 |
By M S M Saifullah
I have tried to quote as many references as possible to avoid the views of the
author who is writing about this topic. The main source that I used to cross
check was Encyclopedia Of Islam published by E J Brill, Leiden. This is definitely
a monumental source for most of the information regarding the biographies of
the people. So here we go:
Ibn Al-Mukaffa': In the Encyclopedia Of Islam we see that:
One highly individual aspect of the spiritual interests of this [i.e., Ibn
al-Mukaffa'] writer is finally revealed by the fragments (if they are authentic, as
we believe) of a religious work, a Manichaean apologia, preserved in the
refutation made a century later by Zaydi Imam al Qasim b. Ibrahim, in a treatise
published by M Guidi. We are already familiar with the charges brought against
Ibn al-Mukaffa' of having attemped to make an "imitation" of the sacred book of
Islam: The work refuted by al-Qasim appears rather in our view, to be an attack
on Muhammad, the Kuran and Islam in the name of another faith, namely the
Manichaean faith which several of the friends of Ibn al-Mukaffa' had adopted and
of which the writer himself was suspected.[1]
The reference 2 gives a brief review of his work:
The prominent Arabic prose writer of Iranian descent who was cruelly put to
death in 139/756, is said to have tried to imitate the Qur'ân at the behest of the
group of heretics, but he had to abandon this endeavour because it proved too
difficult. This is of course a legend. But Ibn al-Mukaffa' did compose a polemic
in which he took issue with Islam, and especially with the Qur'ân from a
Manichaean standpoint. Fragments of this polemic have come down to us in a
refuation written by Zaydi Imam, al-Qasim b. Ibrahim (d. 246/860). The first
four words of this polemic - and they alone - are obviously modelled on the first
our words of the Qur'ân. They read: "In the name of Compassionate and
Merciful light - a Manichaean variation of the familiar Islamic basmalah which
must strike any Muslim as blasphemy.[2]
Now does that strike any of us as copying from the Qur'ân or producing a better
verse than that of the Qur'ân?
And to complete the thoughts on Ibn al-Mukaffa':
It is possible that the celebrated Iranian convert, the great stylist Ibn al-Mukaffa',
actually try his hand at such a mu'arada, but found it impossible to complete his
task - a fate shared by some other writers to whom tradition imputes the same
ambition.[3]
On Ibn al-Mukaffa''s attempt to match the Qur'ân, we read:
When Ibn al-Muqaffa' arrived at the passage Sura 11:42-46 he realized that it
was impossible for any human being to equal the book. So, he desisted from his
mu'arada and tore up what he had done.[4]
Musaylimah: During the time of Prophet Muhammad(P) there arose a man called
Musaylimah who started claiming the Prophethood. So, he also started saying
"revelatory pronouncements". His revelatory pronouncements resembled:
The form of these sayings correspond to a large extent with that of the earliest
surahs, and they are in part prefaced by strange oaths, just like the surahs. It is
however questionable whether Musaylimah was in fact the source of any of
these sayings. Perhaps they were all invented at a later date and ascribed to him
as a clumsy imitator of Muhammad. One of the sayings is modelled in a
particularly obvious fashion on the mode of expression of the Qur'ân. it runs:
"The elephant. What is the elephant? And who shall tell you what is the
elephant? He has a ropy tail and a long trunk. this is a [mere] trifle of our Lord's
creations."[5]
Concerning the style of his speech:
He followed the kahin style of rhymed prose, and of the pronouncing of oaths.
