Unit 10 · Major Themes

Surah 112 is called Al-Ikhlas, Sincerity or Purity. It is one of the shortest surahs in the Qur’an. It has four verses. Muslims recite it in daily prayer, and many children learn it early. A hadith reported in the collection of Bukhari says Muhammad called it equal to one third of the Qur’an. Muslim scholars read that as praise of its subject, not its length.

The subject is tawhid. The word comes from an Arabic root that means "to make one." It names the belief that God is one, has no partner, no parent and no child, and that nothing is like God. Muslims consider tawhid the first and most important teaching of their faith. The surah says it in the plainest possible way. It does not tell a story or give a law. It states who God is and who God is not.

The surah opens with the command "Say." Many surahs do. Muslims read this as God telling Muhammad what to say to the people of Mecca. Those people, according to Muslim tradition, honored many gods and kept idols at the Kaaba. Some also spoke of daughters of God. Read in that setting, each line of the surah answers a claim its first hearers had heard. Historians note that we know the Meccan setting mainly from Muslim sources written later.

The surah also speaks to Christians and Jews, according to many commentators. Al-Tabari, who wrote in the 900s, records reports that people asked Muhammad to describe his God, and this surah came as the answer. The phrase "He begetteth not nor was begotten" is read by Muslim scholars as denying that God has a son. Christians read their own scripture differently. The course describes both readings without deciding between them.

The Qur’an does not describe God’s shape or face. It describes God by names. Verse 7:180 says that the most beautiful names belong to God and tells believers to call on God by them. A hadith in the collections of Bukhari and Muslim says God has ninety-nine names. From that report, Muslim scholars built lists. The lists differ a little from one scholar to another, and the Qur’an itself uses more than ninety-nine.

Two names come first. Every surah but one opens with the basmala: "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful." That is Pickthall’s wording. The two Arabic words are ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim. Both come from a root that means mercy or a mother’s womb. Muslim commentators such as Ibn Kathir explain that ar-Rahman names mercy as God’s nature, while ar-Rahim names mercy in action toward creatures.

Other names appear again and again. Al-’Alim, the Knower. Al-Hakim, the Wise. Al-’Adl, the Just. Al-Ghafur, the Forgiving. Al-Khaliq, the Creator. Al-Malik, the King. Muslims often recite the names on a string of beads called a misbaha. Many Muslim children are named after the names, with the word ’abd, "servant of," in front: Abdullah, Abd ar-Rahman, Abd al-Karim.

Scholars in the tradition read the names as pairs that balance. God is described as the Just and the Forgiving, the One who lowers and the One who raises, the First and the Last. The Sufi tradition, the mystical side of Islam, uses the names in long repeated prayer called dhikr, "remembrance." Sunni and Shia Muslims share the names, though some of their lists and prayers differ.

In the middle of the longest surah sits the verse many Muslims call the greatest in the Qur’an. It is 2:255, in Surah Al-Baqarah, The Cow. Its name is Ayat al-Kursi, the Throne Verse, from the word kursi, "throne" or "footstool," near its end. A hadith in Muslim’s collection reports Muhammad naming it the greatest verse. Many Muslims recite it after each prayer and before sleep.

The verse is one long sentence in Arabic. It moves through a list. God is living and does not sleep. Everything in the heavens and earth belongs to God. No one can speak for another before God without permission. God knows the past and future of every person, and people know only what God allows. Then the throne, which the verse says holds the heavens and the earth. Then two final names: the Sublime, the Tremendous.

Muslim readers have argued about the word kursi. Some early commentators, quoted by al-Tabari, took it as God’s knowledge. Others took it as a real throne or footstool beyond the heavens. Ibn Kathir reports both views. The school of thought called Ash’ari taught that such words are true but that their manner is unknown to us. The Mu’tazila, an early rationalist school, read them as pure symbols. These debates show that one verse can hold many careful readings inside one faith.

Historians of religion notice something else. The verse shares images with the Hebrew Bible, where Psalm 121 says the guardian of Israel does not slumber or sleep. Scholars discuss whether the Qur’an echoes that language on purpose. Muslims believe the Qur’an confirms earlier scripture, so a shared image is no surprise to them. Academic readers see it as evidence that the Qur’an spoke to hearers who knew biblical stories.

