Quran imitations represent literary attempts to replicate the

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

form and content In art and art criticism, form and content are considered distinct aspects of a work of art. The term ''form'' refers to the work's composition, techniques and media used, and how the elements of design are implemented. It mainly focuses on the ph ...

of the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. Historically, they emerge in a dialectic with the doctrine of the

i'jaz In Islam, ''’i‘jāz'' () or inimitability of the Qur’ān is the doctrine which holds that the Qur’ān has a miraculous quality, both in content and in form, that no human speech can match. According to this doctrine the Qur'an is a mir ...

(inimitability) of the Quran, which asserts that the literary and/or semantic nature of the Quran cannot be reproduced by a human. Both Muslims and non-Muslims have written Quran imitations for various reasons, including as literary exercises, means to express one's admiration for the Quran, or attempts to meet the Quran challenge (the Islamic challenge for someone who doubts the Quran to create something that is like it).

Reasons

Quran itself has challenged opponents to produce something like it (the concept is known as ''al-taḥaddī'') and Muslims employ the term ''muʿāraḍāt'' ("assaults gainst the Quran) to attempts to contest inimitability of the Quran. Islamic traditions suggest that the first attempts at imitation were

blasphemous Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...

or aimed at asserting claims of

divine revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and theology. Types Individual revelation Thomas A ...

. However, historically, not all imitations were meant to contest the Quran's preeminence or supremacy; some were simply literary exercises. There are also instances of authors who intended to admire the Quran by imitating it.

History

Towards the end of Muhammad's life and after his death several men and a woman appeared in various parts of Arabia and claimed to be prophets.

Musaylimah Musaylima (), d.632, was a claimant of prophethood from the Banu Hanifa tribe. Based from Diriyah in present day Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he claimed to be a prophet and was an enemy of Islam in 7th-century Arabia. He was a leader of the enemies of ...

, a contemporary of Muhammad, claimed that he received revelations; some of his revelations are recorded.

Ibn al-Muqaffa' Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh Rūzbih ibn Dādūya (), born Rōzbih pūr-i Dādōē (), more commonly known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (; ), was a Persian translator, philosopher, author and thinker who wrote in the Arabic language. He bore the name Rōz ...

was a critic of the Qur'an and reportedly made attempts to imitate it.

Bashshar ibn Burd Abū Muʿādh Bashshār ibn Burd (; 714–783), nicknamed al-Muraʿʿath (, 'the wattled'), was a Persian poet of the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods who wrote in Arabic. Bashshar was of Persian ethnicity; his grandfather was taken as a ca ...

(d. 784), Abul Atahiya (d. 828),

Al-Mutanabbi Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Mutanabbī al-Kindī ( – 965 AD), commonly known as Al-Mutanabbi (), was an Abbasid-era Arab poet at the court of the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, and for whom he composed 300 folios of ...

(d. 965), and

Al-Maʿarri Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri, ,(December 973May 1057), also known by his Latin name Abulola Moarrensis; was an Arab philosopher, poet, and writer from Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Syria. Because of his irreligious worldview, he is known as one of the "forem ...

(d. 1058) produced imitations of the Qur'an. A famous case was the blind poet

Al-Ma'arri Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri, ,(December 973May 1057), also known by his Latin name Abulola Moarrensis; was an Arab philosopher, poet, and writer from Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Syria. Because of his irreligious worldview, he is known as one of the "forem ...

, particularly in his work titled ''Paragraphs and Periods''. Included in his imitation were sections including

saj' Saj' () is a form of rhymed prose defined by its relationship to and use of end-rhyme, meter, and parallelism. There are two types of parallelism in saj': ''iʿtidāl'' (rhythmical parallelism, meaning "balance") and ''muwāzana'' (qualitative m ...

(a type of

rhymed prose Rhymed prose is a literary form and literary genre, written in Meter (poetry), unmetrical rhymes. This form has been known in many different cultures. In some cases the rhymed prose is a distinctive, well-defined style of writing. In modern literar ...

), series of rhyming oaths, messages about the punishment of unbelievers, hortatory and declarative statements, the frequent use of divine epithets, etc.

List of works

Arabic

* ''Muʿāraḍat al-Qur'ān'' attributed to

(8th century) * ''Diwan al-Mutanabbī'' (10th century) * '' al-Fuṣūl wa al-ghāyāt'' aragraphs and Periods(11th century) * ''Muʿāraḍat al-Qur'ān'' attributed to al-Ḥillī (12/13th century) * '' Qayyūm al-asmā'' he Self-Subsisting of All Names(1844) * '' al-Bayān al-ʿarabī'' he Arabic Elucidation(1848) * '' Awlād ḥāritinā'' hildren of Gebelawi(1959) * ''Āyat Jīm'' he Verses of Gimel(1992) * '' al-Furqān al-ḥaqq'' he True Criterion(1999)

Other languages

* ''Cent noms de Déu'' he One Hundred Names of Godby

Ramon Llull Ramon Llull (; ; – 1316), sometimes anglicized as ''Raymond Lully'', was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, Christian apologist and former knight from the Kingdom of Majorca. He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art ...

(14th century); in Catalan * ''

Khayr al-Bayān ''Khayr al-Bayān'' is a book written by Pir Roshan in 1651. ''Khair-ul-Bayan'' is believed to be the first book in Pashto language, beginning Pashto literature. It was written in Pashto, Persian, Arabic, and Urdu, and is considered the first bo ...

'' he Best Expositionby

Pir Roshan Bāyazīd Khān Ansārī (; – 1585), commonly known as Pīr Rōshān or Pīr Rōkhān, was an Afghan warrior, Sufi pir and revolutionary leader. He wrote mostly in Pashto, but also in Persian, Urdu and Arabic. His mother tongue was Ormur ...

(1651); multilingual but mainly in Urdu * ''Imitations of the Koran'' by

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

(19th century); in Russian * '' Al Aaraaf'' by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

(1829); in English * ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...

'' by

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

(1939); in English

Citations

References

* * * * * * {{Cite book , last=Stewart , first=Devin , title=The Qur'an and Adab. The shaping of literary traditions in classical Islam , date=2017 , publisher=Oxford University Press , editor-last=Alshaar , editor-first=Nuha , pages=239–272 , chapter=Rhythmical Anxiety: Notes on Abu l-'Ala al-Maarri's (d. 449/1058) al-Fusul wa'l-Ghayat and Its Reception Quran