One such, swearing by mountain goat, the black smooth-skinned wolf and dark
night are suggestive of animals symbolic of the pagan gods.[6]
And
When Musaylimah met the Prophetess Sajah they parleyed in rhymed prose,
Musaylimah being credited with the use of "Islamic" turns of phrase such as
'Alay-na min salawati ma'shari abrar, ... yaqumuna 'l-layla wa-yasumuna
'l-nahar, li-rabbi-kumu'l-kubbar, rabbi 'l-ghuyumi wa 'l-amtar (Upon us are the
blessings from a company of dutful men ... The night they spend in vigil; during
the day they fast for your great Lord, Lord of the cloud and rains).[7]
Al-Baqillanî, who systematically analyzed the poetry of Musaylimah (apart from
Imru' al-Qais and others) has been quoted:
The pieces reported to have been composed by Musaylimah are so ridiculously
poor in style that nobody could seriously compare them with the Qur'ân.[8]
Abu'l-'Ala Al-Marri: According to cAlî Dashti:
It is widely held that the blind Syrian poet Abu'l-'Ala ol-Ma'arri wrote his Ketab
ol-Fosul wa'l-Ghayat, of which part survives, in imitation of the Qor'an.[9]
This statement is an unfinished thought. If we look at Rudy Peret's article, we
see that:
It was also reported of a sceptic and writer of the 5th/11th century, the blind
Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri who died in 449/1057, that he tried to produce the
imitation of the Qur'ân. The accusation refers to his compendious work al-Fusul
wa-'l-Ghayat, only the first seventh of which has survived, a supreme example of
the art of poetry and rhyme that was based on the classical Arabic literary
language, and of which the author was the master. It is written in elaborate
rhyming prose, and individual sections of stanzas occasionally open with archiac
oaths such as: "I swear by him who created horses and the yellowish white
[camels] who lope along in ar-Ruhayl............." These incantations are
reminiscent of early Qur'ânic texts (e.g. lxxv. 1-2) which in turn go back to
ancient Arabic oracles; presumably they are indeen modelled on the Qur'ânic
texts.[10]
And further more the author went on to say:
But this is not to say that al-Ma'arri intended his work as a whole to be an
imitation of the Qur'ân, let alone surpass it. Furthermore, by the time al-Ma'arri
was writing, rhyming prose had long since being accepted as a stylistic device
characteristic of elevated language, so that it could be employed without second
thoughts. If we look beyond the elaborate torrent of words and try to estabhlish
the theme of the work, the subject matter amounts to little more than songs of
praise of God and religious and ethical admonitions (with pessimistic
undercurrents).[11]
In another reference:
Kremer endeavoured to disprove in his latest writing about the noble
free-thinkers, and to explain as a misunderstanding of later literary historians,
the assumption that Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri wrote an imitation of the Koran. For
the sake of completion it may be pointed out that al-Zamakhshari also
presupposes that Abu'l 'Ala' intended to imitate the Koran. It is likely that he has
the title of Abu'l 'Ala's work in mind when he says in the introduction to his
Kashshaf: wa-mayyaza baynahunna bi fusul wa-ghayat. In his commentary to
Sura 77:30-3 he expresses the opinion that Abu'l 'Ala' wished to excel the
beauties of this passage in a verse which he wrote in order to compete with
God's word. In those verses of the Koran the infidels are addressed:
"Go then in shade (of the smoke of hell) which rises in three columns, verily it is
not shady there and there is no protection from the hell fire. Verily, it throws
sparks as big as palaces, as if they were reddish-yellow camels."
Abu'l 'Ala' in the verse in which he is said to imitate this passage of the Koran
does not speak of the hell fire but of the fires burning in hospitable houses in
order to invite the tired traveller. Of this fire he says:
"A red one, with hair (rays) which float far in the darkness, and throws sparks as
big as tents."
This verse is in fact contained in a dirge and consolation which the poet
addressed to the family of the 'Alid Abu Ahmad al-Musawi after his death. Fakhr
al-din al-Razi reproves al-Zamakhshari for suggesting that Abu'l-'Ala' intended
this as an imitation of the Koran; but he declares that, as a parallel was
suggested, he is obliged to show in how many respects the expression of the
Koran is superior to that of the poet. After giving twelve proofs he concludes:
"These points came to me in a flash, but if we were to beseech God to help us in
search for more, he would undoubtedly offer us as many more as we could
desire."[12]
Yahya b. Al-Hakam al-Ghazal:
He was a belletrist in Andalus, Spain in 3rd century.