The Qur’an speaks of creation in many places, but it never tells the story in one long passage as Genesis 1 does. It gives short pieces. Verse 7:54 says God created the heavens and the earth in six days and then took the throne. Verse 41:9–12 lists the earth, its mountains and food, then the sky, in stages. Verse 21:30 says the heavens and the earth were one piece, then were parted, and that every living thing was made from water.

Readers who know Genesis notice a difference right away. Genesis 2:2 says God rested on the seventh day. The Qur’an says in 50:38 that no weariness touched God. Muslim commentators such as Ibn Kathir point to this as a correction of an earlier idea. Jewish and Christian commentators read "rested" as "ceased" rather than as being tired. The two traditions read their own texts, and the difference is in the wording each one starts from.

The Qur’an also speaks of creation as still going on. Verse 55:29 says every day God is at work. Verse 35:1 says God adds to creation as God wills. Muslim theologians used these verses to argue that the world depends on God at every moment, not only at the start. In the Qur’an, a khalq, a "creation," is not only an event but a relationship.

Modern Muslim readers have asked how these verses fit with science. Some read "six days" as six long ages, since the Qur’an says in 22:47 that a day with God is like a thousand years. Others say the verses teach who made the world, not how, and leave the how to science. Some Muslims reject parts of modern science. The course reports these views without ranking them.

The Arabic word ayah has two meanings in the Qur’an. It is a verse of the book. It is also a sign, a mark that points to something beyond itself. The Qur’an uses the second meaning hundreds of times. Rain, wind, ships on the sea, the change of night and day, the growth of crops, bees, cattle, the stars: each is named as a sign "for people who think" or "for people who reflect."

Surah 88:17–20, the lines in this chapter’s opening story, are the most famous example. Surah 16, An-Nahl, The Bee, is another. It runs through cattle, rain, crops, the sea, mountains, rivers and stars, and then the bee, which the surah says was inspired to build its house and make a drink of many colors that heals. Surah 30:20–25 lists the making of humans from dust, the pairing of spouses, the variety of languages and skin colors, sleep, lightning and rain, each introduced by "among His signs."

The argument is always the same. The world is ordered, the order is a gift, and the gift points to a giver. Muslim theologians later turned this into a formal proof for God’s existence. The Qur’an itself does not argue formally. It points. Al-Ghazali, a scholar who died in 1111, wrote that the ordinary person needs no proof beyond looking at the sky. Modern readers have called this the Qur’an’s "argument from design."

This idea shaped Muslim science. Astronomers in Baghdad and Cairo, working in the 800s and after, wrote that studying the sky was a way to read God’s signs. Some Muslim writers today say the same about biology. Others warn against making the Qur’an a science textbook, since the verses are meant to move the heart, not to give data. Both are Muslim readings of the same lines.

The Qur’an speaks of beings that people cannot see. The first kind is angels, mala’ika in Arabic. Belief in angels is one of the six articles of faith that Sunni Muslims list, drawn from verses such as 2:285. The Qur’an names Jibril (Gabriel), who Muslims believe brought the revelation to Muhammad, and Mikail (Michael). Muslim tradition adds Israfil, who will blow the trumpet on the Last Day, and the angel of death.

Angels have jobs. Some carry the throne, according to 69:17. Two sit at each person’s shoulders and write down deeds, according to 50:17–18 and 82:10–12. Some guard hell. Some bring rain. The Qur’an says angels do not disobey God, in 66:6. The hadith collections add that angels are made of light, though the Qur’an itself does not say so. Angels in the Qur’an have no gender, and 43:19 rebukes those who called them female.

The second kind is jinn. Surah 72 is named for them. The Qur’an says in 55:15 that jinn were made from smokeless fire, and in 51:56 that jinn and humans were both created to serve God. Unlike angels, jinn can choose. Some believe, some do not. Surah 72 describes a group of jinn who heard the Qur’an and accepted it. Muslim tradition says Iblis, the figure the Qur’an calls Shaytan (Satan), was a jinn who refused to bow to Adam, as told in 18:50.

Jinn passed into folk stories across the Muslim world, and from there into English as "genie." Muslim scholars separate the Qur’an’s picture from those tales. Some modern Muslim thinkers read jinn as symbols for hidden forces; most Muslims take them as real beings. Historians note that pre-Islamic Arabs also spoke of jinn, so the Qur’an used a word its hearers already knew and gave it a new place in a story about one God.

