The Qur’an and Adab The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam EDITED BY Nuha Alshaar 3 in association with TH E INSTITU T E O F I S M A I LI S T U D I E S L ONDON Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a depart ment of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s object ive of excel lence in research, scholarship, and education by publish ing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With oices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland hailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Islamic Publications Ltd 2017 he moral rights of the authors have been asser ted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2017 Chapters previously published and appear ing here in a revised form are chapter 9 by Sarah R. bin Tyeer, from he Qur’an and the Aesthetics of Premodern Arabic Prose (Palgrave, 2016); chapter 11 by Wadād al-Qāī, from Approaches to the Qurān, ed. G.R. Hawting and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef (Routledge, 1993); chapter 16 by Denis McAuley, from Ibn Arabī’s Mystical Poetics (Oxford University Press, 2012). All rights reserved. No part of this public ation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit ted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permit ted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organiz ation. Enquiries concern ing reproduc tion outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circu late this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Cover photographs (starting from the top): 1. Text of Sūrat al-Fātia (dated 723/1323) written in black naskh, with Persian interlinear translation in red ink. MS W.559 (fol. 2b), Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD. 2. Muallaqā (dated 16th/17th century CE) by the pre- and early Islamic poet Labīd b. Rabīa (d. c. 40/660). MS AP 6 (fol. 62v), Library of the Near East School of heology, Beirut. Cover design: Russell Harris Index by Sally Phillips, Advanced Professional Member, Society of Indexers Typeset by ReineCatch Limited, Bungay, Sufolk Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall ISBN 978-0-19-878718-1 10 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba): Mnemonic, Liturgical and Testimonial Functions TA H E R A QU T BU DDI N T exts of Arabic orations (khubas) ascribed to early Muslim orators of the irst/seventh and second/eighth centuries are permeated with the Qur’anic ethos: they draw on Qur’anic structures, evoke Qur’anic images, make use of Qur’anic vocabulary, preach Qur’anic themes and cite segments of the Qur’an. I have discussed elsewhere the oration’s difuse, non-citational infusion of Qur’anic material.1 In this chapter, I analyse its verbatim quotation of Qur’anic verses, focusing on the functions of Qur’anic quotation in the early Islamic oration. he khuba is an early, essential and distinct genre of Arabic prose. I use the term in its initial, broad sense, to denote ‘an oicial discourse (for various purposes and containing diverse themes) which was extemporaneously composed and orally delivered in formal language to a large, live, public audience, with the orator, with some exceptions, standing facing the audience’2 – in other words, all kinds of speeches and sermons. (Later, the use of the term would be narrowed to signify largely the ritual sermons of the Friday and Eid prayers.) With its inclusion of ethical and political content alongside the religious in a verbally artistic frame, the early khuba may be considered a proto-genre of adab, particularly of its ediicational and political varieties.3 In the following pages, I present a taxonomy of Qur’anic quotations in the early khuba, categorised under three simultaneously operating functions: mnemonic, liturgical and testimonial. he 315 From: The Qur’an and Adab: The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam, ed. Nuha Alshaar. Oxford: Oxford University Press in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2017. © Islamic Publications Ltd 2017 ISBN 978-0-19-878718-1 www.iis.ac.uk www.oup.co.uk Tahera Qutbuddin mnemonic function includes a musical role, the liturgical function encompasses an individual prayer utility and the testimonial function incorporates an evocative mode. I situate these functions in the oral culture of the early Arabian Muslims, their society’s dynamic interface of religion, politics and literature, and their orator’s goal of persuasion. The Mnemonic Function Early Islamic society was largely oral. Writing was not unknown, but its use was sparse and sporadic, and became widespread only ater the introduction of papermak ing techniques in the middle of the second/eighth century. he orality of the society has two interlinked implications for my study: the question it raises about the authenticity of oratorical materials ascribed to the early Muslims and the impetus this orality (among other catalysts) provides for Qur’anic citation. he oratorical materials preserved in the medieval sources were for the most part transmitted orally for a century or more. Although we have reports of some materials being recorded in writing in the irst/seventh and early second/eighth centuries, these were anomalies rather than the norm. Moreover, even though oral transmission of early historical and literary material was supplemented by gradually increasing amounts of scholarly note-taking (as Gregor Schoeler has ably demonstrated),4 we have limited evidence to show that orations were written down in any signiicant quantity. Most orations – like their contemporary genres of poetry, hadith and historical reports – were passed down by word of mouth through several generations before being transcribed in books of history and literature in the late second/eighth and early third/ninth centuries. he lengthy period of oral transmission subjected early orations to the possibility of fabrication, erroneous communication and incorrect ascription. Nevertheless, the efectiveness of continuous