deshis are Bengalis who happen to be Muslims,”
while its rival, the BNP (created in 1978), consid-
ers “Bangladeshis to be Muslims who happen to
be Bengalis” (Baxter, p. xiii).
See also democracy; Jinnah, mUhammad ali;
hindUism and islam; secUlarism.
Further reading: Craig Baxter, Bangladesh: From a
Nation to a State (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press,
1997); Charles P. O’Donnell, Bangladesh: Biography of a
Muslim Nation (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1984).
aya
Aya is the Arabic word for a verse in the qUran
or more generally a “sign” or “wonder.” In both
senses, Muslims believe that an aya contains a
message from God for human beings to heed.
The verses, or phrases and sentences of different
lengths and styles, are grouped into chapters in
the Quran, called suras. Of the more than 6,000
verses in the Quran, the shorter ones tend to
be poetic and occur in chapters in the second
half of the book, most of which are associated
with mUhammad’s years as a prophet in mecca
(610–622). Verses in the first half, which date to
the years Muhammad lived in medina (622–632),
tend to be longer and lack both rhyme and rhythm.
In handwritten copies of the Quran, a floret or
some other decorative marking is often inserted
at the end of each verse to facilitate reading, since
punctuation such as periods and question marks
is not used in old Arabic script. In modern printed
copies, the decorative inserts usually contain the
verse number, thus reflecting the influence of
printed Bibles in the West. Muslim commentators
distinguish between two kinds of verses: those
that are clear and unambiguous (muhkamat) and
those that are obscure or mysterious (mutashabi-
hat). The former are generally those to which the
Ulama turn when making religious law (fiqh),
while the latter, including the mysterious letters
that begin a number of chapters, have attracted
the attention of speculative thinkers and mystics.
In addition to denoting verses of scripture,
the Quran uses the word aya to denote “signs”
and “wonders” revealed by God in nature and in
narratives of sacred history associated with the
lives of prophets who lived before Muhammad’s
time. The signs in nature include the creation
of heaven and Earth, the alternation of day and
night, rainfall, sea wind, the beginning and end-
ing of life, the growth of plants, and the benefits
animals provide to humans (for examples, see Q
36:33–45; 41:37–39; 42:29, 33). In sacred history,
the destruction of unbelievers and the rescue of
believers from peril are included among God’s
signs, as exemplified by the story of Noah’s ark (Q
54:9–15). Other prophets who performed signs
and wonders according to the Quran are moses
(Q 20:17–24) and JesUs (Q 3:49). Muhammad’s
opponents in Mecca challenged him to produce
similar signs (Q 6:37), for which his response was
the recitation of Quranic verse (Q 31:7; 45:6),
which brings the two meanings of aya together,
both as a verse and a miraculous sign.
See also allah; basmala; tafsir.Further reading: Farid Esack, Quran: A Short Introduc-
tion (Oxford, U.K.: Oneworld, 2001); W. Montgomery
Watt and Richard Bell, Introduction to the Quran (Edin-
burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970).Pilgrimage mural showing Quran verses and other reli-
gious sayings, Qurna, Egypt (Juan E. Campo)aya 77 J