and punishments people have experienced in
history because of their belief or disbelief. In
several chapters linked to the Medinan period of
Muhammad’s life, the Quran calls upon believers
to fight “in the path of God” against disbeliev-
ers and people oF the book opposed to them,
which has led non-Muslims to conclude that
violence and hatred are significant themes in the
Quran. Although some Muslims have chosen to
interpret their scripture in this limited way, it is
also important to point out that many Muslims
do not accept this understanding, pointing to
verses that uphold the values of peaceful coex-
istence and acceptance of religious and cultural
differences. Moreover, some modern commenta-
tors and reformers have argued that the more
militant verses in the Quran pertained only to
specific circumstances faced by Muhammad and
his small community in their struggle for survival
in medina, and that they were not intended to be
universally applicable.
The themes of God’s oneness, revelation,
prophecy, individual accountability, and the Last
Judgment would mean little if they were not
connected to a code of ethics and morality that
links individuals to society. The Quran calls upon
people to perform acts of charity, especially for
orphans and the needy, and oppose greed, oppres-
sion, and wrongdoing. It also affirms family life
by legislating on matters of marriage, adUltery,
divorce, and inheritance. The pre-Islamic Ara-
bian practice of slaying infant girls was prohib-
ited, as was usury and gambling. The Quran also
provides rules governing worship, lawful and
prohibited Food and drink, relations with non-
Muslims, as well as the division of the spoils of
war. Although the number of legislative verses,
found mainly in the Medinan suras, is small in
comparison with nonlegislative ones, the Quran
is one of the fundamental “roots” of the sharia,
or Islamic law.
The Quran’s accounts of prophets before
Muhammad attribute miraculous signs to them.
It states that people of Muhammad’s time chal-
lenged him to produce similar wonders, to which
the Quran replies, “Is it not sufficient that we
have revealed to you (Muhammad) the book that
is recited to them? In that there is a mercy and
reminder for a people who believe” (Q 29: 50–
51). From this and similar declarations the Ulama
developed the doctrine of the Quran’s miraculous
nature, or inimitability (ijaz). They said it was
miraculous because its language and style could
not be replicated in ordinary human speech, its
chapters and verses were uniquely arranged, it
spoke of past and future events of which Muham-
mad had no knowledge, it revealed God’s names
and attributes, its laws and commandments were
universal in application, and, unlike other holy
books, it has remained unaltered since it was
revealed to Muhammad. Some Muslims today
assert that the Quran also speaks to modern
scientific theories, such as those concerning the
origin of the universe and the genetic code. Such
beliefs have been contested by non-Muslims and
Euro-American scholars, as well as skeptical
Muslims. Nevertheless, the consensus reached by
many Muslims through the ages has been that the
Quran is Muhammad’s chief miracle and proof of
the truth of his prophethood.
Belief in the Quran’s miraculous nature, taken
together with a desire to place its origins on a par
with Jewish belief in the revelation of the Torah on
Mt. Sinai and Christian belief in Jesus as the word
of God incarnate, has inspired the belief held by
many Muslims that the angel gabriel revealed the
entire Quran to Muhammad on the night oF des-
tiny (laylat al-qadr), one of the last nights in the
month of ramadan. This belief, not stated by the
Quran itself, is in tension with the view endorsed
by Islamic historical sources that the Quran
was revealed piecemeal during Muhammad’s life,
between 610 c.e. and 632 c.e., and that it was col-
lected into a physical book (mushaf) only after his
death. Early commentaries and Islamic historical
sources support this understanding of the Quran’s
early development, although they are unclear in
other respects. They report that the third caliph,K 572 Quran