oral transmission should not be underestimated. As Mary Carruthers has shown, members of medieval societies are known to have had prodigious memories, and they successfully transmitted artistic verbal materials over long periods of time.5 Many 316 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) of the orations that have come down to us could be the essence of what was said, occupy ing a middle ground between the mode of transmitting the gist of the piece (riwāya bi’l-manā), common for historical reports, and the mode of verbatim transmission (riwāya bi’l-laf) used in transmitting poetry and the Qur’an. he thousands of reports in the medieval Arabic sources suggest that a vibrant genre of oratory existed in the early Islamic period. It is likely that the oratorical materials we have from these sources are remnants – albeit imperfect ones – from that era. Walter Ong, in his book Orality and Literacy, has established that in predominantly oral societies, all verbal expression is articulated in easily retrievable cadenced patterns. Key characteristics of oral verbal production, laid out in his book, include rhythm, short sentences, a preference for additive rather than subordinative phrases, and graphic ‘lifeworld’ imagery. What is important for the present topic is that among these characteristics, Ong lists the citation of proverbial materials. Citation also takes place in societies that use writing, of course, but for an oral society, it is an essential mnemonic component. Here is an example of oratorical Qur’anic citation serving a mnemonic function: Alī b. Abī ālib (d. 40/661), in an ubi sunt themed sermon,6 focused on reminding the audience about their approaching death. Servants of God: You, and all things with you in this world, are on the path of those who have gone before – people who lived longer than you, who had more prosperous homes and longer lasting monuments. Now their voices have become silent, their breath stilled, their bodies decayed, their homes emptied, and their monuments efaced. In exchange for fortiied palaces and lavish thrones, they have been given rocks and stones and the crushing shelter of dugout graves, whose court yards are built from ruins and whose ediices are shored up with dirt. he grave is at hand. Its resident is like a stranger. He is with those who live together in one domicile and yet are lonely, who have all the time in the world yet are too preoccupied to be concerned about each other. hey neither have the comfort of a homeland nor do they 317 Tahera Qutbuddin associate as neighbours. All this, despite their physical closeness and the proximity of their dwellings. But how could they visit, when decay has crushed them, and stones and earth have eaten them up? It is as though you have arrived at their destination. It is as though that bed has already claimed you as collateral and that depository has already enveloped you. How do you think it will be with you, when all afairs reach their end? When the contents of graves are scattered forth?7 In that place, each soul will be tried for what it did in past times: they will be returned to their true master, and they will not ind the lies they had spun (hunālika tablū kullu nafsin mā aslafat wa ruddū ilā’llāhi mawlāhumu’l-aqqi wa alla anhum mā kānū yatarūn) (Sūrat Yūnus, Q. 10:30).8 he Qur’anic verse Alī cites at the end of this sermon – in addition to endorsing and substantiating his points about death, the hereater and being accountable for one’s actions – serves a mnemonic function. When a person heard an oration and relayed its contents later to another, insertions such as this verse would help to anchor his transmission, since he would have the Qur’anic phrase memorised even before he heard it in the oration. In Ong’s words, proverbial materials are ‘constantly heard by everyone so that they come to mind readily’ and what is more, they ‘themselves are patterned for retention and ready recall’.9 Qur’anic citation formed part of a larger mode of citation inherent in the oral milieu of the early Islamic orator. Like poetry and proverbs, which were cited oten in orations, and like prophetic hadiths, which were also cited from time to time, the Qur’an was orally conceived and produced, and constantly heard by the early Muslims in various contexts;10 citation of Qur’anic verses was thus an obvious mnemonic aid. he Qur’an itself contained numerous mnemonic features which further strengthened the mnemonic base of those orations that cited its verses. Furthermore, the mnemonic-grounded rhythm of the early khuba was enhanced by the cadence of the Qur’anic citation. Oratorical rhythm was achieved through a range of aesthetic techniques including prose rhyme, poetic repetition, assonance and 318 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) paronomasia, and most prominently, parallelism. he Qur’an’s rhythmic elements, being grounded in the same oral milieu, were similar to the acoustic elements of the khuba. Being thus in harmony with the melodic movement of the oration, the music of the cited Qur’anic verse augmented the music of the khuba. In a battle oration, an Azraqī Khārijī commander named al-Zubayr b. Alī al-Salīī al-Tamīmī (d. 68/688) shored up his troops’ courage by citing the following Qur’anic verse: If wounds alict you, [know that] similar wounds alict [your enemies]. We deal out such days in turn among people (in yamsaskum qarun fa-qad massa’l-qawma qarun mithluhu wa tilka’l-ayyāmu nudāwiluhā bayna’l-nāsi) (Sūrat Āl Imrān, Q. 3:140).11 his verse contains two rhythmic elements, the paronomasia (jinās ishtiqāq) between the words ‘yamsaskum’ and ‘massa’, and the poetic repetition (takrār) of the word ‘qarun’, which are also mnemonic agents, and which intensify the cadence of Zubayr’s oration. The Liturgical Function Orators frequently quoted Qur’anic verses in the introductory praise section (tamīd) of an oration.12 We can categorise the tamīd broadly into two types: generic and contextualised. Frequently, in