Muslims believe God sent messengers to every people. The Qur’an says so in 10:47 and 16:36. It names about twenty-five prophets, though the exact count depends on how a reader treats a few names. Most of them appear in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament: Adam, Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Dawud (David), Sulayman (Solomon), Yunus (Jonah), Isa (Jesus). A few, such as Hud and Salih, are Arabian figures not found in the Bible.

The Qur’an mentions Musa (Moses) more than any other prophet, well over a hundred times. Ibrahim (Abraham) comes next. Muhammad is named only four times, plus once as Ahmad. Muslim scholars explain this pattern. The Qur’an is addressed to Muhammad, so it does not need to name him. It tells the stories of earlier prophets as lessons for him and his hearers, who were facing the same rejection those prophets faced.

Muslim tradition sorts messengers into two groups. A nabi, prophet, receives revelation. A rasul, messenger, also brings a book or a law. Every rasul is a nabi, but not every nabi is a rasul. Five are called "those of firm resolve" in 46:35, usually named as Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Isa and Muhammad. Muslims believe Muhammad is the last of them, the "seal of the prophets," a phrase from 33:40.

The Qur’an says in 2:136 that Muslims make no distinction among the messengers, meaning that they accept all of them. Jewish and Christian readers hold different views of some of these figures. Jews do not count Jesus or Muhammad as prophets. Christians hold beliefs about Jesus that the Qur’an does not share. Each tradition reads the shared figures through its own book. This course describes those readings side by side.

The Qur’an names four books that Muslims believe God sent. The Tawrat, the Torah, given to Musa (Moses). The Zabur, the Psalms, given to Dawud (David). The Injil, the Gospel, given to Isa (Jesus). And the Qur’an itself, given to Muhammad. Verse 3:3 names the first three together and says the Qur’an confirms them. Verse 5:44 calls the Torah guidance and light. Verse 5:46 says the same of the Gospel.

Because of these books, the Qur’an gives Jews and Christians a special name: People of the Book, Ahl al-Kitab. The phrase appears more than thirty times. Some verses address them warmly, such as 29:46, which tells Muslims to argue with them only in the kindest way and to say "our God and your God is one." Other verses criticize them, and the Qur’an also accuses some of altering or hiding their scripture, in 2:75 and 3:78.

Muslim scholars debate what that accusation means. Some, such as Ibn Hazm in the 1000s, held that the text itself was changed. Others, including many modern scholars, held that the words are sound and only the reading was twisted. Jewish and Christian scholars hold that their scriptures were handed down faithfully. This is a real disagreement, and the course names it rather than settling it.

One more point matters for reading. The Qur’an uses "Injil," Gospel, in the singular, as one book given to Isa. Christians have four Gospels, written by four authors about Jesus. Muslims generally believe the original Injil was a single revelation, now lost or changed. Christian readers see the four Gospels as the Gospel. Knowing this difference explains a good deal of what each side says about the other’s book.

After tawhid, no theme fills the Meccan surahs more than the Last Day. The Qur’an gives it many names: the Day of Judgment, the Day of Resurrection, the Hour, the Overwhelming, the Calamity. Surah 81 describes the sun folded up, the stars falling and the seas boiling. Surah 99, Az-Zalzalah, The Earthquake, describes the earth shaking out its burdens and telling its news.

On that day, according to the Qur’an, every person is raised. Each receives a record. Verse 17:13–14 says the book is opened and the person is told to read it. Verse 21:47 says scales are set up, and no one is wronged by even a mustard seed’s weight. Verse 99:7–8 says whoever did an atom’s weight of good will see it, and whoever did an atom’s weight of evil will see it. The picture is of complete fairness.

Muslim readers of Mecca’s first hearers note why the theme mattered. Muslim tradition says many Meccans laughed at the idea of bones rising, and 36:78–79 records that mockery and answers it. The theme also carried a moral edge. If every deed is weighed, then the rich who ignored the orphan and cheated in trade would answer for it. Many of the earliest surahs join the Last Day to justice for the poor.

Muslims across all schools believe in the Day of Judgment; it is one of the six articles of faith. They differ on details. Some read the scales as literal; some read them as a figure for perfect justice. Shia and Sunni traditions both hold that Muhammad will intercede for believers on that day, drawing on hadith, though the Qur’an in 2:255 says no one intercedes without God’s permission. The theme of judgment appears in Jewish and Christian texts too, and scholars compare the pictures.