...the Andalusian belletrist Yahya b. al-Hakam al-Ghazal, called by his
biographers the 'The sage of al-Andalus, its poet and oracle', dared to attempt
to produce a pendant to surah 112 containing the Islamic credo. 'But he has
overcome by terrible fear and shuddering when he embarked upon this work
and thus returned to God.'[13]
Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad (Also known as Bab):
A work from the middle of the nineteenth century by Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad
from Shiraz, known as Bab, the founder of the Babi sect (which survives to this
day in the Bahai sect) deserves to be mentioned.
Bab felt that he had been caled upon to replace Muhammad as a Prophet and to
replace the outmoded Islam with a new religion. In the Bayan he summed up
his doctrine. The mode of expression is prosaic, the arrangement of the material
unsystematic despite the division into eleven units (Wahid) of the nineteen
chapters (bab) each. The work was designed not to outdo the Qur'ân in
rhetorical power but to supercede it as a sober statement of the new faith. Yet it
accords with the Qur'ân in one respect - that the revelations derive from God
himself. Moreover, there are several points, both in the subject matter and in the
formulation, which are not only inspired by the Qur'ân but modelled on it,
consciously or unconsciouly.[14]
Ibn al-Rawandi:
He was a Mu'atazili and a heretic, born in the beginning of 3rd/9th century. At
first he was an adherent of Mutazilism, then left his friends and attacked them
mercilessly.
In the Encyclopedia Of Islam we read:
The plentiful extracts from the K. al-Zumurraudh provide a fairly clear indication
off the most heterodox doctrine of Ibn al-Rawandi, that or which posterity has
been least willing to forgive him: a biting criticism of prophecy in general and of
the prophecy of Muhammad in particular; he maintains in addition that religious
dogmas the not acceptable to reason and must, therefore be rejected; the
miracles attributed to the Prophets, persons who may reasonably be compared
to sorcerers and magicians, are pure invention, and the greatest of the miracles
in the eyes of orthodox Muslims, the Kuran, gets no better treatment: it is
neither a revealed book nor even an inimitable literary masterpiece. In order to
cloak his thesis, which attacks the root of all types of religion, Ibn al-Rawandi
used the fiction that they were uttered by Brahmans. His reputation as irreligious
iconoclast spread in the 4th/10th century beyond the borders of Muslim
literature.[15]
Very tersely, Ibn al-Rawandi's attitude has been put as:
He resembled somewhat the so-called free lance journalist of these days and
could write for or against the same cause without any scruple.[16]
Bassar bin Burd, Sahib Ibn 'Abbad & Abu'l - 'Atahiya:
I am clubbing all of them together because they both seem to have claimed that
their composition is better or slight less better than the Qur'ân. I crossed
checked their work in the Encyclopedia Of Islam but there is no mention of their
composition against the Qur'ân.
Bassar bin Burd rates some of his verses superior to surah 59. Towards the end
of the 10th century the Sahib Ibn 'Abbad could still publicly accept the
compliment made to him by a Jew from Isfahan that the style of the Koran was
only slightly superior to his own.[17]
Or in another reference:
Bashshar b. Burb is quoted as freely comparing to its disadvantage Kur'anic with
contemporary verse and as having boasted of having personally surpassed surah
LIX; a similar statement is attributed to Abu'l-'Atahiya with reference to surah
LXXVII.[18]
Bashar did in fact praise one of his own poetic products when he heard recited
by a singing girl in Baghdad as being better than the Surah al-Hashr.[19]
But the surprising thing is that al-Baqillani in his I'jaz al-Qur'ân compares the
work of Bassar bin Burd and others with the Qur'ân and there is no mention of
Bassar bin Burd's work being better than the Qur'ân!! Reference 2, which is a
rather comprehensive book on Arabic literature pre-Islamic as well as
post-Islamic, also mentions about Bassar bin Burd being a great post-Islamic
poet who introduced new ideas in the poetry. Again there is no mention by
Rudy Paret about he surpassing the style of the Qur'ân.
