recur most often?
- How does this approach compare with Psalms or Job?
Related across the library
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- Pensees, Morality And Doctrine
  and infinite Had I seen a miracle say men I should become converted How can they be sure they would do a thing of the nature of which they are ignorant They imagine that this conversion consists in a worship of God which is like commerce and in a communion such as they picture to themselves True religion consists in annihilating self before that Universal Being whom we have so often provoked and who can justly destroy us at any time in recognising that we can do nothing without Him and have deserved nothing from...
- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, Medical lens
  Medical relevance centers on fasting, visions, martyrdom, communal care and spiritual healing. Ignatius and Polycarp are important for bodily suffering as witness, while the Martyrdom of Polycarp distinguishes faithful endurance from reckless self-offering. Hermas’ visions belong to apocalyptic and penitential literature; they should not be medicalized as hallucination, but they are useful for the history of altered states and moral therapy.
- The Divine Comedy, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Inferno
  guide And lead thee hence through the eternal place Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate Who cry out each one for the second death And thou shalt see those who contented are Within the fire because they hope to come Whene er it may be to the blessed people To whom then if thou wishest to ascend A soul shall be for that than I more worthy With her at my departure I will leave thee Because that Emperor who reigns above In that I was rebellious to his law Wills...
- Siddhartha: An Indian Tale, Lesson: Listening as a discipline
  Listening as a discipline. Vasudeva's gift is attentive listening, to the river and to people. The novel presents listening without judgement as a form of healing.
Social justice as worship
Care for orphans, the poor and travellers, honesty in trade and the freeing of slaves are tied to faith from the earliest suras. Worship is inseparable from obligations to others.
- How do the early suras connect belief with treatment of the vulnerable?
- What role does almsgiving play in the community envisioned?
Related across the library
- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, Lesson: Repentance is social medicine
  Repentance is social medicine. Hermas and Clement treat sin as communal disorder needing confession, humility and restoration. Moral repair is collective.
- Pensees, Morality And Doctrine
  and infinite Had I seen a miracle say men I should become converted How can they be sure they would do a thing of the nature of which they are ignorant They imagine that this conversion consists in a worship of God which is like commerce and in a communion such as they picture to themselves True religion consists in annihilating self before that Universal Being whom we have so often provoked and who can justly destroy us at any time in recognising that we can do nothing without Him and have deserved nothing from...
- Jewish Antiquities, Lesson: Apologetic history still preserves evidence
  Apologetic history still preserves evidence. Josephus writes to defend the antiquity and dignity of Jewish tradition, but that purpose does not make the work useless. It requires a reader who can separate argument, adaptation and preserved memory.
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Who Would Be Both Different From And Higher Than Those Who Heretofore
  content with THE MAN OF THE PRESENT DAY after such outlooks and with such a craving in our conscience and consciousness Sad enough but it is unavoidable that we should look on the worthiest aims and hopes of the man of the present-day with ill-concealed amusement and perhaps should no longer look at them Another ideal runs on before us a strange tempting ideal full of danger to which we should not like to persuade any one because we do not so readily acknowledge any one s RIGHT THERETO the ideal of a spirit who...
- St. Thomas Becket and the Canterbury Miracles, Benedict and William miracle collections
  The collections record claims involving fever, blindness, paralysis, seizures, madness, leprosy, wounds, and accidents with unusually concrete social detail.
Continuity of prophecy
By retelling the stories of Abraham, Moses and Jesus, the Quran presents Islam as the renewal of an ancient monotheism. Reading it alongside the Bible shows shared figures with different emphases.
- How does the Quranic Joseph differ from the Joseph of Genesis?
- Why are the stories often told allusively rather than in full?
- What does the Quran say about Jesus?
Related across the library
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- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, Medical lens
  Medical relevance centers on fasting, visions, martyrdom, communal care and spiritual healing. Ignatius and Polycarp are important for bodily suffering as witness, while the Martyrdom of Polycarp distinguishes faithful endurance from reckless self-offering. Hermas’ visions belong to apocalyptic and penitential literature; they should not be medicalized as hallucination, but they are useful for the history of altered states and moral therapy.
- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, Lesson: Repentance is social medicine
  Repentance is social medicine. Hermas and Clement treat sin as communal disorder needing confession, humility and restoration. Moral repair is collective.
- The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Lesson: Some endings refuse interpretation
  Some endings refuse interpretation. The final white figure withholds the explanatory satisfaction expected from adventure fiction. Poe turns incompletion into an experience of awe, terror and interpretive insufficiency.
- Jewish Antiquities, Lesson: Apologetic history still preserves evidence
  Apologetic history still preserves evidence. Josephus writes to defend the antiquity and dignity of Jewish tradition, but that purpose does not make the work useless. It requires a reader who can separate argument, adaptation and preserved memory.