The Qur’an describes two outcomes after judgment. The first is Jannah, "the Garden," the Qur’an’s usual word for paradise. It is pictured as gardens beneath which rivers flow, a phrase that appears dozens of times. There are shade, fruit, couches, fine clothing, drink that does not cloud the mind, and companions. Surah 55 lists these gifts with a refrain, and Surah 56 divides those who enter into ranks. Verse 9:72 says the greatest gift there is God’s good pleasure.

The second is Jahannam, hell, pictured as fire. It has gates, according to 15:44, and guards. The Qur’an describes boiling water, chains and smoke. Verse 4:56 speaks of skins renewed so that the punishment continues. The Qur’an says in 11:106–108 that people stay in fire or garden as long as the heavens and earth last, "except as thy Lord willeth," a phrase scholars have long discussed.

How to read these pictures has divided Muslim scholars. Most classical commentators, such as Ibn Kathir, read them as real descriptions of real places. Some philosophers, such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1037), read them as images for states of the soul. Al-Ghazali attacked that reading. Sufi poets often wrote that they wanted God, not gardens. Rabi’a of Basra, a woman mystic of the 700s, is remembered for saying she would put out hell and burn paradise so that people would love God for God alone.

Two more debates matter. First, whether hell is forever. Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn al-Qayyim, in the 1300s, argued from the phrase "except as thy Lord willeth" that it might end. Most scholars disagreed. Second, who enters the Garden. Verse 2:62 names Jews, Christians and Sabians who believe in God and the Last Day and do right. Muslim commentators read that verse in different ways, some broadly and some narrowly. The course records the range.

Count the names of God in the Qur’an, and the names of mercy win. Ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim open every surah but one. Al-Ghafur, the Forgiving, and at-Tawwab, the One who turns back to people, appear dozens of times. Verse 6:12 says God has written mercy upon Himself. Verse 7:156 has God say that His mercy embraces all things. A hadith in Bukhari and Muslim reports that God’s mercy outweighs God’s anger.

For Muslim readers, this frames the Last Day. Judgment is pictured as fair, but mercy comes first. The Qur’an repeats that God accepts tawba, repentance, from anyone who turns back. Verse 39:53 tells those who have gone too far against themselves not to despair, because God forgives all sins. Commentators call this one of the most hopeful verses in the book. Surah 93, Ad-Duha, comforts Muhammad himself, and ends by telling him not to turn away the orphan or the beggar.

Mercy is also a duty for people. The Qur’an tells believers to be merciful to parents, to free captives, to feed the poor, and to forgive. Verse 21:107 calls Muhammad a mercy to all the worlds, and Muslim teachers use that verse to say that his followers must show mercy too. The Sufi tradition made divine mercy its center. The jurists made it a rule of reading: when a text is unclear, choose the reading that eases rather than burdens.

Historians of religion note that mercy and judgment stand together in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament as well. Exodus 34:6 calls God merciful and gracious. The Qur’an, addressed to hearers who knew such language, made mercy the first word of every chapter. How to balance mercy and judgment is a question every one of the three traditions has asked. Each answers it from its own book.

The Arabic word for justice, 'adl, means balance and straightness. The Qur’an uses it and its relatives again and again. Verse 16:90 says God commands justice and doing good and giving to relatives, and forbids indecency and wrong. Muslim preachers recite that verse at the end of Friday sermons across the world. Verse 57:25 says God sent messengers with the book and the balance so that people would stand by justice.

The strongest statement comes in 4:135. Believers are told to stand firm for justice as witnesses for God, even if it goes against themselves, their parents or their relatives, and whether the person is rich or poor. The verse then warns them not to follow desire and not to twist their testimony. Read in Medina, where tribal loyalty had always come before truth, Muslim commentators say this was a hard demand. Family and tribe were supposed to come first. The verse says justice comes first.

Justice in the Qur’an includes fair dealing in trade. Surah 83, Al-Mutaffifin, opens with a warning to those who give short measure. Verse 17:35 says to give full measure and weigh with a straight balance. Muslim tradition says Muhammad was a merchant known as al-Amin, the trustworthy, before the revelation, and these verses fit that setting. Muslim jurists later built detailed rules about honest weights, contracts and debt on these lines.

Justice also reaches enemies. Verse 5:8 tells believers not to let hatred of a people make them unjust. Commentators such as al-Tabari connect it to the Meccans who had fought the Muslims. Modern Muslim writers often quote 5:8 in debates about war and politics. The verse does not say what justice requires in every case. It sets the standard and leaves the cases to readers, which is why Muslim law took centuries to work them out.