In the article Rhetorical Interpretation of the Qur'ân: I'jaz and related topics,
Issa J Boullata deals with the modern writers who dealt the Qur'ân from a
literary point of view. One such work of A'isha cAbd al-Rahmân who goes by
the pseudonym of Bint Shacati has received a lot of attention. It is said that her
work will provide new insights on the concept of I'jaz of the Qur'ân. Issa
Boullata says:
A'isha cAbd al-Rahmân studies inductively other aspects of Qur'ânic usage and
offers fresh ideas and new interpretation, uncovering certain consistencies never
observed before, such as those regarding the use of passive voice in the
Qur'ânic scenes of the day of resurrection, which in her view, emphasize the
passivity of the universe and the spontaneity of all creation in obeying the
overwhelming events of the day. These and other observations of hers
transcend traditional Arabic syntax and rhetoric as she attempts to capture the
reality that lies behind Qur'anic expression. Her conclusion is that the Qur'ân,
being neither prose nor verse, is a literary genre of its own that is of the highest
eloquence and of matchless stylistic perfection.[20]
cAlî bin Rabbân at-Tabarî who was Nestorian Christian, and at the age of 70
converted to Islam, asserts that he has never in any language found stylistic
perfection equaling that of the Qur'ân:
When I was a Christian I used to say, as did an uncle of mine who was one of
the learned and eloquent men, that eloquence is not one of the signs of
prophethood because it is common to all the peoples; but when I discarded
(blind) imitation and (old) customs and gave up adhering to (mere) habit and
training and reflected upon the meanings of the Qur'ân I came to know that
what the followers of the Qur'ân claimed for it was true. The fact is that I have
not found any book, be it by an Arab or a Persian, an Indian or a Greek, right
from the beginning of the world up to now, which contains at the same time
praises of God, belief in the prophets and apostles, exhortations to good,
everlasting deeds, command to do good and prohibition against doing evil,
inspiration to the desire of paradise and to avoidance of hell-fire as this Qur'ân
does. So when a person brings to us a book of such qualities, which inspires
such reverence and sweetness in the hearts and which has achieved such an
overlasting success and he is (at the same time) an illiterate person who did
never learnt the art of writing or rhetoric, that book is without any doubt one of
the signs of his Prophethood.[21]
References
[1] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, 1971, Volume 3, E J Brill, Leiden, p. 885.
[2] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, 1983, Cambridge University
Press, p. ??.
[3] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 1019.
[4] Gustave E Von Grunebaum, A Tenth-Century Document Of Arabic Literary
Theory and Criticism, 1950, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p. xiv.
[5] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit., p. 212.
[6] Ibid., pp. 127-128.
[7] Ibid., p. 128.
[8] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'ân, 1933, Islamic Culture, Volume VII,
Hyderabad Deccan, p. 221.
[9] cAlî Dashti (Translated from the Persian by F R C Bagley), Twenty Three
Years: A Study Of The Prophetic Career Of Mohammad, 1985, George Allen &
Unwin Ltd., London, p. 48.
[10] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit., p. 213.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ignaz Goldziher, Ed. S M Stern, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische
Studien) II, 1971, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, pp. 364-365.
[13] Ibid., p. 364.
[14] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit., p. 213.
[15] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 905.
[16] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'ân, Islamic Culture, Op. Cit., p. 232.
[17] Gustave E Von Grunebaum, A Tenth-Century Document Of Arabic Literary
Theory and Criticism, Op. Cit., p. xiv.
[18] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 1019.
[19] Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien) II, Op. Cit.,
p. 363.
[20] Andrew Rippin (Ed.), Approaches of The History of Interpretation of The
Qur'ân, 1988, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 154.
[21] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'ân, Islamic Culture, Op. Cit., pp. 222-223.
