T. B. Irving, The Qur’an: The First American Version; Translated and Commentary (1985)
Any new reader, especially a fresh convert, needs to find the cadence when he is meeting this for the first time. For this reason, my translation has not been designed for memorizing but rather for reading from the printed page. The Qurʾān is literally untranslatable: each time one returns to it, he finds new meanings and fresh ways of interpreting it; the messages are endless for it is a living Book.
If this is the first time that you are reading the Qurʾān, then you may look for special passages to begin with. For instance, the first call to Muḥammad comes in the chapter 96 called Al-ʿAlaq The Clot (or Read!). Here we find the beginning of that respect for reading and learning on which the later Islamic commonwealth was built up. His second call comes at the beginning of al-Mudaththir The Man Wearing a Cloak 74, and is confirmed in al-Inshirāḥ, Consolation 94: “Did We not relieve your breast for you?” These are the first thrilling words which God the Merciful spoke directly to His chosen messenger Muḥammad. Then followed the commission heard in al-Aʿlà Glory to your Lord in the Highest! 87. There is comfort for the Prophet during his trials in aḍ-Duḥa Morning Bright! 93, and more consolation in al-Kawthar Plenty 108. Two of Muḥammad’s visions appear at the beginning of an-Najm The Star 53. He is told to reject al-Kāfirūn Disbelievers (or Atheists) in 109, and rebuttal of the charge of being a poet is found in 52:29. Muhammad clearly understood he was not one (36:69), although prophets are compared with ash-Shuʿarāʾ Poets 26 in the chapter by that name, because of the inspiration which both receive.
Muslims do not need to “cantillate”, but to read the Qurʾān reverently. A traditional method of reading our holy Book has been built up for this purpose in Islamic countries; in North America we will have to work out a manner of our own. In the East, the Book is intoned or chanted somewhat like the Gregorian chant or the method of reciting the Psalms or Beatitudes in some churches. In divine worship this becomes the full dhikr or liturgic ‘Mention’ of God’s names and attributes: “Whenever We read it, follow in its reading”, we are told in 75:18, for the Qurʾān has reached us in “clear Arabic” (16:103). A true ecstatic quality can be felt in the early Meccan chapters, at the outset of the Prophet’s missions.
The inimitability or iʿjāz of the Qurʾān is stated: “Do not make up any parables about God;” (16:74); one should never compare God with anything. “No falsehood shall approach it from either in front of it or behind it” (41:40).
Layout and Editing
It need hardly be said that writing materials were scarce in the ancient world, let alone in seventh-century Arabia, and Muḥammad could not have everything copied down verbatim as he received it through divine revelation. Men’s breasts were important depositories for a limited time; their memories were more developed than our children’s are today.
The first collection of our sacred Text was possibly attempted by his close companion and protégé Zayd ibn-Thābit; the Prophet’s wife Ḥafsa is also mentioned as preserving much material, as is ʿĀʾisha. The way in which the Prophet’s wives were entrusted with the text is exemplary.
