WORKSHOP
۞
Reading learnings
27 reading principles drawn from the analysis of the suras
Reading the suras one by one, from the last to the first, certain ways of reading imposed themselves: rereading a sura with its neighbours, looking elsewhere in the Qur'an for the answer to a question, defining people by their deeds. Each page presents one of these learnings, shows it in the text, and says what it changes for the reading.
Where to begin
Confirmed principleReading a sura with its neighboursA sura is not read on its own: it answers the one before it and prepares the one after it. Neighbouring suras answer each other in pairs or in blocks, with the same words, the same images, or images turned around.Read Confirmed principleThe Qur'an answers its own questionsWhen the text asks a question, the answer is often found elsewhere in the Qur'an: further on in the same sura, or in another one. Before looking for an answer outside the text, one looks in the text for the matching question or…Read Confirmed principleThe text defines by deedsThe Qur'an defines people by what they do, not by what they declare they believe. When it names a category (the one who denies, the believer, the enemy), it at once describes it through deeds.Read
- The statement: the learning, in a few lines.
- The text: the verses that show it, in Arabic and in translation.
- In brief: what to remember.
A confirmed principle has held in many suras. An observation is established on the passages it cites.
The sura and its neighbours
A sura is read with those around it, and within the frame drawn by its opening, its close and its refrains. 7 pages
Confirmed principleReading a sura with its neighboursA sura is not read on its own: it answers the one before it and prepares the one after it. Neighbouring suras answer each other in pairs or in blocks, with the same words, the same images, or images turned around.Read ObservationA root passes the baton from one sura to the nextIn runs of short suras, a root often relays the discourse from one sura to the next: the word that closes one scene returns, in another form, in the neighbouring scene. Following this relay means reading the run as a single…Read ObservationThe first verse gives the thread of the suraWhen a sura opens on an act of God, that act is the thread of the whole sura: what God does in the first verse, the sura then unfolds in all its forms.Read ObservationOne formula opens and closes the suraWhen a sura opens and closes on the same formula, it is read within that frame. If the aspect of the verb changes between the two, from perfect to imperfect, the text says that what was established at the start continues at the…Read ObservationA formula that returns with a single word changedWhen a formula returns almost identically and only one word changes, that word carries the meaning of the passage. The translation keeps everything else identical, so that the changed word stands out.Read ObservationThe refrain divides the sura into stanzasWhen a refrain returns at regular intervals, it divides the sura into stanzas: each stanza brings a proof or an account, and the refrain gives it the same verdict. That is why it is translated identically each time.Read ObservationThe refrain that turns warning into a blessingWhen a refrain follows blessings and warnings alike, it qualifies them all in the same way: the warning too becomes a blessing. What the refrain qualifies, it qualifies entirely.Read
The Qur'an explains the Qur'an
Questions, rare words and constructions are lit up by the text's other passages. 9 pages
Confirmed principleThe Qur'an answers its own questionsWhen the text asks a question, the answer is often found elsewhere in the Qur'an: further on in the same sura, or in another one. Before looking for an answer outside the text, one looks in the text for the matching question or…Read Confirmed principleA unique word is read through its constructionA word that appears only once in the Qur'an cannot be lit up by its other uses. It is then read through the way the sura builds it: the word set against it, the negations that follow it, the gradation that leads to it, or the…Read ObservationA root reserved for a single objectWhen every occurrence of a root bears on the same object, that root is read as the proper term for that object. It has no other use in the Qur'an: its meaning is fixed by that object, and the translation renders it the same way…Read ObservationSeeing oneself self-sufficient, the reverse of purifying oneselfA term is often understood through its recurring opposite. In the Qur'an, "considering oneself self-sufficient" (استغنى) is the reverse of "purifying oneself" (تزكّى): whoever believes he needs nothing does not seek to purify…Read ObservationThe model and its limitWhen the text offers a model to follow, it sets the model's limit itself through an exception. The exception is part of the teaching; it is read together with the passage of the Qur'an that explains it.Read ObservationReveal or inspire: according to who receivesThe root وحي denotes a discreet communication. The text modulates it by recipient: addressed to a prophet, it is revelation; addressed to others (a mother, the bee, the sky, the earth), it is inspiration. The translation keeps…Read ObservationOne object, two names in the storyIn a story, one object may bear two names from different roots. Each name states a function of the object in the scene where it appears. The translation keeps two words, and the choice of name, scene by scene, carries the meaning.Read Confirmed principleThe preposition changes the relationOne verb does not say the same thing depending on the preposition that follows it. A verb's construction is therefore checked across all its occurrences, and the translation changes its wording when the preposition changes.Read Confirmed principleWhere the aspect of the verb makes the meaningArabic distinguishes the perfect, the imperfect and the participle. This is not a mere tense marker, and the perfect does not always mean the past: that mechanical reading is set aside (RD-14). But when a passage sets the forms…Read
The human being and his deeds
How the text describes people: by what they do, by the slope they follow, by what they claim. 7 pages
Confirmed principleThe text defines by deedsThe Qur'an defines people by what they do, not by what they declare they believe. When it names a category (the one who denies, the believer, the enemy), it at once describes it through deeds.Read ObservationEvil lies in the deed, not in the beingThe text does not declare a being or a thing evil in itself: it places evil in a deed. One therefore looks for the condition that triggers the evil (often "when", إذا) or the form of the word that makes it a habit.Read Confirmed principleThe human slope, and the exception that leads out of itWhen the text says "the human being is…", it describes a slope: the human receives, deems himself self-sufficient, and falls. The way out is always an exception ("except", إلا), and that exception is made of deeds that…Read Confirmed principleThe same gesture in both campsBoth camps often make the same gesture: they toil, strive, make contact, disavow, confess their wrongs. The text does not tell them apart by the presence of the gesture, but by its direction and its fruit. The translation…Read ObservationWealth is a trustWhen the text commands spending, it recalls that the human being is only a trustee of what he owns, and that everything returns to God. Stinginess is then set before the One who is Self-Sufficient.Read ObservationThe same verb for the human and for GodWhen the text gives a human being the verb or the epithet it gives to God, it sets claim against reality. The translation keeps the same rendering on both sides, so that the comparison stays visible.Read ObservationThe divine title in a man's mouthWhen a man claims a divine title, the translation renders that title exactly as when it designates God, so that the usurpation shows. But the word رب ("Guardian") applied to a human is rendered "master": the difference between…Read
Reading this translation
The translation's conventions: a word for a word, brackets, register, readings of the text. 4 pages
Confirmed principleEvery word of the translation answers an Arabic wordIn this translation, every word answers a word of the Arabic text. What the target language must add to be readable is placed in square brackets. A word with no Arabic equivalent and no brackets would be an interpretation slipped…Read ObservationThe literal sense first, the reading in bracketsWhen a word's literal sense and a reading drawn from context coexist, the translation keeps the literal and carries the reading in square brackets. The reading is kept only if other passages of the Qur'an support it.Read ObservationThe body named with restraintThe Qur'an speaks of the body and of procreation without a single crude word. The translation keeps that register: it does not replace a restrained word with an anatomical term, nor with a moral term the text does not say.Read ObservationWhen two recitations of the text divergeThe reference Arabic text is that of the Hafs reading. Other transmitted recitations exist, among them that of Warsh; most differences do not affect the meaning. When they do, the immediate continuation of the text, then the…Read
No page matches.