Sure

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Sura 35 , verse 2 (or a part of it):
"If God wants to let man (the source of his) mercy flow [literally: mercy opens], there is no one who could hold it back." Rifa'i Mosque , Cairo

The term sura ( Arabic سورة, DMG sūra , plural suwar ) denotes the chapters of the Koran , the holy scripture of Islam .

The term is Angelika Neuwirth According possibly to the Hebrew שורה shura (line) or the Syrian Shuraya Party due (start early). However, the etymology of the word is disputed. Richard Bell sees the term as a derivation from the Syrian ṣūrtā / sūrtā (script, written text). In various reference works, among other things, "characters", "honor" and "rank" are given as the meaning of the term.

At the time of the founder of the religion, Mohammed , the term “ sura” was not understood to mean the entirety of a Koranic sura, as it was compiled in the first collections after his death, or how these suras appear in contemporary prints, but a thematically self-contained unit of the revealed word of God .

At the beginning of every sura, with the exception of the ninth, which is formulated as a warning, there is the Basmala . The suras are again divided into individual ones, in rhyming prose سجع saj ' / saǧʿ  composed verses, so-called ayat آيات āyāt , Sing. āya (signs, Koranic verse). The number of verses is given in the surf title.

Arrangement / chronology of the suras

The 114 suras that were revealed to the prophet Mohammed by God over the course of more than two decades according to the Islamic concept of faith are not in content or chronological order , but rather in descending order of length . Within the individual suras there are chronologically unclear sequences of Ayat (Koran verses) that do not correspond to the historical sequence of the revelation. The chronological assignment of one and the same aya in one and the same sura has always been the subject of Islamic Koranic studies . Al-fatiha is an exception الفاتحة / al-fātiḥa  / 'the opening sura ', which, although relatively short, is at the beginning of the Quran, is understood as a complete unit of revelation. Each sura has its own name in Arabic, which is also used as a source when quoting; the citation according to sura numbers is only common in the European language area.

The suras are divided into Meccan and Medinan according to the place and time of revelation ; this is stated in the title of the printed editions. In the Koran itself the word sura occurs ten times, e.g. B. in sura 24, verse 1:

"[This is] a sura that we have sent down and declared binding and in which we have sent down clear signs (or: verses)."

- 24: 1 according to Paret

In the Qur'an, sura is mostly understood as a unit of revelation that consists of only a few verses. In sura 9 , verse 64 it says:

"The hypocrites fear that a sura will be revealed to them that will tell them what they have in their hearts."

- 9:64 after Paret

See also

literature

  • Hartmut Bobzin : The Koran. An introduction. Beck, 1999.
  • Michael Cook: The Koran. A brief introduction. Reclam, Ditzingen 2002.
  • M. Mir: The sūrah as a unity: a 20th-century development in Qurʾān exegesis. In: G. Hawting, AA Shareef (Ed.): Approaches to the Qurʾān. London 1993. pp. 211-224.
  • Angelika Neuwirth : Studies on the composition of the Meccan suras. Berlin 1981.
  • Angelika Neuwirth: Koran . In: Helmut Gätje (Ed.): Outline of Arabic Philology. Volume II: Literary Studies. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1987, pp. 96-135; esp. pp. 117–119 (Surah structure and types).
  • The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New edition. Brill, suffering. Volume 9, p. 885.

Web links

Wiktionary: Sure  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angelika Neuwirth: Sūra (s) . In: Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Ed.): Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān . Volume 5. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2006, p. 167 ( online ).
  2. ^ Theodor Nöldeke: New contributions to Semitic linguistics. Trübner, Strassburg 1910, p. 26 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Rudi Paret: The Koran. Commentary and Concordance. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1980, p. 358.
  4. ↑ See for example: Elsaid Badawi, Muhammad Abdel Haleem: Arabic-English Dictionary of Qurʾanic Usage . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2008, p. 465 ( online ); John Penrice: A Dictionary and Glossary of the Kor-ân . Adam Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi 1991, p. 73 ( online ); JG Hava: Arabic-English Dictionary for the Use of Students. Catholic Press, Beirut 1899, p. 335 ( online ).
  5. ↑ a b A. J. Wensinck, T. Fahd: Sūra . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition . Volume 9. Brill, Leiden 1997, p. 885.