a generic tamīd, the speaker beseeched God’s guidance and followed the supplication with Qur’anic quotes, modiied or verbatim, ascribing all guidance to him. he standard tamīd oten included the following (modiied) Qur’an-inspired line: Whomsoever God guides, no one can lead astray. Whomsoever God leads astray, no one can guide aright (man yahdi’llāhu fa-lā mu illa lahu wa man yu lili’llāhu fa-lā hādiya lahu).13 (Note that, as in this line, orators commonly restructured Qur’anic verses to it the grammatical or rhythmic low of their oration; in the tamīd and elsewhere, they reworked word order or pronouns, dropped, altered or added conjunctions, interpolated phraseology and changed grammatical cases or moods.)14 In another customary tamīd, orators cited the Qur’anic verse verbatim: [God] sent His messenger [to spread] right guidance and the religion of truth in order to make it prevail over all [other] religions, despite the aversion of those who 319 Tahera Qutbuddin ascribe partners to God (arsala rasūlahu bi’l-hudā wa dīni’l-aqqi li yuhirahu alā’l-dīni kullihī wa-law kariha’l-mushrikūn) (Sūrat al-af, Q. 61:9; Sūrat al-Tawba, Q. 9:33). hese two sets of verses became ixed quite early on, with what appears to be their repeated usage in the orations of Prophet Muhammad and his Companions.15 In contextualised tamīds, the formulaic liturgical aspect of Qur’anic citation was underpinned by a testimonial subtext. he choice of verses to quote in such a tamīd was directed by the religio-political goal of the speech. A good example is a speech given by Alī’s Companion, Mālik al-Ashtar (d. 38/658), to his compatriots at the Battle of ifīn (37/657). Ashtar began with a tamīd containing three consecutive Qur’an verses, asserting the Creator’s control over all things and events: ‘All praise belongs to God who created the high heavens, the merciful one (who) sat on the throne. To Him belong the skies, the earth, and that which is below the ground (al-amdu li’llāhi’l-ladhī khalaqa’l-samāwāti’lulā al-ramānu alā’l-arshi’stawā lahu mā fī’l-samāwāti wa mā fī’l-ar i wa mā baynahumā wa mā tata’l-tharā)’ (Sūrat āhā, Q. 20:4–6).16 (he next lines of the speech, still within the tamīd, say, ‘I praise God for the trials [He has sent down], as well as His clear favours.’) Ashtar used the literal imagery of God’s creation in these verses to fortify in advance his coming declaration that this battle was destined for some mysterious purpose by the all-wise divine will. Working through juxtaposition and implication, he prepared his audience with the Qur’an citations to accept his assertion: ‘hat which Almighty God decreed has come to pass, namely, that the fates drove us to the people of this land, and gathered us together with God’s enemies and ours.’17 Ater these lines, he went on to chronicle Alī’s excellences. Since the opposing army was a Muslim army, many of the warriors on Alī’s side were troubled about the legitimacy of their ight. By framing the conlict in Qur’anic verses emphasising God’s ownership of all things, combined with the airmation that what God had written would inevitably take place, and conjoined with praise of Alī, Ashtar carefully set up the two-part message of the sermon: It was God’s will that this battle should be fought and Alī was on the side of truth. 320 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) In early orations (unlike late medieval and modern ones), we do not see Qur’anic verses cited frequently in communal prayer outside of the tamīd introduction. However, orators did sometimes quote verses from the Qur’an in individual communion with God within the body of the speech, especially towards the end. On the day of Āshūrā in Karbala, when the Umayyad army approached al-usayn b. Alī (d. 61/680) for the inal assault, which would end in their killing him and all his male family members and companions, he delivered a speech from the back of his horse.18 In this speech, he attempted to dissuade the Umayyad army from their lethal purpose through a variety of urgent arguments: He was their Prophet’s grandson, he had committed no crime, and they themselves had invited him to Iraq. Finally, seeing that they were not being swayed, he ended with two verses from the Qur’an. Resignedly capping of his arguments, and perhaps also taking comfort from divine words portraying confrontation between good and evil as inevitable, he quoted the prophet Noah’s furious words of challenge to his people: Let not your plan become darkly obscure to you; rather, carry it out against me, and give me no respite (thumma lā yakun amrukum alaykum ghummatan thumma’q ū ilayya wa-lā tunirūn) (Sūrat Yūnus, Q. 10:71). hen, in response to this irst verse, still addressing his attackers, but turning simultaneously to God, he quoted another Qur’anic verse, this one in the Prophet Muhammad’s voice addressing the poly theists: Indeed, my friend is God, who sent down the Book; He befriends only the pious (inna waliyyiya’llāhu’lladhī nazzala’l-kitāba wa huwa yatawallā’l-āliīn) (Sūrat al-Arāf, Q. 7:196). With these two verses, usayn placed himself with God’s prophets and he placed the Umayyads with God’s enemies, serving them warning. Also with these verses (especially the second one), he turned to God for succour. In a way, all usages of Qur’anic verses in orations are liturgical. Since the Qur’an is the Islamic scripture whose recitation is believed to garner spiritual merit, recitation of it within any public context suggests a form of communal worship. It is a matter of degree. Either the liturgical function is foregrounded or the testimonial. he foregrounding depends largely on the placement of the verse within the standard structure of the khuba. If it occurs within 321 Tahera Qutbuddin the formulaic tamīd section, the function that is highlighted is liturgical. If it occurs in the body of the oration, the function that is underscored is testimonial. he mnemonic (and musical) functions, in turn, apply equally to the formulaic