I have tried to quote as many references as possible to avoid the views of the
author who is writing about this topic. The main source that I used to cross
check was Encyclopedia Of Islam published by E J Brill, Leiden. This is definitely
a monumental source for most of the information regarding the biographies of
the people. So here we go:
Ibn Al-Mukaffa': In the Encyclopedia Of Islam we see that:
One highly individual aspect of the spiritual interests of this [i.e., Ibn
al-Mukaffa'] writer is finally revealed by the fragments (if they are authentic, as
we believe) of a religious work, a Manichaean apologia, preserved in the
refutation made a century later by Zaydi Imam al Qasim b. Ibrahim, in a treatise
published by M Guidi. We are already familiar with the charges brought against
Ibn al-Mukaffa' of having attemped to make an "imitation" of the sacred book of
Islam: The work refuted by al-Qasim appears rather in our view, to be an attack
on Muhammad, the Kuran and Islam in the name of another faith, namely the
Manichaean faith which several of the friends of Ibn al-Mukaffa' had adopted and
of which the writer himself was suspected.[1]
The reference 2 gives a brief review of his work:
The prominent Arabic prose writer of Iranian descent who was cruelly put to
death in 139/756, is said to have tried to imitate the Qur'ân at the behest of the
group of heretics, but he had to abandon this endeavour because it proved too
difficult. This is of course a legend. But Ibn al-Mukaffa' did compose a polemic
in which he took issue with Islam, and especially with the Qur'ân from a
Manichaean standpoint. Fragments of this polemic have come down to us in a
refuation written by Zaydi Imam, al-Qasim b. Ibrahim (d. 246/860). The first
four words of this polemic - and they alone - are obviously modelled on the first
our words of the Qur'ân. They read: "In the name of Compassionate and
Merciful light - a Manichaean variation of the familiar Islamic basmalah which
must strike any Muslim as blasphemy.[2]
Now does that strike any of us as copying from the Qur'ân or producing a better
verse than that of the Qur'ân?
And to complete the thoughts on Ibn al-Mukaffa':
It is possible that the celebrated Iranian convert, the great stylist Ibn al-Mukaffa',
actually try his hand at such a mu'arada, but found it impossible to complete his
task - a fate shared by some other writers to whom tradition imputes the same
ambition.[3]
On Ibn al-Mukaffa''s attempt to match the Qur'ân, we read:
When Ibn al-Muqaffa' arrived at the passage Sura 11:42-46 he realized that it
was impossible for any human being to equal the book. So, he desisted from his
mu'arada and tore up what he had done.[4]
Musaylimah: During the time of Prophet Muhammad(P) there arose a man called
Musaylimah who started claiming the Prophethood. So, he also started saying
"revelatory pronouncements". His revelatory pronouncements resembled:
The form of these sayings correspond to a large extent with that of the earliest
surahs, and they are in part prefaced by strange oaths, just like the surahs. It is
however questionable whether Musaylimah was in fact the source of any of
these sayings. Perhaps they were all invented at a later date and ascribed to him
as a clumsy imitator of Muhammad. One of the sayings is modelled in a
particularly obvious fashion on the mode of expression of the Qur'ân. it runs:
"The elephant. What is the elephant? And who shall tell you what is the
elephant? He has a ropy tail and a long trunk. this is a [mere] trifle of our Lord's
creations."[5]
Concerning the style of his speech:
He followed the kahin style of rhymed prose, and of the pronouncing of oaths.