Verse 17:23–24 in Surah Al-Isra puts two commands in one breath. Worship none but God, and be kind to parents. If one or both reach old age with you, do not say even "uff" to them, a sound of annoyance, and do not push them away. Speak to them with honor. Lower the wing of humility to them out of mercy, and pray for them as they cared for you when you were small. Muslim teachers use this passage more than any other on the duty to parents.

Surah 31, Luqman, repeats the command and adds a limit. Verse 31:14–15 tells a person to thank God and their parents, but says that if parents push them to set partners beside God, they should not obey them in that, while still keeping company with them kindly. Muslim jurists drew a rule from this: obedience to parents is a duty, but not when it means disobeying God. Muslim tradition also reports Muhammad naming the mother three times before the father when asked who most deserved good company.

Neighbors come next. Verse 4:36 lists those a believer must treat well: parents, relatives, orphans, the needy, the near neighbor, the neighbor who is a stranger, the companion at your side, the traveler and those in your care. Commentators note that "the neighbor who is a stranger" includes non-Muslims. A hadith in Bukhari says the angel Jibril kept urging Muhammad about neighbors until he thought the neighbor might be made an heir.

The Qur’an also guards speech. Verse 49:11–12 forbids mocking, insulting nicknames, suspicion, spying and backbiting, which it compares to eating a dead brother’s flesh. Verse 33:70 tells believers to speak straight words. Verse 2:42 says not to mix truth with falsehood or hide the truth. Muslim ethical writers such as al-Ghazali devoted whole chapters to the tongue. The rules apply to Muslims and to how they speak of anyone.

Muslim tradition says Muhammad was an orphan. His father died before his birth and his mother when he was about six. The Qur’an speaks of the orphan, yatim, more than twenty times, and almost always to protect. Surah 93, Ad-Duha, reminds Muhammad that God found him an orphan and sheltered him, then commands: do not oppress the orphan. Surah 107, Al-Ma’un, says the person who denies religion is the one who pushes away the orphan and does not urge feeding the poor.

In Mecca, according to the sira, orphans had no tribe to protect them. Their property was often taken by guardians. Surah 4, An-Nisa, opens with rules for them. Verse 4:2 says to give orphans their property and not to swap bad goods for their good ones. Verse 4:10 says those who eat orphans’ wealth unjustly eat fire. Muslim jurists built rules for guardians from these verses. In Medina, after battles left many children fatherless, the rules mattered even more.

The poor appear beside the orphan. Verse 2:177 defines righteousness not as facing east or west in prayer but as believing, and giving wealth, despite loving it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask, and for freeing captives. Verse 90:12–16 describes "the steep path" as freeing a slave or feeding, on a day of hunger, an orphan near of kin or a poor person in the dust. Surah 89 accuses the people of Mecca of not honoring the orphan and of devouring inheritance.

Historians who read the Meccan surahs note how often the Last Day and the poor appear together. The wealthy merchants of Mecca are warned that their wealth will not save them. Muslim readers see here the beginning of Islam’s social teaching. Some modern Muslim thinkers have built from it a full program of economic justice. Others read it more narrowly as personal charity. Both start from the same verses.

The Qur’an mentions zakat beside prayer more than two dozen times, in the phrase "establish prayer and pay the zakat." The word means purification and growth. Muslims believe giving a share purifies the rest of their wealth. Zakat is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the basic practices. Verse 9:60 lists who may receive it: the poor, the needy, those who collect it, those whose hearts are to be won, captives, people in debt, the cause of God, and travelers.

The Qur’an does not give the rate. The rate comes from the hadith and the practice of the early community: usually two and a half percent of savings held for a year, above a minimum called the nisab. Different rates apply to crops, livestock and mined metal. Muslim jurists wrote long chapters on the details, and the four Sunni schools and the Shia schools differ on some of them. Today many Muslims pay zakat through mosques or charities, and some countries collect it as a tax.

Sadaqah is different. The word means truthfulness, and it names any voluntary gift. Verse 2:271 says giving openly is good, but giving secretly to the poor is better. Verse 2:264 warns against spoiling a gift by reminding the receiver of it. A hadith in Bukhari says even a smile is sadaqah. There is also zakat al-fitr, a small gift of food or its price given by each person before the Eid prayer that ends Ramadan, so the poor can celebrate too.