verses in the opening and to the testimonial verses in the body of the text. The Testimonial Function As the word of God, the Qur’an wielded an authority over Muslims unsurpassed by any other verbal instrument. As such, it was the obvious tool to shore up an argument in an Islamic milieu. Used by the orator as a testimonial reinforcing his assertions, Qur’anic citation drove home his point, putting the weight of the divine word behind his own teachings. In this sense, Qur’anic citation in orations functioned as it did in texts of grammar and rhetoric, where authors brought in Qur’an verses as proof texts (shawāhid, sing. shāhid) to testify to the veracity of the rule they were explicating.19 With some exceptions (more on this later), the orator did not interpret the Qur’anic verses explicitly for the audience. Rather, through apposite juxtaposition of Qur’anic verses with political or theological declarations, he elicited from his audience an interpretation of these verses that supported his position. he testimonial aspect of Qur’anic citation worked particularly well for several reasons. Firstly, the Islamic khuba was imbued with the teachings of the Qur’an. Early Muslim orators consistently preached piety and exhorted their audience to perform good deeds in preparation for the imminent hereater. hese themes, among many others, came directly from the Qur’an. (Conversely, it can also be said that the Qur’an co-opted many of the earlier modes of preaching that asked in an ubi sunt rhetorical style – as, for example, in the famous Ukā sermon ascribed to the pre-Islamic Christian bishop of Najrān, Quss Ibn Sā ida (d. c. 600 CE) – where past generations had gone.)20 Secondly, the oral rhythm-based style and the vivid nature-oriented imagery of the oration were parallel to the style and imagery of the Qur’an. Finally, many sections of the Qur’an – which, when viewed from a literary perspective, is a conglomeration of genres – are sermonic in form, displaying complex 322 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) connections, overlapping traits and conceptual parallelisms with the khuba. Sections from several suras – such as Āl Imrān (Q. 3), Yūnus (Q. 10), Hūd (Q. 11), al-Shuarā (Q. 26), Luqmān (Q. 31) and Nū (Q. 71) – relate the religious and ethical teachings of Biblical and Arabian prophets in sermonic form. he Qur’an has the Arabian prophet āli, for example, preach thus to his fellow tribesmen of hamūd: O people! Worship God, for there is no god other than Him. He created you out of the earth and made you thrive therein. So ask Him for forgiveness and turn to Him in repentance. Indeed, my Lord is near, He will answer [the prayer of one who calls out to Him] (yāqawmi budū’l-lāha mā lakum min ilāhin ghayruhū huwa anshaakum mina’l-ar i wa’stamarakum fīhā fa’staghirūhu thumma tūbū ilayhi inna rabbī qarībun mujīb) (Sūrat Hūd, Q. 11:61). his verse, and many similar verses of the Qur’an, meet the criteria I have earlier speciied in the deinition of the khuba – formal language and an oicial status, as well as extemporaneous composition and oral delivery (by āli here, then Muhammad) in direct second-person address to a live, public audience – and may be categorised as a quasi-khuba. his complex generic, thematic and aesthetic relationship between the khuba and the Qur’an underpinned and promoted the former’s testimonial citation of Qur’anic verses. In addition to the evidence of the oratorical texts themselves, the testimonial nature of Qur’anic citation in orations is supported by the contextualising phrases surrounding it in the early sources, as well as by the medieval critics. he proverbial function of the oration’s citation of poetry is emphasised by the familiar prefacing phrase: ‘He cited as a testimonial’ (qāla mutamaththilan).21 he same evidentiary objective may be attributed to citations from the Qur’an, where orators frequently prefaced their citations with the expression ‘As Almighty God has said’ (kamā qāla’llāhu taālā), or words to that efect. he medieval critics do not explicitly discuss the testimonial nature of Qur’anic citation, but they indicate it implicitly nonetheless through their characterisations of the ‘beautify ing’ (tawashshu) and ‘adorning’ (tazyīn) of khubas with Qur’anic verses. he famous Basran litterateur of the third/ninth century, Abū Uthmān Amr b. Bar al-Jāi (d. 255/869), asser ted 323 Tahera Qutbuddin in al-Bayān wa’l-tabyīn (Eloquence and Explication) that the ‘pious early Muslims’ used the term ‘disigured oration’ (khuba shawhā) for the oration that was ‘not beautiied by citations from the Qur’an (and by blessings on the Prophet)’.22 he medieval scribe Isāq b. Ibrāhīm al-Kātib (d. ater 335/947) commented in his al-Burhān fī wujūh al-bayān (he Proof[-Book] about Various Aspects of Eloquence) on the positive audience reception of Qur’anic quotation, saying: ‘Among the necessary attributes of oratory are beginning with praise of God, and beautify ing with Qur’an[ic verses] and popular proverb[ial prose and verse]. hese are among the things that adorn orations for listeners.’23 If we extend this rationale of ‘adornment’, the function is still testimonial; as Richard Lanham has explained, artistic prose tacitly persuades.24 Beautifying a speech – by ‘adorning’ it with Qur’anic citations – implies making it more pleasing to the audience, which, in turn, means that its message is more likely to be accepted. Within the body of the oration, Qur’anic verses were customarily cited towards the conclusion of the khuba, or at the end of a thematic section, retroactively casting a seal of divine authority on what the orator had just said. (We have mostly fragments from this period rather than full sermons, so this obser vation is tentative.) Since the point of Qur’an citation in the early khuba was typically not to explain the meanings of the Qur’an directly, but rather to bring the authority of the Qur’an to bear upon the orator’s message, the posterior placement would be