Context

The Quran emerged in seventh-century Arabia, in the polytheistic trading city of Mecca and then in Medina, where Muhammad founded a community after the emigration (hijra) of 622. It engaged Jewish and Christian traditions present in the region.

Composition

According to tradition, revelations were recorded on various materials and memorized, collected under Abu Bakr and standardized under Uthman. Early manuscripts, including the Birmingham fragments, date to the seventh century. George Sale's English translation appeared in 1734; J. M. Rodwell's (1861) arranged the suras in a proposed chronological order; E. H. Palmer's appeared in 1880.

Reception

The basis of Islamic law, theology, spirituality and Arabic literary culture, recited daily by Muslims worldwide. Western translations have long shaped and often distorted European understanding of Islam.

Faith / Religion Justice Law Death / Mortality Guilt Sin Family Virtue Ethics Nature / Landscape

Comparisons

the-bible
Many of the same figures appear, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Mary and Jesus, retold with distinct theological emphases.
confessions
Augustine's prayerful address to God and the Quran's direct divine voice offer two forms of intimate religious speech.
the-bhagavad-gita
Both are scriptures in which God speaks directly, teaching duty, devotion and the meaning of death.
persian-letters
Montesquieu's Muslim travellers invoke Islamic belief and practice, filtered through eighteenth-century European understanding.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Al-Fatiha, the seven-verse opening sura recited in every unit of Muslim prayer, and how its request for guidance on the straight path is answered by the long second sura that follows.
The difference in sound and subject between the short early Meccan suras at the end of the book, such as Suras 81, 96, and 112, with their oaths, warnings of the Day of Judgement, and declarations of God's oneness, and the long Medinan suras at the beginning, with their laws for a community.
Sura 12, the story of Joseph, which the Quran calls the most beautiful of stories. Compare it scene by scene with Genesis 37 to 50, especially the episode of the women of the city who cut their hands at the sight of Joseph.
Sura 19, named for Mary, with the annunciation, the birth of Jesus beneath a palm tree, and the infant Jesus speaking from the cradle.
The passages on Jesus in Suras 3, 4, and 5, which honor him as Messiah, word, and spirit from God while denying that he is the Son of God or that he was crucified.

Key terms and names

Sura: One of the 114 chapters of the Quran, each with a name drawn from a word or story within it, such as The Cow, Joseph, or Mary. All but one begin by invoking God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Ayah: A verse of a sura. The same word also means a sign, and the Quran repeatedly calls the features of nature, such as rain, night and day, and the growth of crops, signs for those who reflect.
Tawhid: The oneness of God, the central doctrine of the Quran, stated most compactly in Sura 112. Its opposite, associating partners with God (shirk), is presented as the gravest sin.
Meccan and Medinan suras: The traditional division between suras revealed in Mecca before 622, which stress God's power, judgement, and the prophets, and those revealed in Medina after the emigration, which add law and guidance for a community. Rodwell's translation arranges the suras in a proposed order of revelation rather than the traditional order.
Hijra: The emigration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622, which marks the start of the Islamic calendar and divides the two main periods of revelation.
Seal of the prophets: The title given to Muhammad in Sura 33:40, understood in Islam to mean that he is the last prophet. The Quran presents him as renewing the message of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
Isa: The Quranic name of Jesus, called the Messiah, the son of Mary, a word from God and a spirit from him, who heals the blind and the leper by God's permission. The Quran rejects both his divine sonship and the Trinity.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension How is the Quran arranged, and why does a reader who begins at the beginning meet the latest revelations first and the earliest last?
Comprehension In Sura 12, what happens between Joseph and the wife of his master, and how is his innocence proved?
Interpretation The Quran usually tells the stories of Noah, Abraham, and Moses briefly and allusively, but tells Joseph's story at length in a single sura. What might explain the difference, and what lesson does Sura 12 draw from Joseph's trials?
Interpretation Many suras call natural phenomena signs and ask whether the hearer will reflect. How does the Quran use the order of nature as an argument for God's oneness and for the resurrection?
Interpretation Sura 19 tells of Mary and the birth of Jesus with great reverence. Where does its account agree with Luke 1 and 2, and where does it differ in what it says about who Jesus is?
Interpretation Sura 55 repeats a refrain asking which of the Lord's favors humankind and jinn will deny. What effect does the repetition have, and why would such a feature matter more in a text meant to be recited aloud?
Big Question The Quran and the New Testament honor many of the same figures but give opposite answers about whether Jesus is the Son of God and whether he died on the cross. How should a Christian reader engage a scripture that shares so much with the Bible and disagrees on its center?

