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

146 Hani Hayajneh"l) 'mkrb son of ~'s 1 hm 2) w of the clan s 2 qr the ally of s 1 mh' 3) ly hasdedicated to '4) lmqh . .. "The word mwdd in the latter inscription is translated in Jemen Katalog as -"Beauftragter;' although the translation of the word mwd in the Sabaic dictionaryand the respected texts is "friend." 130 I would say that the interpretation of thisparticular word as "ally" would fit both the ASA and the Qur'iinic contexts.In accordance with the discussion above, I would suggest modifying theprevious translation of the verse in al-Mumtal;zina as follows:0 ye who believe! Take not my enemies and yours as allies, offering them(your) alliance, ... Ifye have come out to strive in My Way and to seek My .Good Pleasure, (take them not as friends), holding secret converse of alliancewith them... ·The second verse to be considered is Qur'iin 5.82:la-tajidanna ashadda al-niisi 'adiiwatan li-alladhfna iimanii al-yahiidawa-alladhfna ashrala/ wa-la-tajidanna aqrabahwi1 mawaddatanli-alladhfnaiimanii alladhfna qiilii innii na~iirii dhiilika bi-anna minhum qissfsfnawa-ruhbiinan wa-annahum Iii yastakbiriinAccording to the traditional narratives, this verse is related to the excellent relationshipbetween the Prophet and his followers and the King of Abyssinia. 131Accordingly, the verse can be interpreted as follows: "Strongest among men inenmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest amongthem in alliance to the believers wilt thou find those who say, 'We are Christians': ·because there are among them priests and monks, and because they are notproud." The translation ofmawadda as "alliance" can be applied to the rest of theoccurrences thereof in the Qur'iin.V owelletters and ortho-epicwriting in the Qur, anGerd-R. Puintextual research it is not wise to take the phonetic face of the Egyptian Fu'iidas a basis, because there a meticulous system of signs has been strewnskeleton text proper, \vhich, more often than not, can totally level themu1Pr"''"a variants of the "rasm" (i.e. the skeleton text). Viewed from theStandard Text of 1924 (and later until the Saudi Mu:?l;tafs from Medina)are mainly ascribed to a lack of precision in script or a lack of ortho­·gJrap'bical competence on the part of the scribes. Thus deviations from the orthogofClassicalArabic (CA) are usually seen to be "defective" writings, whichbe "healed" by the application of a swarm of Masoretic vocalization signs.examples may suffice to illustrate the distance between the letters ofthe rasmthe word with a full vocalization and its transcription, i.e. how this skeletonis expected to be pronounced:.,_,.a,,.,..,~,..,u_ ._..JI in the Standard Text (StT) Silra 33:4; 58:2 and 65:2 is to be read~~.. phonetically as /l:a::?i:/. Although the skeleton script consists of three letters onlya. narrow one-to-one transliteration of the Standard Text would need three full--~~letters" on the line plus seven vocalization signs: 'Jl•a'-'iy. 1\J_r. in the Standard Text 60:4 is to be read lj-.:j., phonetically as /bura?a::?ul;rasm consists of four letters on the line, only; however, a one-to-one trans­'- Ultenmon would need nine additional vocalization signs, in Arabic as well as intranscription: bura'a'-Wti'J!130 See ibid., and Beeston et al., Sabaic Dictionmy, 55ff.131 Al-Wiibidi, Asbiib nuziil a/-Qur 'an, 353ff..' An explicit transliteration is used in this chapter as the equivalent of the Arabic rendering in theStandard Text; it is explained on a chart at the end of the chapter (the Tmnscription table). Here weonly that the a/if and the 'ayn are transcribed by letters on the line and not as apostrophes, and. No digmphs (dh, sh, kh, gh) will be used. The vocalization is transcribed asfor Dagger a/if,