In Chicago, Muslim charities collect zakat and sadaqah for food pantries, refugee aid and free clinics, and some serve everyone regardless of faith. Jewish tradition has tzedakah, which also comes from a root meaning justice, and Christian tradition has the tithe. Scholars compare the three. The Qur’an’s own picture is simple: wealth is a trust, and a share of it belongs to others by right, as 70:24–25 puts it.

Surah 4, An-Nisa, The Women, and Surah 2 hold most of the Qur’an’s family law. Marriage is a contract. Verse 4:4 says a husband gives his wife a mahr, a gift that becomes her own property. Verse 30:21 describes spouses as a sign, made so that they find rest in each other, with love and mercy between them. Verse 2:187 calls husband and wife garments for each other. Muslim wedding sermons quote these lines.

The Qur’an allows a man up to four wives in 4:3, on the condition that he treat them justly, and it adds that if he fears he cannot, then one. Verse 4:129 says that a man will never be able to be perfectly fair between wives. Historians note that the verse came after the battle of Uhud left many widows and orphans. Muslim readers disagree about what it means today. Some hold that the permission stands. Others read 4:3 with 4:129 and argue that the Qur’an points toward one wife. Some Muslim countries restrict or ban polygamy; others permit it.

Divorce is permitted but hedged. Surah 65 is named At-Talaq, Divorce. It sets a waiting period, forbids turning a wife out of her home during it, and calls for witnesses. Verse 2:229 says a wife must be kept honorably or released kindly. Inheritance is fixed in 4:11–12 and 4:176, with set shares for parents, spouses, sons and daughters. A daughter’s share is half a son’s; commentators explain that sons carried the duty to support the family. Before these verses, according to Muslim tradition, women in Arabia often inherited nothing.

One verse, 4:34, has drawn the most debate. It speaks of men as maintainers of women and of steps a husband may take in a dispute. Classical commentators read it one way. Many modern Muslim scholars, women and men, read the same Arabic words differently, looking at grammar and at Muhammad’s own conduct as the hadith describe it. Some read the verse as tied to its time. The course does not settle the reading; it reports that Muslims hold more than one.

The Qur’an’s food rules are short. Verse 2:173 names four things forbidden: carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, and anything dedicated to other than God. Verse 5:3 repeats the list and adds animals strangled, beaten, fallen or gored, and meat from altars. Verse 5:5 says the food of the People of the Book is lawful for Muslims and theirs for them. Muslim jurists read that to permit meat slaughtered by Jews and Christians, with some conditions that the schools debate.

Halal means permitted. Haram means forbidden. Between them, jurists placed other grades: recommended, neutral and disliked. The Qur’an says in 2:168 to eat what is lawful and good on the earth, and in 5:87 not to forbid the good things God has permitted. Commentators note the point of that verse: people should not add bans of their own. Verse 6:145 uses almost the same short list of banned foods and says nothing else is forbidden.

Wine came in stages, according to Muslim commentators. Verse 2:219 says wine and gambling hold some benefit but greater sin. Verse 4:43 tells believers not to pray while drunk. Verse 5:90–91 calls wine, gambling, idols and divining arrows the work of Satan, and tells believers to shun them. Scholars such as al-Tabari list this as the classic example of a rule coming in steps. Nearly all Muslim jurists extend the ban to every intoxicant, based on a hadith.

The Qur’an also allows exceptions. Verse 2:173 ends by saying that a person driven by need, without wanting to break the rule, does no sin. Hunger overrides the ban. Jurists made this a general principle: necessity permits what is forbidden. Halal certification today, on food packages in Chicago grocery stores, comes from later law and organizations, not from the Qur’an’s own short list. Jewish kosher rules are similar in some points and different in others, and scholars compare them.

For about twelve years in Mecca, according to Muslim tradition, Muhammad’s followers did not fight back against persecution. After the move to Medina in 622, verses came that permitted fighting. Verse 22:39–40 is usually named first: permission is given to those who are fought against because they were wronged, and driven from their homes only for saying "Our Lord is God." The verse adds that if God did not check one people by another, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques would be destroyed.

Verse 2:190 sets the frame: fight in the way of God against those who fight you, but do not begin hostilities, for God does not love aggressors. The verses after it, 2:191–193, tell the Muslims to fight the Meccans who drove them out, to stop if the Meccans stop, and to fight until there is no more persecution. The Arabic word is fitnah, which here means oppression for one’s faith. Al-Tabari and later commentators read these verses against the battles of Badr (624) and Uhud (625).