efective. Diferent types of orations sourced diferently themed scripture, orators singling out Qur’anic verses on subjects resonating with their own. Political and battle speeches quoted verses on political and battle related issues, and pious counsel and ritual sermons quoted verses commanding godliness. But orators characteristically combined religious and political leadership roles – and their verbal efusions were similarly multifaceted – in a demonstration of the fundamental linkage between religion and politics in the early Islamic state. Qur’anic citation was particularly widespread in sermons of ritual prayer and pious counsel, and the sources provide numerous examples. Urging his audience to be aware of the transience of 324 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) life and exhorting them to perform good deeds, the Prophet Muhammad recited in what is reported to be his irst Friday sermon the following Qur’anic verse: As for the one who is conscious of God and fears Him, God will erase his sins, and grant him a great reward (man yattaqi’l-lāha yukair anhu sayyiātihi wa yuim lahu ajrā) (Sūrat al-alāq, Q. 65:5). Towards the end of a sermon on the oneness of God, the nearness of death, and the importance of preparing for the hereater, the Mu tazilī leader Wāil b. Aā (d. 131/748) counselled his audience to be conscious of God, citing the verse Be conscious of God, O intelligent people, and you will surely prosper (wa’ttaqū’l-lāha yā’ulī’l-albābi laallakum tuliūn) (Sūrat al-Māida, Q. 5:100).25 Both these verses were frequently used by preachers of all stripes; not only do they articulate some of the most prominent teachings of the Qur’an, their modes of direct address and matching themes intersect with the stylistic and thematic modes of the oration, facilitating smooth integration into the oratorical discourse. However, a marked preference for particular verses would only become manifest ater the crystallisation of sectarian denominations and theological schools. In the early period – notwithstanding the few commonly cited verses – the selection of cited verses appears to be ad hoc, the orator selecting ones that supported his point from a pool of choices, such as the following. During the early Muslims’ campaign to conquer Syria, the Companion Ubāda b. al-āmit (d. c. 34/655) delivered an oration encouraging the people of Homs to be virtuous, and he cited the verses Whosoever performs a mote’s worth of good shall see it. Whosoever performs a mote’s worth of evil shall see it (fa-man yamal mithqāla dharratin khayran yarahu; wa man yamal mithqāla dharratin sharran yarahu) (Sūrat al-Zalzala, Q. 99:7–8).26 In a Friday service in Kufa, immediately following the Battle of the Camel, Alī enjoined his audience to fear God’s punishment and perform good deeds, using a (modiied) quote from the Qur’an to explain the reason for his injunction: Perform virtuous deeds without desiring praise: Whosoever performs deeds for one other than God, God will hand him over to that other. Whosoever performs deeds sincerely for God, God 325 Tahera Qutbuddin will ensure for him a goodly reward. Fear God’s punishment, for He has not created you without purpose, and has not let you, in any of your afairs, without direction, with loosened [reins] (fa’innahu lam yakhluqkum abathan wa’lam yatruk shayan min amrikum sudān).27 hese pious injunctions of Alī’s sermon segued into a characterisation of this world as the abode of death, and to emphasise this point he quoted a second Qur’anic verse, this one verbatim, declaring the hereater to be the abode of life: Do not be deceived by this world, for she is a great deceiver of her people. Whosoever is deceived by her is truly deluded. All things in her will perish. he hereater is [true] life, if only they would realise it (wa-inna’l-dāra’l-ākhirata la-hiya’l-ayawānu law kānū yalamūn) (Sūrat al-Ankabūt, Q. 29:64).28 Citations from the Qur’an were also used to good efect as testimonials in speeches with a political or military agenda. Al-ajjāj b. Yūsuf al-haqafī (d. 95/714), governor of Iraq for the Syrian Umayyads, oten employed Qur’anic verses to strengthen his political message. In one such speech, he began by chastising his recalcitrant Iraqi subjects in a few lines of excoriating prose, then turned to praise the Syrians in his audience by quoting irst a proverb, then two lines of poetry, and inally three verses from the Qur’an: ‘You, O people of Syria, are as Almighty God has said: We have given our word to Our servants, the messengers. hey will be aided. Indeed, Our army will triumph (wa-laqad sabaqat kalimatunā li-ibādinā’l-mursalīn; innahum la-humu’lmanūrūn; wa-inna jundanā la-humu’l-ghālibūn)’ (Sūrat al-āfāt, Q. 37:171–3).29 According to exegetes such as Abū Ja far Muammad b. Jarīr al-abarī (d. 310/923), Abū’l-Qāsim Mamūd b. Umar al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) and Ismā īl b. Umar Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373), these Qur’anic verses in their original context praise Muhammad and the early Muslims; ajjāj uses them here to extol the Syrians, supporters of the Umayyads, comparing them to the Prophet’s early following. In the Qur’an, these verses follow upon ones chastising the ‘disbelievers’, that is, the Meccan Quraysh; by 326 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) citing the later verses of praise, ajjāj also cleverly evokes the earlier ones of condemnation, associating the Iraqis with the pagan Meccans and threatening them. In another example, the Khārijī commander āli b. Musarri (d. 76/695) instructed his followers to ‘disassociate themselves from sinners’ (al-fāsiqūn, presumably the Umayyads, and perhaps more broadly all non-Khārijīs), and directed them to ‘bond with the believers’ (presumably the Khārijīs), declaring, ‘Indeed, disassociating from sinners is a requirement for believers’, and endorsing the injunction with the Qur’anic verse that says Do not pray the funeral prayer for any person among them