The Qur'an (also Quran, Koran, Alcoran; Arabicقُرْآن) is the Islamic holy book of Allah (The Divine, i.e. God).
Believers in Islam, called Muslims, believe that the Qur'an is the eternal, literal word of God, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of 22 years. The Qur'an consists of 114 suras (chapters) with a total of 6,236 ayats (verses).
Most Muslims believe that of the major Ibrahimic religious works containing the word of God, (the Qur'an, the Tanakh, and the New Testament) only the Qur'an has remained uncorrupted over the years. In recent years, some students of Muslim theology have advocated the findings of modern biblical textual criticism, which claims to have shown that the extant version of the five books of Moses was not written solely by Moses 3500 years ago, as traditional Jews and Christians had believed, but instead was compiled perhaps 2500 years ago from a number of previous sources. This is known as the Documentary hypothesis. Similar work has been carried out on the New Testament. In Muslims' view, this demonstrates that the Jewish and Christian scriptures, though originally divinely inspired, have been corrupted by malicious or careless scribes over the centuries, and cannot therefore provide a reliable guide to God's will for mankind - thus necessitating the final revelation of the Qur'an. However, the Qur'an also stipulates that the Jewish and Christian scriptures are based, however loosely, on divinely inspired originals, and Muslims therefore have respect for them.
Among Islamic scholars, there is almost no dispute that the text today is as it was when it was first written down. The emphasis on the need for copies of the Qur'an to be exact has resulted in the destruction of any copies which differ from the original. Some textual critics argue that this makes an objective and scientific study on the authenticity of Qur'anic codexes virtually impossible, suggesting that this practice simply destroyed variations that had been original to the text.
The two best-known readings of the Qur'an are the Warsh (ورش) and Hafs (حفص) readings, which differ in the vocalization (tashkil تشكيل) of a few words, however, cantillation (tilawa تلاوة) of the Qur'an is a fine art in the Muslim world, and allows for several variations of pronunciation of, for instance, pausal vowels and ta marbutah. Recent discoveries of "Qur'an Graveyards" have thrown more light onto the subject of text evolution and transcribal disputes in early Islam.
The Qur'an has been translated into many languages, but translations of the Qur'an from Arabic to other languages are not considered by Muslims to be actual copies of the Qur'an, but rather are considered to be interpretive translations of the Qur'an; they are thus not allotted much weight in debates upon the Qur'an's meaning. The most important external aid used in interpreting the meanings of the Qur'an is the Hadith - the collection of Islamic traditions from which the details of early Islamic history are derived.
Belief in the Qur'an's direct, uncorrupted divine origin is fundamental to Islam; this of course entails believing that the Qur'an has neither errors nor inconsistencies. ("This is the book in which there is no doubt, a guide to the believers": Surat al-Baqarah, verse 2.) However, it is well-known that certain chronologically later verses supersede earlier ones - the banning of wine, for instance, was accomplished gradually rather than immediately - and certain scholars have argued that some verses which discourage certain practices (for instance, polygamy) without banning them altogether should be understood as part of a similar process, though others argue that this contradicts "This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and chosen for you Islam as your religion" (5.3).
Some Muslims interpret the Qur'an as containing many statements that (in retrospect) foreshadow discoveries made by modern science (see external links below). The statements within the Qur'an cover the origin of the Universe, the description of black holes, quantum physics, the water cycle, human embryology, geology, and many others; Maurice Bucaille, a French scientist and convert to Islam, has chronicled these. Note that unlike Christian "Creation Science", which seeks to interpret science to fit the Bible (analogous to a few Wahhabi scholars, such as Sheikh Bin Baz, who claims the earth is flat), these groups seek to reinterpret the Qur'an to fit science.
Islamic history records that Uthman ibn Affan collected all variants of the Qur'an and destroyed those which he regarded as corrupted. Beside the known earlier versions from Abdallah Ibn Masud and Ubay Ibn Ka'b, there exist also some highly dubious reports about a Shiite version which was allegedly compiled by Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law, which he gave up in favor of Uthman's collection. Modern researchers assume that the differences between the versions consisted mostly of orthographical and lexical variants and differing count of verses.
Also, all three of the mentioned people (Ibn Masud, Ubay Ibn Ka'b & Ali) were in positions of authority that would allow them to oppose any variations that existed between their collection and that of Uthman's. But to the contrary they all supported this and continued to serve under the Caliph's rule and the first two were, as orthodox Muslims believe, licensed by Muhammad himself to teach the Qur'an. The copy used as a standard, according to Islamic history, was the one compiled by the first Caliph (Abu Bakr) almost immediately after the demise of Muhammad. Abu Bakr only ruled two years. This may explain why no opposition existed once the written Qur'an copies were standardised.
Since Uthman's version contained no diacritical marks and could be read in various ways, around the year 700 the development of a vocalized version started. Today the Qur'an is published in fully vocalized versions.
The Hadiths (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) represent an additional view into the Muslim understanding of Islamic law; they are roughly equivalent to Judaism's oral law in the Mishnah and Talmud. Different schools within the various branches of Islam accept different hadith collections as genuine.
The interpretation of the Qur'an soon developed into its own science, the ilm at-tafsir. Famous commentators were at-Tabari, az-Zamakhshari, at-Tirmidhi. While these commentaries mention all common and accepted interpretations, modern fundamentalist commentaries like the one of Sayyed Qutb show tendencies to stick to only one possible interpretation.
Today seven canonical readings of the Qur'an and several uncanonical exist. This sevener-system was laid down by Ibn Mujahid who tried to find the special characteristics of each reading and thus derived common rules by analogical reasoning (qiyas).
The traditions governing the translation and publication of the Qur'an state that when the book is published, it must never simply be entitled "The Qur'an." The title must always include a defining adjective (avoiding conceivable confusion with other "recitations", in the Arabic meaning), which is why all available editions of the Qur'an are titled The Glorious Qur'an, The Noble Qur'an, and other similar titles..
Ibn Warraq (ed.), The Origins of the Koran, Prometheus Books, 1998. ISBN 157392198X
Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari, Jami al-bayan `an ta'wil al-Qur'an, Cairo 1955-69, transl. J. Cooper (ed.), The Commentary on the Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0199201420
Review of Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran; Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur'ānsprache by Christoph Luxenberg (ps.), a controversial work of textual criticism.
