My faith in the art of writing.

I'm reading two books on the Qur'an at the moment:

The Story of the Qur'an by Ingrid Mattson

Understanding the Islamic Scripture by Mustansir Mir

When I sit down in this intellectual setting to study a book that gives me my name, Muslim, and way of life, Islam, I'm astonished at how it fits me perfectly. Here is a response I wrote for the first set of reading.

Religious texts are not just a dull list of Do’s and Do Not’s. One can clearly recognize that as the word of a magnificent, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent creator, it will be nothing short of beautiful. This is a very invigorating and attractive side to the Qur’an that I have absorbed thus far. It is not just text. It is literature and poetry and symbolism and metonymy and metaphor lying in between two human palms.

The name of the book itself stresses that it is that which is read and that which is recited. From the reading this week, I have felt that because of the fact that it is read and recited, with rhyme and meter and various literary techniques, it becomes this work that people want to hear and say. It is because of this that it can be memorized and stored to memory so quickly and for so long. Hearing just the first word of a momentarily forgotten surah can jog the memory instantly, and suddenly, the entire surah is being recited.

I believe that because of this literary stronghold, just as with a novel or work of ancient epic poetry, there is more to the writing than what is directly stated. Just as we analyze characters and find symbolism in novels, or search for the various meanings each word can provide in poetry, such is what begs for from the writings of the Qur’an. Mustansir Mir explains a similar idea when he discusses how the Qur’an is declared by some scholars to be a disconnected text. He then explains how this is not true and how this is merely a misguided approach to the scripture.

Although the arrangement of surahs seems non-cohesive, there is a strong employment of metonymy. Certain ideas and stories, when put next to each other, take on different meanings and form interesting connections. Mir says, “the alleged case for the ‘disconnectedness’ of the Qur’an is overstated.”

Another aspect of the emphasis towards the literary aesthetic and literary skills that I found to be a theme is that it had a dualism of having adhered to the respected oral tradition of the time while it cultivated literacy. The pre-Islamic Arabs recited poetry with a revered sophistication, just as the huffaz did and still do with the Qur’an. It kept this tradition while bringing literate culture.

Aside from the obvious beliefs in the oneness of God and “right belief” and “right conduct,” I found that the importance of this theme of developed and beautiful language was very common and provides an interesting backbone to the scripture, how it was delivered, and how it is received to this very day. There is definitely something to be said for such a beautiful piece of writing coming from a region of nearly illiterate people. That alone has a divine presence.





I mean seriously, what better book to believe in that has everything I love: creativity and symbolism and poetic devices and rhyme and meter and stories. Not only that but Suraht il Fil (surah of the elephant) depicts this beautiful elephant that withstood beatings and suffereing because it refused to destroy the Ka'ba and Islamic stronghold.

HELLO! Who has loved and found this spiritual wisdom and beauty in elephants almost obsessively? ME, that's who. Reading these books is so great. There are so many facts and ideas I never knew that it is only strengthening my love for my faith.