One such, swearing by mountain goat, the black smooth-skinned wolf and dark
night are suggestive of animals symbolic of the pagan gods.[6]
And
When Musaylimah met the Prophetess Sajah they parleyed in rhymed prose,
Musaylimah being credited with the use of "Islamic" turns of phrase such as
'Alay-na min salawati ma'shari abrar, ... yaqumuna 'l-layla wa-yasumuna
'l-nahar, li-rabbi-kumu'l-kubbar, rabbi 'l-ghuyumi wa 'l-amtar (Upon us are the
blessings from a company of dutful men ... The night they spend in vigil; during
the day they fast for your great Lord, Lord of the cloud and rains).[7]
Al-Baqillanî, who systematically analyzed the poetry of Musaylimah (apart from
Imru' al-Qais and others) has been quoted:
The pieces reported to have been composed by Musaylimah are so ridiculously
poor in style that nobody could seriously compare them with the Qur'ân.[8]
Abu'l-'Ala Al-Marri: According to cAlî Dashti:
It is widely held that the blind Syrian poet Abu'l-'Ala ol-Ma'arri wrote his Ketab
ol-Fosul wa'l-Ghayat, of which part survives, in imitation of the Qor'an.[9]
This statement is an unfinished thought. If we look at Rudy Peret's article, we
see that:
It was also reported of a sceptic and writer of the 5th/11th century, the blind
Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri who died in 449/1057, that he tried to produce the
imitation of the Qur'ân. The accusation refers to his compendious work al-Fusul
wa-'l-Ghayat, only the first seventh of which has survived, a supreme example of
the art of poetry and rhyme that was based on the classical Arabic literary
language, and of which the author was the master. It is written in elaborate
rhyming prose, and individual sections of stanzas occasionally open with archiac
oaths such as: "I swear by him who created horses and the yellowish white
[camels] who lope along in ar-Ruhayl............." These incantations are
reminiscent of early Qur'ânic texts (e.g. lxxv. 1-2) which in turn go back to
ancient Arabic oracles; presumably they are indeen modelled on the Qur'ânic
texts.[10]
And further more the author went on to say:
But this is not to say that al-Ma'arri intended his work as a whole to be an
imitation of the Qur'ân, let alone surpass it. Furthermore, by the time al-Ma'arri
was writing, rhyming prose had long since being accepted as a stylistic device
characteristic of elevated language, so that it could be employed without second
thoughts. If we look beyond the elaborate torrent of words and try to estabhlish
the theme of the work, the subject matter amounts to little more than songs of
praise of God and religious and ethical admonitions (with pessimistic
undercurrents).[11]
In another reference:
Kremer endeavoured to disprove in his latest writing about the noble
free-thinkers, and to explain as a misunderstanding of later literary historians,
the assumption that Abu'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri wrote an imitation of the Koran. For
the sake of completion it may be pointed out that al-Zamakhshari also
presupposes that Abu'l 'Ala' intended to imitate the Koran. It is likely that he has
the title of Abu'l 'Ala's work in mind when he says in the introduction to his
Kashshaf: wa-mayyaza baynahunna bi fusul wa-ghayat. In his commentary to
Sura 77:30-3 he expresses the opinion that Abu'l 'Ala' wished to excel the
beauties of this passage in a verse which he wrote in order to compete with
God's word. In those verses of the Koran the infidels are addressed:
"Go then in shade (of the smoke of hell) which rises in three columns, verily it is
not shady there and there is no protection from the hell fire. Verily, it throws
sparks as big as palaces, as if they were reddish-yellow camels."
Abu'l 'Ala' in the verse in which he is said to imitate this passage of the Koran
does not speak of the hell fire but of the fires burning in hospitable houses in
order to invite the tired traveller. Of this fire he says:
"A red one, with hair (rays) which float far in the darkness, and throws sparks as
big as tents."
This verse is in fact contained in a dirge and consolation which the poet
addressed to the family of the 'Alid Abu Ahmad al-Musawi after his death. Fakhr
al-din al-Razi reproves al-Zamakhshari for suggesting that Abu'l-'Ala' intended
this as an imitation of the Koran; but he declares that, as a parallel was
suggested, he is obliged to show in how many respects the expression of the
Koran is superior to that of the poet. After giving twelve proofs he concludes:
"These points came to me in a flash, but if we were to beseech God to help us in
search for more, he would undoubtedly offer us as many more as we could
desire."[12]
Yahya b. Al-Hakam al-Ghazal:
He was a belletrist in Andalus, Spain in 3rd century.
