Suras Sentence Examples

In the first the novice is received and told to meditate on the three mystic letters; in the second, after a period of forty days, he is taught the titles of the 16 suras of the Majmu`; in the third, after seven or nine months (intended to correspond with the ordinary period of gestation), he is taught Suras 5, 6 and 9, learns the meaning of the three mystic letters and goes through a further period of instruction from his initiator.

This supposition is favoured by the numerous traditions which give us the circumstances under which this or that short piece, now incorporated in a larger section, was revealed; and also by the fact that the connexion of thought in the present suras often seems to be interrupted.

And in reality many pieces of the long suras have to be severed out as originally independent; even in the short ones parts are often found which cannot have been there at first.

That some suras were of considerable length from the first is seen, for example, from xii., which contains a short introduction, then the history of Joseph, and then a few concluding observations, and is therefore perfectly homogeneous.

In short, however imperfectly the Koran may have been redacted, in the majority of cases the present suras are identical with the originals.

For we cannot suppose that he knew the longer suras by heart so perfectly that he was able after a time to lay his finger upon any particular passage.

Many suras treat of a single topic, others embrace several.

The fact that scraps of poetical phraseology are specially numerous in the earlier suras, enables us to understand why the prosaic mercantile community of Mecca regarded their eccentric townsman as a " poet," or even a possessed poet."

In fact, the Koran boldly challenged its opponents to produce ten suras, or even a single one, like those of the sacred book, and they never did so.

The Medina pieces, whether entire suras or isolated passages interpolated in Meccan suras, are accordingly pretty broadly distinct, as to their contents, from those issued in Mecca.

But at all events it is far easier to arrange in some sort of chronological order the Medina suras than those composed in Mecca.

There is, indeed, one tradition which professes to furnish a chronological list of all the suras.

But not to mention that it occurs in several divergent forms, and that it takes no account of the fact that our present suras are partly composed of pieces of different dates, it contains so many suspicious or undoubtedly false statements, that it is impossible to attach any great importance to it.

Be- sides, it is a priori unlikely that a contemporary of Mahomet should have drawn up such a list; and if any one had made the attempt he would have found it almost impossible to obtain reliable information as to the order of the earlier Meccan suras.

Among the revelations put forth in Mecca there is a considerable number of (for the most part) short suras, which strike every attentive reader as being the oldest.

At the opposite extreme from them stands another cluster, showing quite obvious affinities with the style of the Medina suras, which must therefore be assigned to the later part of the Prophet's work in Mecca.

Between these two groups stand a number of other Meccan suras, which in every respect mark the transition from the first period to the third.

With regard to some suras, it may be doubtful whether they ought to be reckoned amongst the middle group, or with one or other of the extremes.

It is the same with other allusions in the Meccan suras to occurrences whose chronology can be partially ascertained.

Like those other oracles, the suras of this period, which are never very long, are composed of short sentences with tolerably pure but rapidly changing rhymes.

However,the suras of this period are not all so wild as these; and those which are conceived in a calmer mood appear to be the oldest.

The suras of this period form almost exclusively the concluding portions of the present text.

Since Mahomet's strength lay in his enthusiastic and fiery imagination rather than in the wealth of ideas and clearness of abstract thought on which exact reasoning depends, it follows that the older suras, in which the former qualities have free scope, must be more attractive to us than the later.

In the suras of the second period the imaginative glow perceptibly diminishes; there is still fire and animation, but the tone becomes gradually more prosaic.

This purpose he ultimately relinquished, but it is just in the suras of the second period that the use of Rahman is specially frequent.

The suras of the third Meccan period, which form a fairly large part of our present Koran, are almost entirely prosaic.

The suras are very edifying for one who is already reconciled to their import, but to us at least they do not seem very well fitted to carry conviction to the minds of unbelievers.

That impression, however, is not correct, for in reality the demonstrations of these longer Meccan suras appear to have been peculiarly influential for the propagation of Islam.

The laws and regulations were generally very concise revelations, but most of them have been amalgamated with other pieces of similar or dissimilar import, and are now found in very long suras.

At the head of twenty-nine of the suras stand certain initial letters, from which no clear sense can be obtained.

The pieces were accordingly arranged in indiscriminate order, the only rule observed being to place the long suras first and the shorter towards the end, and even that was far from strictly adhered to.

The two magic formulae, suras cxiii., cxiv.

The additional headings found in our texts (the name of the suras, the number of verses, &c.) were not in the original codices, and form no integral part of the Koran.

If the list which gives the order of its suras is correct, it must have contained substantially the same materials as our text; in that case Ubay ibn Ka`b must have used the original collection of Zaid.

It appears that the principle of putting the longer suras before the shorter was more consistently carried out by him than by Zaid.

Klamroth's translation of the fifty oldest suras, Die fiinfzig altesten Suren (Hamburg, 1890) attempts successfully to reproduce the rhymed form of the originals.

This duty is laid down in five surasall of these suras belonging to the period after Mahomet had established his power.

In addition, the word ala ' and the three idol goddesses are found only in these Meccan Suras.

In spite of the fact that these are among the shortest suras in the Qur'an, they are full of theological and philosophical problems.

The legend that the early suras were not carefully written down and preserved in books is a pure invention.

The suras of the third Meccan period, which form a fairly large part of our present Koran, are almost entirely prosaic. Some of the revelations are of considerable extent, and the single verses also are much longer than in the older suras.

It should be noted that these discussions come in suras revealed in Mecca which mainly dealt with the basic fundamentals of faith.

In spite of the fact that these are among the shortest Suras in the Qur'an, they are full of theological and philosophical problems.

The legend that the early Suras were not carefully written down and preserved in books is a pure invention.