who dies, and do not [pronounce benedictions] at his grave. Indeed, they disbelieved in God and His messenger, and they died as sinners (wa-lā tualli alā aadin minhum māta abadan wa-lā taqum alā qabrihi innahum kafarū bi’llāhi wa rasūlihi wa mātū wa hum fāsiqūn) (Sūrat al-Tawba, Q. 9:84).30 his verse in its original historical context refers to the hypocrites (al-munāiqūn) who held back from supporting the Prophet in the Battle of Tabūk; āli quotes it to shore up his message vis-à-vis his own group versus all other Muslims. Full Qur’anic verses were quoted in the examples above, but many orations used only partial citations to evoke the rest of the verse. (A caveat: It should be noted that in the speciic examples quoted, it is possible that the orator actually quoted a full verse and that the truncation was enacted by a redactor who expected his listeners or readers to know and ill in the rest.) In some cases, letting the audience supply the punch line was as efective, perhaps more efective, than spelling it out; it engaged the audience in a way that direct statements could not. Towards the end of one of the irst sermons that Alī is repor ted to have preached ater becoming caliph, he said: Hasten to acknowledge the afair that is common to all, but personal to each one of you: death. People have gone before you and the hour drives you onward from behind. Lighten your burden of sin so you can catch up. hose who have gone before await the arrival of those who are yet to come. Be conscious of God in your dealings with His servants and His lands. For you 327 Tahera Qutbuddin are responsible for your deeds, even those pertaining to the earth and to cattle. Obey God. Do not disobey Him. If you see good, grasp it. If you see evil, shun it.31 He then closed the sermon with a section of a Qur’anic verse, reminding the audience that they had not always been so prosperous: Remember the time when you were few in number and vulnerable in the land (wa’dhkurū idh antum qalīlun musta afūna fī’l-ar i) (Sūrat al-Anfāl, Q. 8:26). he continuation of the verse – which is not cited – is as follows: and were afraid that people would wipe you out, whereupon He gave you refuge, strengthened you with His aid, and provided you with goodly sustenance. Will you not be grateful? (takhāfūna an yatakhaafakumu’l-nāsu fa-āwākum wa ayyadakum bi-narihi wa razaqakum mina’l-ayyibāti laallakum tashkurūn). he audience, drawing on their own memories, would furnish this part themselves. hrough evocation, this unstated line – which reminded the audience that it was God who had given them support and provisions – implicitly reinforced and took further the point of the cited section. Evocative techniques of citation included two more varieties: sometimes the citation of a verse from among a cluster of verses could call to mind the context of the full cluster, as in the speech of ajjāj just discussed; and occasionally – since motifs and themes are expounded in the Qur’an piecemeal in diferent places – the citation of one verse could evoke for the audience the entire set of related Qur’anic motifs, as in Qur’anic verses enjoining piety, or verses reminding the Muslims of the destruction of ungodly nations. In contrast to the standard use of Qur’anic quotation in early khubas for testimonial purposes, which we have been discussing, a handful of oratorical texts display two signiicant anomalies: hyper-quotation and expository explication of the Qur’an. In a single oration, orators usually cited one or, perhaps, two verses from the Qur’an. But a few speeches showed evidence of hyper-quotation; that is, they were laden with citations, relying almost wholly on the apposite selection of Qur’anic verses to make their point. A most unusual case is a speech by Mu ab b. al-Zubayr (d. 72/691) composed solely of a string of six Qur’an verses from 328 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) Sūrat al-Qaa (Q. 28), narrating the downfall of the tyrant Pharaoh and telling of God’s compassion for his victims.32 Mu ab had been sent by his brother, the counter-caliph Abd Allāh b. al-Zubayr (d. 73/692) who was based in Mecca, to garner Iraqi support to ight the Umayyads in Damascus. As he recited verses in his oration about Pharaoh’s end, Mu ab used hand gestures to point towards Syria, signalling its impending defeat. He then recited verses about God’s benevolence, motioning towards the ijāz, predicting its approaching triumph. A slightly less stark sample is a speech delivered by the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson al-asan b. Alī (d. 50/670) during his short caliphate, where he quoted four Qur’anic verses in close succession, with a couple of his own lines between each verse. asan used these verses to urge his followers to come to God, the Messenger and the ‘people in command’ (ūlū’l-amr, indicating the speaker himself) in matters of dispute, and to warn that belief and good deeds must precede death, the moment of inal reckoning, in order to have salviic value.33 In a more difuse specimen, the Khārijī commander Qaarī b. al-Fujāa (d. 79/698) recited six verses from the Qur’an over the course of a long ubi sunt sermon to cap each of its six subthemes. In the penultimate section of the sermon, describing the dead, he said: hey were carried to their graves, but cannot be called riders. hey were given places to alight, but cannot be called guests. hey were given graves as covering, earth as a shroud, and decay ing bones as neighbours – neighbours who do not answer one who calls out to them, who do not protect from harm. If they get abundant rain they do not rejoice. If they have drought they do not despair. hey are all together, yet each one is alone. hey are neighbours, but far distant from one another. hey are in the same assembly, but no one visits them, nor do they visit anyone . . . Mature leaders whose enmities have dissipated . . . Rash youths whose hatreds have disappeared. heir blows are no longer feared. heir protection is