Amein, I have a question, you might have an answer to. The Quran, like many antique books, has been copied over and over many times over the last 1400 years. Are there any comparative studies of recent versions of the Quran and very old one? The old testament has definitive "signs" within it that shows that different parts were written by different people (and even within a single book such stylish differences exists), and until it "was officially" signed off (so that no alterations or errors are allowed by scribes, from there on, a late event), errors or modifications did occur. I wonder if a similar process occurred with the Quran and if it had a "final" version that differ somewhat from the very early versions.
My understanding is that the Quran indeed has "differing styles", with the short surah's (last in the Quran, but probably early in adoption into the Quran), are extremely strong, "concentrated" and poetic, while the long surah's (like surah 12, the story of Joseph), being much more prosaic and less condensed. I wonder if scholars have attempted an etymological study. I understand that Muslim clergy considers such a study to be heresy, since the Quran is supposed to be the purest form of Arabic, but there is no denying that foreign words, from Syriac, Arameic, Greek and Hebrew have been included. For Instance, the term "Iblis", or the Devil is clearly a variant of the Greek Diabolos. Or the word for "law" (Taurat), clearly comes from the Hebrew "Torah". Similarly, the term for "faith", or "belief" is amana and is clearly derived from"emuna" in Hebrew. Hey even the word "surah" has Hebrew origins (shura in Hebrew means a line and "shira" is poetry).
Zeev |