Surah 9, the last long surah, has the verses most often quoted alone. Verse 9:5 tells the Muslims to fight the idolaters wherever they find them after the sacred months end. Verse 9:29 speaks of fighting those of the People of the Book who do not follow the religion of truth until they pay a tax called jizyah. Muslim commentators, including Ibn Kathir, place 9:5 in the context of tribes who had broken treaties, since 9:4 exempts those who kept their treaties. They place 9:29 in the context of the Byzantine frontier in 630.

Muslim readers divide on how far these verses reach. Some classical jurists held that 9:5 and 9:29 cancelled the earlier, more limited verses. Others held the opposite, that the limits in 2:190 always apply. Most modern Muslim scholars read all the verses together as rules for defense and for a specific war, and reject their use to justify attacks on civilians. A small number of militant groups read them as commands for all time. Historians note that the classical law of war grew up in an empire, and the Qur’an’s verses were read through that setting.

Right after the Throne Verse comes one of the most quoted lines in the Qur’an. Verse 2:256 in Pickthall reads: "There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error." The verse goes on to say that whoever rejects false gods and believes in God has grasped a handhold that will not break. It sits among verses about belief, not among the verses on war.

Muslim commentators record an occasion. Al-Tabari reports that some families in Medina had children raised among the Jewish tribes, and when those tribes were expelled, the parents wanted to force the children to become Muslim. The verse, according to this report, forbade it. Ibn Kathir repeats the story. Other reports tie the verse to a man whose two sons had become Christian. In every version, the verse stops a Muslim from forcing faith on someone else.

Classical jurists took 2:256 as the rule that non-Muslims under Muslim rule keep their religion. Jews and Christians lived as dhimmi, protected people, paying the jizyah and keeping their own courts and worship, with restrictions that varied by time and place. Historians describe this as neither full equality nor persecution, and note that it compared well with how religious minorities were treated in most of medieval Europe. A few classical scholars argued the verse was later cancelled by the verses in Surah 9. Most did not accept that.

Modern Muslim thinkers make 2:256 a foundation. They cite it beside 10:99, which asks Muhammad whether he would force people to believe, and 18:29, which says let whoever will believe, and whoever will disbelieve. They also cite 109:6, "Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion." The debate today is about whether leaving Islam is protected by the same verse. Many scholars say yes; some classical law said no, based on hadith rather than the Qur’an. The course reports both.

Verse 5:32 in Surah Al-Ma’idah, The Table, is quoted at interfaith events, in speeches, and on posters in Chicago mosques. In paraphrase, it says that God decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a person, except for murder or spreading corruption in the land, is as if he had killed all of humanity, and whoever saves a life is as if he had saved all of humanity. The verse then says messengers came to them with clear proofs, but many still went to excess.

The verse follows the story of Adam’s two sons, told in 5:27–31, where one kills the other. Readers who know Jewish texts notice something. The Mishnah, in Sanhedrin 4:5, says that whoever destroys a single life is as if he destroyed a whole world, and whoever saves one is as if he saved a whole world. The Qur’an’s "We decreed for the Children of Israel" seems to point to that teaching. Muslim scholars say the Qur’an is confirming an earlier truth. Academic scholars discuss the link as a sign of the Qur’an’s conversation with Jewish tradition.

The next verse, 5:33, sets a severe punishment for those who wage war against God and His messenger and spread corruption in the land. Some readers say that 5:32 cannot be quoted without 5:33. Others answer that 5:33 defines the exception that 5:32 already names. Muslim jurists took "corruption in the land" to mean armed robbery and rebellion, and wrote rules for it. The two verses together set out both the value of life and a state’s power to punish.

After attacks by militant groups, Muslim leaders around the world have quoted 5:32 to say that the Qur’an forbids killing civilians. Critics have replied by quoting 5:33. This chapter’s method applies: read the verse, the verse before it, and the verse after it, and then read what scholars have said. A reader who does that can describe what the Qur’an says and how its readers use it, without pretending the verse says only one thing.

Sabr is the Qur’an’s word for patience, steadiness and endurance. It appears in more than ninety verses. Verse 2:153 says God is with those who are patient. Verse 3:200 tells believers to be patient and to outdo others in patience. Surah 103, Al-’Asr, one of the shortest surahs, says all people are at a loss except those who believe, do good, and urge one another to truth and to patience. Muslim teachers often say sabr is half of faith, quoting a hadith.