no longer sought. As Almighty God has said: Here are their abodes, uninhabited ater them except for a short time. We, yes We, will inherit (fa-tilka masākinuhum lam 329 Tahera Qutbuddin tuskan min badihim illā qalīlan wa kunnā nanu’l-wārithīn) (Sūrat al-Qaa, Q. 28:58).34 hese three examples speak to the power of quotation in this tradition; they also point to something unusual in the situation that necessitated hyper-quotation. In the speeches of Mu ab and Qaarī, the import of the speech was dangerous. Mu ab’s message in promoting the counter-caliphate of his brother Abd Allāh was one of direct challenge to Umayyad authority. Qaarī’s position, although indirect and couched in verbiage of pious wisdom, was no less of a challenge to the ruling power. he speech of the Prophet’s grandson asan aimed at convincing the people of the divinely granted authority of the family of the Prophet; his speech was made in the context of the Khārijī claim generalising such authority to all Muslims, as well as the anti-Hāshimī character of Umayyad rule. All three orators relied on the authority of the Qur’an to drive home a provocative point. An even rarer function of Qur’anic citation was explicit interpretation by the orator to support a particular point of view or to serve as a jumping of point for pious counsel. he aforementioned governor of Iraq, ajjāj, cited and explicitly interpreted two Qur’anic verses to support the Umayyad government in an oration which began as follows: ‘God said: Fear God as much as you can (ittaqū’llāha mā’staatum) [Sūrat al-Taghābun, Q. 64:16] – this refers to God. hen he said, Listen and obey (wa’smaū wa aīū) [Sūrat al-Taghābun, Q. 64:16] – this refers to the servant of God, the vicegerent of God, the beloved of God, Abd al-Malik b. Marwān.’35 Here, the Qur’anic text was cited up front and then explained in a political context. Elsewhere, two sermons, one ascribed to Alī and the other to al-asan al-Barī (d. 110/728), cite the irst two verses of Sūrat al-Takāthur, Q. 102:1–2: You are engrossed with acquiring more and more, until you visit the grave (alhākumu’l-takāthur, attā zurtumu’l-maqābir) in an exhortatory frame, following up the citation with descriptions of the dead, exhortations to be mindful of the imminence of the grave and injunctions to prepare for the hereater.36 his format would become frequent in later Islamic teaching sessions;37 it is also similar to certain kinds of Christian 330 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) Protestant expository preaching,38 but was anomalous in the early period of Islam. In the orations of Alī, ajjāj and asan al-Barī, the cited Qur’anic verses explicitly set up the coming oration where, more typically in the early khuba, the Qur’anic verse implicitly and retroactively directed the trajectory of the khuba, with the orator’s own words leading up to, and climaxing in, the citation. Conclusion: Early, Medieval and Modern khut. bas As we have seen, Qur’anic citation in orations of the irst/seventh and second/eighth centuries of Islam served mnemonic, liturgical and testimonial functions – functions that were rooted in the orator’s goal of persuasion, the oral context of early oratorical production, and the dynamic relationship between religion, politics and literature in early Muslim society. hese functions operated simultaneously, with the mnemonic function being present at all times, and either the liturgical or the testimonial functions being concurrently foregrounded. As the society in which these orations were produced evolved, the three functions developed in accord with the changing times.39 Although the mnemonic and testimonial functions continued to operate at some level, Qur’anic citation in sermons gradually moved towards the liturgical function, becoming more and more formulaic as time went by. In the early period, the citation of a verse or two from the Qur’an was a common, though not requisite, feature.40 Qur’anic citation became more frequent, even de rigueur, in later sermons. Its applications became tightly circumscribed and its functions were modiied accordingly. In a work titled Adab al-khaīb (Rules for the Preacher), the eighth/four teenth-century scholar Ibn al- Aār (d. 724/1323) summarised the rules for Friday and Eid sermons, and he included among them mandatory citation of Qur’anic verses, as well as speciic verses to be cited.41 He also proscribed the citation of poetry. By Ibn al- Aār’s time, extempore speeches and sermons were, by and large, a thing of the past. In this respect, Qur’anic citation in the late medieval period was primarily liturgical, and the testimonial function appears to have become less relevant. he mnemonic function of Qur’anic citation in sermons, 331 Tahera Qutbuddin although still valid, operated in an ancillary fashion in a society which had become literate and writing-oriented. Today, the Friday khuba in several parts of the world continues the formulaic legacy of the middle period. However, political and religio-political speeches of some Muslim leaders, such as those of Hasan Nasrallah of Lebanon, have a dynamic and individualised engagement with Qur’anic material, continuing to draw on its early testimonial function. NO T E S 1 Tahera Qutbuddin, ‘he Sermons of Alī Ibn Abī ālib: At the Conluence of the Core Islamic Teachings of the Qur’an and the Oral, Nature-Based Cultural Ethos of Seventh Century Arabia’, Anuario de Estudios Medievales 42, no. 1 (2012), pp. 201–28, passim. 2 Tahera Qutbuddin, ‘Khuba: he Evolution of Early Arabic Oration’, in Beatrice Gruendler, ed., Classical Arabic Humanities in their Own Terms: Festschrit for Wolhart Heinrichs on his 65th Birthday (Leiden, Brill, 2008), p. 180. 3 See deinitions and discussions of the term adab in Francesco Gabrieli, ‘Adab’, EI 2 , vol. I, pp. 175–6; Azartash Azarnoosh and Suheyl Umar, ‘Adab’, EIsl, vol. III, pp. 1–21; Alshaar, chapter 1, pp. 6–16 in this volume. 