reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

282 Christoph LuxenbergThe Q~r'an maintains the latter position, and indeed it imputes this same .illness" to other messengers who preceded the messenger of the Qur'an.reason it is declared in Q 51.52: ka-dhalik( a) mii atii lladhfn(a) jii 'ii min .min rasiil(in) illii qiihl siil;ir(un) aw majniin. "Thus there came not to thosethem any messenger, but they said, 'A magician or a madman'" (Bell). Thereproach is made to Noah in Q 54:9: kadhdhdbat qablahum qawm(u)fa-kadhdhabz7 'abdanii w-qiilz1 majmln(un) wa-zdujir. "The people ofcounted (it) false before them; they counted Our servant false, andmadman, and he was deterred' " (Bell).Having now elucidated the context in which we must address al-Najm,hence proceed to a detailed analysis of the text, taking into account at onceand Syro-Aramaic.Philological analysis of each verse1. wa-1-najm idhii hawiiThe Qur'an uses the oath quite often as a means of persuasion. One mightthat with "By the star when it falls" (as this first verse has been heretoforestood) the Qur' an is only making use of a simple rhetorical device. It is trueQ 56:7 5-7 6 emphasizes the importance of this oath ("by the position of thebut here the Arab commentators, and the Western translations, incorrectlythat al-najm ("the star") is the subject of the verb hawii ("to fall").Tabar! reports two contradictory opinions attributed to Mujahid: 1. by "thisthe Pleiades is intended, and by "fall" their disappearance at dawn; 2. thate~pression means "the Qur'an, when it descends (from the sky)." 7 Tabar!hts preference for the first opinion, according to which this phrase relates toPleiades, ignoring, however, the meaning of the verb "to fall," whichcentral for the understanding of that which follows. Consequently, Blachere,and Paret (the last of these interprets this phrase as a reference to a shootingtranslate:Blachere: Par l'etoile quand elle s'ab!me!Bell: By the star when it fallsParet: Beim Stem, wenn er (als Sternschnuppe vom Hi~mel?) fallt!Oder: Beim Gestirn (der Plejaden) (an-najm) wenn es untergeht (?It is appropriate, especially for the sake of Arabists, to mention here aNoldeke in his Syriac grammar regarding word order in Syriac:Die Stellung der Haupttheile des Satzes zu einander ist sehr frei.Subj(ekt) steht im Verbal- wie im Nominalsatz bald vor, bald nach,7 Taban, 27:205ff.~ve 1 rgle:icltt.A new Syro-Aramaic reading of Verses 1-18 283seine Theile gar durch Theile des Prad(ikats) gesprengt oder(n. 1]n.l: Wie frei die Wortstellung des Syr(ers) ist, zeigt sich be~onders, wennsyr(ische) StUcke mit daraus gemachten arab(ischen) UbersetzungenDer Araber muss da unaufhorlich die W ortstellung andern,der Syrer fast iiberall auch die fUr den Araber nothwendigehatte wahlen konnen. 8anic example, where the subject of a verbal phrase is not indi?a:ed beforecomplementary phrase, will illustrate Noldeke's descnpt10n. In Qit is said regarding an unbeliever on the day of judgment:innahu ?-anna an !an yahiir(a)bal inna rabbahu kiina bihi ba$frii.: pick up the arbitrary interpretation of Tabar!, who explains the. yal;zlr(a) in the sense of"return" (to God on the Day of Judgment):il aura pense qu'il ne reviendrait pas.Mais son Seigneur etait Clairvoyant a son sujet.And (he] thought that he would not be set back (n. 2: I.e. that his prosperitywouldcontinue (the phrase is usually interpreted to mean ''wouldnot be brought back to Allah".].Yea, but his Lord was of him observant.· . surprising that our eminent translators did not note that the Syriac verb in.: "yal;z7r", is a synonym of Arabic ba$fra in Verse 15. TJ:ey would have. recognized thereby that the subject of the Syriac word IS not the unbebuthis Lord who observes him (while he is in this world). These two versesthei·etore to be understood:respective word order of the principal parts of the sentence is cha~cterized by a ~e~t margin. In a verbal or a nominal sentence the subject may be placed e1ther at the begmm~g or theAlternatively the unity of the word order could ~e interrupt.ed by :lements of the .pred1cate, oraround. [n. 1): The degree to which Synac syntax 1s free IS ~erhaps best ~llustrated by··•cc.---·~-- Syriac pieces with the Arabic translations thereof. The Arable tran.sl~~or IS compell~dto change the word order, the Syriac author would have the possibility to choose mcase the order of the words that corresponds to Arabic syntax." T. Noldeke, Kurzge­Grammatik, 2nd edition, Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1898 (reprint: Darmstadt: Wissen-.schaftli.che Buchgesellschaft 1977), p. 248.