Forgiveness stands beside it. Verse 3:134 praises those who restrain their anger and pardon people, and says God loves those who do good. Verse 42:40 says the return for a wrong is a wrong like it, but whoever forgives and makes peace has a reward with God. Verse 41:34 says good and evil are not equal, and tells believers to repel evil with what is better, so that an enemy becomes a warm friend. Verse 24:22, according to commentators, was addressed to Abu Bakr after a relative had slandered his daughter, and told him to forgive.

The Qur’an holds justice and forgiveness together. It permits a fair response and praises letting it go. Muslim jurists gave the family of a murder victim the right to demand punishment, accept payment, or forgive, based on 2:178. Muslim readers have long discussed when to insist on justice and when to forgive. Sufi writers leaned toward forgiveness; jurists insisted that forgiveness must be the victim’s choice, not the state’s.

The story of Yusuf (Joseph) is the Qur’an’s model. His brothers threw him in a pit and sold him. Years later, as a ruler in Egypt, he tells them in 12:92 that there is no blame on them that day, and asks God to forgive them. Muslim tradition reports that Muhammad quoted that verse to the Meccans when he entered the city in 630 and pardoned most of them. Historians accept that the conquest of Mecca was mostly bloodless, while noting that a few people were excepted from the pardon.

Students often hear that "Islam says" this or that. Muslim scholars would ask: says it where? There are three layers. The first is the Qur’an, which Muslims believe is God’s word. Only a small part of it is law: scholars count a few hundred legal verses out of more than six thousand. The second is the Sunnah, Muhammad’s example, known through the hadith, reports of what he said and did. The third is fiqh, jurisprudence, the reasoning of scholars who worked out rules from the first two.

The hadith were collected and graded in the 800s. Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875) made the two collections Sunni Muslims trust most. Shia Muslims have their own collections and give special weight to reports through Muhammad’s family. Hadith scholars checked each chain of narrators and graded reports as sound, good or weak. Much of daily practice, such as how to pray and the zakat rate, comes from hadith, not from the Qur’an’s own words.

Fiqh grew into schools. Sunni Muslims follow four: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali, named after scholars who died between 767 and 855. Shia Muslims follow mainly the Ja’fari school, named after Ja’far al-Sadiq (d. 765). The schools agree on most things and differ on details, such as how to hold the hands in prayer or when a contract is valid. Al-Shafi’i wrote that the sources of law, in order, are the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the agreement of scholars, and reasoning by analogy.

Why does this matter for reading the Qur’an? Because much of what people call "Qur’anic law" is fiqh. The Qur’an sets a principle; a hadith adds a case; jurists build a rule; a later state makes it a statute. Each step can be questioned by Muslims themselves. Modern Muslim reformers often argue that a rule belongs to fiqh, not to the Qur’an, and can change. Traditional scholars answer that fiqh carries the weight of centuries. Knowing which layer a claim sits on is the first step in any honest discussion.

Muslim scholars developed tools for reading rules. The first is asbab al-nuzul, the occasions of revelation, the events tradition says a verse answered. The second is reading the verse in its place, with the verses around it. The third is gathering every verse on the same topic. The fourth is checking the hadith. A fifth, which scholars debate, is naskh, abrogation: the idea that a later verse can replace the rule of an earlier one, based on 2:106.

Take the verses on fighting. A reader who uses abrogation may say 9:5 replaced 2:190. A reader who rejects that use of abrogation says the verses address different situations and both stand. A reader who stresses occasions says 9:5 was about treaty-breakers in 631. A reader who stresses the whole book gathers 2:190, 8:61 on inclining to peace, and 60:8 on kindness to those who did not fight you. Each of these is a Muslim reading, and they lead to different rules.

Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and later al-Shatibi (d. 1388) argued that law should serve purposes the Qur’an makes plain: protecting faith, life, mind, family and property. This approach, called maqasid, is popular with modern Muslim scholars. It lets them ask what a rule was for. Critics say it gives too much room to the reader. Both sides claim to be faithful to the text.

For this course, the method is simpler. Read the verse. Read what stands before and after it. Find its occasion in the commentaries. Then report the range of Muslim readings without choosing one. Amara in this chapter’s opening story did the first two steps at her kitchen table. The rest of this unit is practice in the other two.