Qur'an: Poetry

The Qur'an is very different to the Bible. It is not an anthology of books, letters or stories, but a collection of speeches. Each chapter, called a 'sura' (plural: suwar), is a transcript of one of Muhammad's speeches/revelations. They are very varied in length.

The beautiful poetry of the Arabic is lost in translation; Muslims insist that the Qur'an is only the Qur'an in the Arabic original. Reciting the Arabic is, according to common Muslim opinion, capable of causing tears of repentance and comfort, or a shiver of fear and trembling. Partly because of this language problem, Muslims actively discouraged converting non-Arabs to Islam for the first 100 years after Muhammad's death. Islam was seen as the religion for Arabs; God had used other prophets to instruct non-Arabs.

At the beginning of his time as prophet, Muhammad's revelations were very simple. He was, like many prophets and messiahs before and after him, telling people to be nice and warning them about the impending apocalypse. He had been born into a rich tribe, and his wife was a very successful merchant, but he was affected by the financial inequality he saw in Arabia, and so was God:

'He who amasses wealth, forever counting it,
Imagining his wealth will immortalize him!
He shall be tossed into the Consumer,
But how can you know what is the Consumer?
The flaming Fire of God!'

'You do not honour the orphan,
Nor urge one another to feed the poor.
You consume an inheritance to the last mouthful,
And you love wealth with a love inordinate.'

There is a lot of apocalypse-talk. The following is an amalgam of verses from different chapters:

'When the earth quakes - a shattering quake!
When the sky disintegrates,
That Day, mankind will come out in scattered throngs,
To be shown their rights and wrongs.

When the earth is crushed, pounded, pulverised,
When the stars are strewn,
Your Lord and the angels arrive, row after row,
And hell that Day is brought in tow

When heaven shall be opened
When hell-fire is kindled
Man that Day shall be informed
Of all his works, from first to last.

When the earth is distended,
When the stars are erased,
On that Day, some faces shall be resplendent,
To their Lord their eyes are lifted.

When the mountains are obliterated
When the seas are made to erupt,
On that Day, some faces shall be snarling,
Knowing a back-breaker shall befall them.

When the Trumpet is blown
When the great Cataclysm overwhelms,
To your Lord that Day is the journey's end.
On this Day the faithful are laughing at the unbelievers,
Upon couches, watching.'