ar-Rahmān (sura)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Koran sheet in the Kufi- ductus with sura 55: 62-65 ('Below there are two further gardens / - which of the benefits of your Lord do you want to deny? - / of deep green. / Which of the benefits of your Lord do you want to deny ? '), illuminated in gold , 10th century

Ar-Rahmān ( Arabic الرحمن, DMG ar-Raḥmān  'The Merciful') is the name of the 55th sura of the Koran . It consists of 78 verses, one of which is repeated 31 times like a refrain . The name of the sura, which as the name of God is also an integral part of the Basmala , is taken from the first verse and is probably the earliest evidence of the term in the Koran, which goes back to rabbinic and ancient South Arabian models. In terms of content, the detailed description of paradise , which was often taken up and developed again in later suras, should be emphasized .

Chronological order

The chronological classification of the sura is difficult and is partly controversial. The traditional Islamic chronologization adopted by the Cairo print edition sees the sura as Medinan. Theodor Nöldeke, on the other hand, counts ar-Rahmān in his chronology of the Koran among the early Meccan suras due to the very short verse length. However, he considers the address in verses 8–9 to be later additions due to its content and verse 33 due to its above-average length. Above all, the first assumption is clearly rejected by Angelika Neuwirth , since she does not recognize the connection between cosmology and ethics and cannot be formally maintained; in the 33rd verse, however, the passage yā-maʿšara l-ǧinni wa-l-ʾinsi could possibly be extracted as a later insert. Within the early Meccan suras, ar-Rahmān belongs to a rather late group due to its innovations.

Content, commentary and interpretation

Probably the most obvious characteristic of Surah ar-Rahmān is its refrain, which is repeated every two or three verses beginning with the 13th verse:

"Which of the favors of your Lord do you (two) deny?"
fa-bi-ayyi ālāʾi rabbikumā tukaḏḏibāni
Arabic فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

Only sura 77 with the line has a comparable refrainوَيۡلٌۭ يَوۡمَئِذٍۢ لِّلۡمُكَذِّبِينَ / wailun yaumaʾiḏin li-l-mukaḏḏibīna  / 'How bad it is on that day for those who explain (our message) to be lies!' which is repeated here ten times. The alternation between the constant warning and its various interpretations gives the sura a liturgical , litany-like character.

In terms of content, the sura is divided into three parts: hymn, polemic and eschatological scenes of hell and paradise, whereby the exact demarcation between the sura parts is controversial: A first caesura is possible both with the first appearance of the refrain and with the 31st verse in which the The praising of creation for the first time merges into the theme of the Last Judgment . Furthermore, the beginning of the eschatological final part can either be started with verse 37 or with verse 46.

What is striking is the particularly frequent use of dual forms in the sura , which is used not only in the simultaneous addressing of jinn and humans, but also particularly concisely in the description of paradise and in some other paired or antithetically designed motifs. Nöldeke saw this as being due to the need to rhyme: “If z. If, for example, the 55th sura speaks of two heavenly gardens, each with two sources and two kinds of fruits and two other similar gardens, one can clearly see that the duals are used for the sake of the rhyme. ”Neuwirth, however, thinks that the significance of the content of the thoughts and images identified in this way, as well as the fact that the use of the dual already in pre-Islamic poetry had a “specifically poetic style nuance”.

In fact, the dualism could even be viewed as a “divine hypostasis ” or as the development and confirmation of the thesis of the pairwise creation of all earthly life raised in sura 51 : 49:وَمِن كُلِّ شَىۡءٍ خَلَقۡنَا زَوۡجَيۡنِ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَذَكَّرُونَ / wa-min kulli šaiʾin ḫalaqnā zauǧaini laʿallakum taḏakkarūna  / 'And of all (living things ) we have created a couple. Maybe you would get a warning. ' In addition, she also pointed out parallels between the sura and the biblical Psalm 136 .

In later revelations the motifs of the sura are often taken up again, for example in sura 53:55 with reference to the refrain:فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكَ تَتَمَارَىٰ / fa-bi-ayyi ālāʾi rabbika tatamārā  / 'Which of the favors of your Lord do you want to dispute?' In the later Medinan suras, the theme of the huris , which was only rudimentarily indicated in sura 55, is conceptually expanded.