Faith Connections

Genesis 37-50 (Scripture)
Genesis tells Joseph's story through his brothers' betrayal, his slavery and imprisonment in Egypt, and his final words that God meant it for good. Reading it beside Sura 12 shows what each scripture emphasizes, from Jacob's response to his grief to Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers.
John 1:1-14 (Scripture)
John calls Jesus the Word who was with God, was God, and became flesh. The Quran also calls Jesus a word from God in Sura 4:171 while denying his divinity in the same verse, so the two passages pose the clearest form of the question that divides Christian and Muslim belief.
John of Damascus, On Heresies (The Fount of Knowledge, Part II) (Church Fathers)
John of Damascus, an eighth-century Christian who had served in the Umayyad administration in Damascus, wrote one of the earliest Christian discussions of Islam. He summarizes Quranic teaching on Christ and engages the Muslim charge that Christians associate partners with God.
Nicholas of Cusa, Cribratio Alkorani (Sifting of the Quran) (Great Conversation)
Writing after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the cardinal and philosopher Nicholas of Cusa read the Quran closely, looking for passages that could be read as pointing toward Christian truths about God and Christ. His book is a model of a Christian reader taking the text seriously while disagreeing with it.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: God is one, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the order of nature is a sign of his power and mercy for those who reflect. The same God sent messengers to every people, among them Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and those who rejected them were destroyed. Muhammad brings the same message as the seal of the prophets, and the Quran confirms what came before it. All human beings will be raised and judged. Therefore every person should submit to the one God alone, associate no partner with him, pray, give to the poor, and prepare for the Day of Judgement.

Rhetorical device: refrain (epimone). In Sura 55, The Merciful, a single question asking which of the Lord's favors will be denied recurs after nearly every verse as the sura moves through creation, the two seas, judgement, and the gardens of paradise. The refrain binds the catalog of blessings together and presses the hearer for a response each time.

Debate: Resolved: A reader new to the Quran should read the suras in order of revelation rather than in their canonical order.

Writing Prompts

Essay: The Quran frequently calls rain, night and day, ships on the sea, and the growth of the embryo signs of God. Using passages from at least three suras, explain how the Quran argues from nature to God's oneness and to the resurrection, and evaluate the strength of the argument.

Comparison with The Bible: Both the Bible and the Quran tell the stories of Joseph and of Mary and the birth of Jesus. Compare Genesis 37 to 50 with Sura 12, or Luke 1 and 2 with Sura 19, and argue what the differences in narrative style and detail reveal about how each scripture understands God's action in history.

Medical Lens

The Quran is not a medical text, but several passages shaped medicine and public health in Islamic societies. Honey is described as containing healing for people, a verse central to later 'Prophetic medicine'. Wine and gambling are said to contain great sin and some benefit, with sin outweighing benefit, and later verses forbid them, the basis of Islamic prohibition of intoxicants. The sick and travellers are exempted from fasting in Ramadan. The stages of the embryo's development from a drop to a clot to a lump of flesh to bones clothed with flesh have been much discussed, by both believers and historians of embryology. Breastfeeding for two full years is recommended. Jesus heals the blind and the leper and raises the dead by God's leave. Job's affliction ends with a spring of cool water to bathe in and drink. A verse forbidding believers to kill themselves is the textual basis of the prohibition of suicide. Treat modern 'scientific miracle' readings and their critiques as interpretive debates.

Ancient Medicine Alcohol Addiction Childbirth Maternal Starvation Nutrition Leprosy Suicide Pain Public Health Sanitation Death Dying

Sura 2:183–185
Fasting in Ramadan, with exemptions for the sick and travellers.
Starvation Nutrition Public Health Sanitation
Sura 2:219; 5:90–91
Wine and gambling: first described as containing sin and some benefit, later forbidden as works of Satan.
Alcohol Addiction
Sura 2:233
Mothers to nurse their children for two full years.
Childbirth Maternal
Sura 4:29
Command not to kill yourselves (or each other), interpreted as forbidding suicide.
Suicide
Sura 3:49; 5:110
Jesus heals the blind and the leper and raises the dead by God's permission.
Leprosy Ancient Medicine
Sura 16:68–69
Bees produce a drink of varying colours in which there is healing for people.
Ancient Medicine
Sura 19:23–26
Mary's labour pains beneath a palm tree; she is told to eat dates and drink from a stream.
Childbirth Maternal Pain
Sura 23:12–14
Stages of human creation in the womb.
Childbirth Maternal
Sura 38:41–44
Job, afflicted by Satan with distress and suffering, is told to strike the ground and finds cool water to wash and drink.
Pain Ancient Medicine

Creative Prompts

Essay
Compare the Quranic and biblical accounts of Joseph and discuss what each emphasizes.
Classroom
Trace the influence of Quranic verses on the 'Prophetic medicine' tradition and on hospitals in the medieval Islamic world.