...the Andalusian belletrist Yahya b. al-Hakam al-Ghazal, called by his
biographers the 'The sage of al-Andalus, its poet and oracle', dared to attempt
to produce a pendant to surah 112 containing the Islamic credo. 'But he has
overcome by terrible fear and shuddering when he embarked upon this work
and thus returned to God.'[13]
Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad (Also known as Bab):
A work from the middle of the nineteenth century by Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad
from Shiraz, known as Bab, the founder of the Babi sect (which survives to this
day in the Bahai sect) deserves to be mentioned.
Bab felt that he had been caled upon to replace Muhammad as a Prophet and to
replace the outmoded Islam with a new religion. In the Bayan he summed up
his doctrine. The mode of expression is prosaic, the arrangement of the material
unsystematic despite the division into eleven units (Wahid) of the nineteen
chapters (bab) each. The work was designed not to outdo the Qur'ân in
rhetorical power but to supercede it as a sober statement of the new faith. Yet it
accords with the Qur'ân in one respect - that the revelations derive from God
himself. Moreover, there are several points, both in the subject matter and in the
formulation, which are not only inspired by the Qur'ân but modelled on it,
consciously or unconsciouly.[14]
Ibn al-Rawandi:
He was a Mu'atazili and a heretic, born in the beginning of 3rd/9th century. At
first he was an adherent of Mutazilism, then left his friends and attacked them
mercilessly.
In the Encyclopedia Of Islam we read:
The plentiful extracts from the K. al-Zumurraudh provide a fairly clear indication
off the most heterodox doctrine of Ibn al-Rawandi, that or which posterity has
been least willing to forgive him: a biting criticism of prophecy in general and of
the prophecy of Muhammad in particular; he maintains in addition that religious
dogmas the not acceptable to reason and must, therefore be rejected; the
miracles attributed to the Prophets, persons who may reasonably be compared
to sorcerers and magicians, are pure invention, and the greatest of the miracles
in the eyes of orthodox Muslims, the Kuran, gets no better treatment: it is
neither a revealed book nor even an inimitable literary masterpiece. In order to
cloak his thesis, which attacks the root of all types of religion, Ibn al-Rawandi
used the fiction that they were uttered by Brahmans. His reputation as irreligious
iconoclast spread in the 4th/10th century beyond the borders of Muslim
literature.[15]
Very tersely, Ibn al-Rawandi's attitude has been put as:
He resembled somewhat the so-called free lance journalist of these days and
could write for or against the same cause without any scruple.[16]
Bassar bin Burd, Sahib Ibn 'Abbad & Abu'l - 'Atahiya:
I am clubbing all of them together because they both seem to have claimed that
their composition is better or slight less better than the Qur'ân. I crossed
checked their work in the Encyclopedia Of Islam but there is no mention of their
composition against the Qur'ân.
Bassar bin Burd rates some of his verses superior to surah 59. Towards the end
of the 10th century the Sahib Ibn 'Abbad could still publicly accept the
compliment made to him by a Jew from Isfahan that the style of the Koran was
only slightly superior to his own.[17]
Or in another reference:
Bashshar b. Burb is quoted as freely comparing to its disadvantage Kur'anic with
contemporary verse and as having boasted of having personally surpassed surah
LIX; a similar statement is attributed to Abu'l-'Atahiya with reference to surah
LXXVII.[18]
Bashar did in fact praise one of his own poetic products when he heard recited
by a singing girl in Baghdad as being better than the Surah al-Hashr.[19]
But the surprising thing is that al-Baqillani in his I'jaz al-Qur'ân compares the
work of Bassar bin Burd and others with the Qur'ân and there is no mention of
Bassar bin Burd's work being better than the Qur'ân!! Reference 2, which is a
rather comprehensive book on Arabic literature pre-Islamic as well as
post-Islamic, also mentions about Bassar bin Burd being a great post-Islamic
poet who introduced new ideas in the poetry. Again there is no mention by
Rudy Paret about he surpassing the style of the Qur'ân.