Reception and evaluation

In the biography of the Prophet by Ibn Ishaaq is reported that the Prophet companion Ibn Mas'ūd Sura recites have to defy to his adversaries in Mecca, and was therefore seriously physically attacked them and injured. Notwithstanding this, he had assured that “God's enemies were never easier to bear” than at that moment, and that he would like to go to them again the next day to speak to them. Nowhere in the Koran does Tilman Nagel see “the praises of the benevolent Creator God sung with such moving words” as in ar-Rahmān , but is surprised at the portrayal of the torments of hell in verses 35-45, which at this point seems inappropriate to him. According to Angelika Neuwirth, the sura can be considered as “the most poetic text in the Koran”. In Heinrich Speyer's The Biblical Tales in the Qoran , a thematic relationship between this sura and Psalm 136 is established.

Trivia

The expression "who lifted up heaven" in the 7th verse, referring to God, is also found in the national anthem of Qatar .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The last word of the third line is incomplete, the missing lettersب and نcan probably be found on the following sheet. Such a word separation is not uncommon for older Koran manuscripts. For details on the style and origin of the code, see the online catalog entry ( memento from 20131103054510) in the Aga Khan Museum (AKM00483).
  2. ^ Christian Robin: Himyar et Israël. In: Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 148, No. 2, 2004, pp. 831-908.
  3. ^ Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qoran . Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, Göttingen, 1860, p. 107.
  4. ↑ Angelika Neuwirth: The Koran I: Early Meccan Suras . Verlag der Weltreligionen, Berlin, 2011, pp. 56ff, 586ff.
  5. ↑ Angelika Neuwirth: Symmetry and pair formation in the Koranic eschatology. Philological and stylistic aspects of Surat ar-Rahman . In: Louis Pouzet (ed.): Mélanges de l'Université Saint Joseph. Melanges in memoriam Michel Allard, SJ (1924-76), Paul Nwyia, SJ (1925-80). Beirut, 1985, p. 450; also adapted from Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qurʾan , University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2011, p. 214.
  6. ↑ a b Muhammad Abdel Haleem: Context and Internal Relationships: Keys to Qur'anic Exegesis. In: A. Shereef, G. Hawting (Eds.): Approaches to the Qur'an . London: Routledge, p. 75.
  7. ↑ a b c Angelika Neuwirth: Der Koran I: Frühmekkanische Suren , Verlag der Weltreligionen, Berlin, 2011, p. 608.
  8. ↑ Theodor Nöldeke: Geschichte des Qorans , p. 30.
  9. ↑ Angelika Neuwirth: Duals without numerical valence. Philologically and critically about sūrat ar-Rahmān. In: Journal of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft Suppl. VI, Wiesbaden, 1984, pp. 173-182.
  10. ↑ Angelika Neuwirth: Qur'anic literary structure revisited. Sūrat al-Raḥmān between mythic account and decodation of myth . In: Stefan Leder (Ed.): Story-Telling in the Framework of Non-Fictional Arabic Literature. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1998. pp. 388-420.
  11. ↑ Angelika Neuwirth: Quranic Readings of the Psalms . In: Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, Michael Marx (eds.): The Qurʾān in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu . Brill, Leiden, 2010, pp. 746ff.
  12. ^ Carl W. Ernst, How to Read the Qurʾan , University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2011, p. 247, note 36.
  13. ↑ Navid Kermani : God is beautiful. The aesthetic experience of the Koran. 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich, 2003, p. 64.
  14. ^ Tilman Nagel: The Koran. Introduction, texts, explanations. CH Beck, Munich, 2002, p. 184.
  15. ↑ Angelika Neuwirth: Psalms - reread in the Koran (Psalm 104 and 136) . In: Dirk Hartwig, Walter Homolka, Michael J. Marx, Angelika Neuwirth (eds.): “In the full light of history”. The science of Judaism and the beginnings of Koran research. ERGON Verlag, 2008. S 162-165. ISBN 978-3-89913-478-0 .
Previous sura:
al-Qamar 		The Koran Next sura:
al-Wāqiʿa
Sura 55

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114