Qur'an: Difference between revisions

==== Saj' and Soothsayers ====

Many academics (and traditional Islamic scholars) have noted the comparison of the style with a pre-Islamic form of what one would consider a type of poetry or "rhymed prose" known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saj%27 Saj'].<ref>Stewart, Devin J. “Sajʿ in the ‘Qurʾān’: Prosody and Structure.” ''Journal of Arabic Literature'', vol. 21, no. 2, 1990, pp. 101–39. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/4183221</nowiki>. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.</ref> It was heavily associated with Soothsayers.<ref>''Ibid. pp. 103''  & Stewart, Devin (2006). "Soothsayer" Entry. ''[https://archive.org/details/EncyclopaediaOfTheQuranVol5/page/n81/mode/2up Encyclopedia Of The Quran Vol 5.] Brill. pp. 78–80.'' </ref> Neuwirth (2019) notes, although the Qur’an presents only a polemical stance toward the soothsayers, it nonetheless attests a clearly perceived formal relationship to the mantic forms of discourse of the early Arab seers, who's oracular pronouncements were marked by metrically undefined rhyming prose, which bore similarities to the early Meccan suras—particularly in their use of introductory oath clusters, a structure not found elsewhere.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity) (p. 425). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. </ref> Hoyland (2001) writes about pre-Islamic Arabia.

{{Quote|Hoyland, Robert G.. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (Peoples of the Ancient World) (pp. 220-223). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.|Supernatural speech When, after communion with the spirits, diviners gave their response to those who had sought them out, they did so in a highly stylised language, in rhymed prose of lofty style and cryptic diction. This distinctive style of divinatory speech was evidently employed to highlight the supernatural origin of the message, for the diviners were but the mouthpiece of a spirit. Often they would begin with a string of oaths, issued fast and hard like a drum roll, which formed the prelude to their verdict. It was a common practice to test prospective diviners by challenging them to identify a concealed object. Here is the reply of Salma al-’Udhri to such a challenge by two members of the tribe of Khuza’a, who are considering employing him to adjudicate in a contest of honour between them about who has the better horse (Ibn Habib, Mun. 110): <i>I swear by the light and the moon (ahlifu bin-nûri wa-l-qamri) by the lightning flash and by fate (was-sana wad-dahri) by the winds and the cleaving (war-riyâhi wa-l-fatri) You have hidden for me a vulture’s corpse (la-qad khaba’tum lî juththata nasri) in a bundle of hair (fi ‘ikmin min sha’ri) in the possession of the youth from the Banu Nasr (ma’a l-fatâ min banî Nasri)</i>