In the article Rhetorical Interpretation of the Qur'ân: I'jaz and related topics,
Issa J Boullata deals with the modern writers who dealt the Qur'ân from a
literary point of view. One such work of A'isha cAbd al-Rahmân who goes by
the pseudonym of Bint Shacati has received a lot of attention. It is said that her
work will provide new insights on the concept of I'jaz of the Qur'ân. Issa
Boullata says:
A'isha cAbd al-Rahmân studies inductively other aspects of Qur'ânic usage and
offers fresh ideas and new interpretation, uncovering certain consistencies never
observed before, such as those regarding the use of passive voice in the
Qur'ânic scenes of the day of resurrection, which in her view, emphasize the
passivity of the universe and the spontaneity of all creation in obeying the
overwhelming events of the day. These and other observations of hers
transcend traditional Arabic syntax and rhetoric as she attempts to capture the
reality that lies behind Qur'anic expression. Her conclusion is that the Qur'ân,
being neither prose nor verse, is a literary genre of its own that is of the highest
eloquence and of matchless stylistic perfection.[20]
cAlî bin Rabbân at-Tabarî who was Nestorian Christian, and at the age of 70
converted to Islam, asserts that he has never in any language found stylistic
perfection equaling that of the Qur'ân:
When I was a Christian I used to say, as did an uncle of mine who was one of
the learned and eloquent men, that eloquence is not one of the signs of
prophethood because it is common to all the peoples; but when I discarded
(blind) imitation and (old) customs and gave up adhering to (mere) habit and
training and reflected upon the meanings of the Qur'ân I came to know that
what the followers of the Qur'ân claimed for it was true. The fact is that I have
not found any book, be it by an Arab or a Persian, an Indian or a Greek, right
from the beginning of the world up to now, which contains at the same time
praises of God, belief in the prophets and apostles, exhortations to good,
everlasting deeds, command to do good and prohibition against doing evil,
inspiration to the desire of paradise and to avoidance of hell-fire as this Qur'ân
does. So when a person brings to us a book of such qualities, which inspires
such reverence and sweetness in the hearts and which has achieved such an
overlasting success and he is (at the same time) an illiterate person who did
never learnt the art of writing or rhetoric, that book is without any doubt one of
the signs of his Prophethood.[21]
References
[1] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, 1971, Volume 3, E J Brill, Leiden, p. 885.
[2] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, 1983, Cambridge University
Press, p. ??.
[3] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 1019.
[4] Gustave E Von Grunebaum, A Tenth-Century Document Of Arabic Literary
Theory and Criticism, 1950, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p. xiv.
[5] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit., p. 212.
[6] Ibid., pp. 127-128.
[7] Ibid., p. 128.
[8] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'ân, 1933, Islamic Culture, Volume VII,
Hyderabad Deccan, p. 221.
[9] cAlî Dashti (Translated from the Persian by F R C Bagley), Twenty Three
Years: A Study Of The Prophetic Career Of Mohammad, 1985, George Allen &
Unwin Ltd., London, p. 48.
[10] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit., p. 213.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ignaz Goldziher, Ed. S M Stern, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische
Studien) II, 1971, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, pp. 364-365.
[13] Ibid., p. 364.
[14] A F L Beeston, T M Johnstone, R B Serjeant and G R Smith (Ed.), Arabic
Literature To The End Of The Ummayyad Period, Op. Cit., p. 213.
[15] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 905.
[16] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'ân, Islamic Culture, Op. Cit., p. 232.
[17] Gustave E Von Grunebaum, A Tenth-Century Document Of Arabic Literary
Theory and Criticism, Op. Cit., p. xiv.
[18] The Encyclopedia Of Islam, Op. Cit., p. 1019.
[19] Ignaz Goldziher, Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien) II, Op. Cit.,
p. 363.
[20] Andrew Rippin (Ed.), Approaches of The History of Interpretation of The
Qur'ân, 1988, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 154.
[21] cAbdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'ân, Islamic Culture, Op. Cit., pp. 222-223.