4 Gregor Schoeler, he Oral and the Written in Early Islam, tr. Uwe Vagelpohl, ed. James E. Montgomery (London, Routledge, 2006), pp. 40–42; idem, he Genesis of Literature in Islam: From the Aural to the Read, tr. Shawkat M. Toorawa, rev. edn (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2009), pp. 47–50. 5 Mary Carruthers, he Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 1–15. 6 ‘Ubi sunt’ is a Latin phrase meaning ‘Where are they?’ 7 his is a reference to Sūrat al-Iniār (Q. 82:4). 8 Abū’l-asan Muammad b. al-usayn al-Raī, Nahj al-balāgha, ed. usayn al-A lamī, comm. Muammad Abduh (Beirut, Muassasat al-A lamī, 1993), sermon 223, p. 470. Also cited in Abū Abd Allāh Muammad b. Salāma al-Quā ī, Dustūr maālim al-ikam wa mathūr makārim al-shiyam, ed. and tr. Tahera Qutbuddin as A Treasury of Virtues: Sayings, Sermons and Teachings of Alī, with the One Hundred Proverbs of al-Jāi (New York, New York University Press, 2013), 3.1.1 and 3.1.2, pp. 67–9; Abū Bakr Amad b. Marwān al-Dīnawarī, al-Mujālasa wa jawāhir al-ilm, 38 vols (Beirut, Dār Ibn azm, 2002), vol. I, p. 364; Abū āmid Muammad b. Muammad al-Ghazālī, Iyā ulūm al-dīn, 4 vols (Beirut, Dār al-Ma rifa, n.d.), vol. III, pp. 212–13; Abū’lQāsim Alī b. al-asan Ibn Asākir, Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq, ed. Muibb al-Dīn al- Umarī, 80 vols (Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1995), vol. X X X XII, p. 500; Abd al-Ramān b. Alī Ibn al-Jawzī, ifat al-afwa, ed. Mamūd al-Fākhūrī, 4 vols in 2 (Beirut, Dār al-Ma rifa, 1979), vol. I, p. 322; Shihāb al-Dīn Amad b. Abd al-Wahhāb al-Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab, ed. Mufīd Qumaya, 33 vols in 15 (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al- Ilmiyya, 2004), vol. V, pp. 249–50; Jalāl 332 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 al-Dīn al-Suyuī, Jāmi al-aādīth, ed. Abbās Amad aqr and Amad Abd al-Jawād, 21 vols (Beirut, Dār al-Fikr), vol. IV, hadith 8609, pp. 443–4; Alī b. Abd al-Malik al-Muttaqī al-Hindī, Kanz al-ummāl i sunan al-aqwāl wa’laf āl, ed. Mamūd al-Dumyāī, 18 vols in 10 (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al- Ilmiyya, 1998), vol. XVI, p. 84. NB: All translations, including those of Qur’anic verses, are my own. Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: he Technologizing of the Word (London, Routledge, 1982), p. 34. See William A. Graham, Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 79–115. Abū’l- Abbās Muammad b. Yazīd al-Mubarrad, al-Kāmil, ed. Muammad Abū’l-Fal Ibrāhīm, 4 vols (Cairo, Dār al-Fikr al- Arabī, n.d.), vol. III, p. 330; Izz al-Dīn Abd al-amīd b. Hibat Allāh al-Mu tazilī Ibn Abī’l-adīd, Shar Nahj al-balāgha, ed. Muammad Abū’l-Fal Ibrāhīm, 20 vols (Cairo, Dār Iyā al-Kutub al- Arabiyya, 1965), vol. IV, p. 156; Amad Zakī afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab fī’l-uūr al-arabiyya al-zāhira, 3 vols (Cairo, al-Maktaba al- Ilmiyya, 1933–34), vol. II, p. 451. For a detailed study of the tamīd genre, see Aziz K. Qutbuddin, ‘Tamīd: A Literary Genre? A Study of the Arabic Laudatory Preamble with a Focus on the Fatimid-ayyibī Tradition’ (Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2009); and idem, ‘A Literary Analysis of Tamīd: A Relational Approach for Studying the Arabic-Islamic Laudatory Preamble’, in Bruno De Nicola, Yonatan Mendel and Husain Qutbuddin, eds, Relections on Knowledge and Language in Middle Eastern Societies (Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), pp. 63–89. he irst sentence (man yahdi’llāhu fa-lā mu illa lahu) is modiied from the Qur’anic verse in Sūrat al-Zumar (Q. 39:37): wa man yahdi’llāhu fa-mā lahu min mu illin. he second sentence (wa man yu lili’llāhu fa-lā hādiya lahu) is modiied from four identical Qur’anic verses in Sūrat al-Rad (Q. 13:33), Sūrat al-Zumar (Q. 39:23 and 36) and Sūrat al-Ghāir (Q. 40:33): wa man yu lili’llāhu fa-mā lahu min hādin. See Wadād al-Qāī, ‘he Impact of the Qur’an on the Epistolography of Abd al-amīd b. Yayā al-Kātib (d. 132/750)’ (chapter 11), pp. 341–79 in this volume. hese verses are cited in the tamīd openings of sermons attributed to (1) Muhammad – see Muammad Ibn Isāq and Abd al-Malik Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, ed. Amad ijāzī al-Saqqā, 4 vols. in 2 (Cairo, Dār al-Turāth al- Arabī, n.d.), vol. II, p. 318; Amr b. Bar al-Jāi, al-Bayān wa’ltabyīn, ed. Abd al-Salām Muammad Hārūn, 5th edn, 4 vols (Cairo, Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1985), vol. II, p. 31; Abū Umar Amad b. Muammad al-Andalusī Ibn Abd Rabbih, al-Iqd al-farīd, 7 vols (Beirut, Dār Iyā al-Turāth al- Arabī, 1999), vol. IV, pp. 52–3; Abū Bakr Muammad b. al-ayyib al-Bāqillānī, Ijāz al-Qurān, ed. Amad aqr (Cairo, Dār al-Ma ārif, 2010), p. 130; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. I, pp. 152, 155; (2) Abū Bakr (d. 13/634) – see Ibn Abd Rabbih, al-Iqd al-farīd, vol. IV, p. 57; (3) al-Ash ath b. Qays (d. 40/661) – see Ibn Abī’l-adīd, Shar Nahj al-balāgha, vol. II, p. 214; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. I, p. 358; and (4) Yazīd b. Mu āwiya (d. 64/683) – see Ibn Abd Rabbih, al-Iqd al-farīd, vol. IV, p. 82. 333 Tahera Qutbuddin 16 Ibn Abī’l-adīd, Shar Nahj al-balāgha, vol. V, p. 190; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. I, p. 359. he words ‘the earth and’, which appear in the full Qur’an verse between ‘created’ and ‘the heavens’ have been elided in this speech. 17 Ibn Abī’l-adīd, Shar Nahj al-balāgha, vol. V, p. 190; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. I, p. 359. 18 Abū Ja far Muammad b. Jarīr al-abarī, Tārīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk, ed. Muammad Abū’l-Fal Ibrāhīm, 10 vols (Cairo, Dār al-Ma ārif, 1960–69), vol. VI, p. 424; English translation by I.K.A. Howard, he History of al-Tabari Vol. XIX: he Caliphate of Yazīd b. Muāwiyah, ed. Ehsan Yarshater, 40 vols (Albany, State University of New York Press, 1990), p. 123. 19 See, for example, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū Muammad Abd Allāh b. Yūsuf Ibn Hishām (Shar Shudhūr al-dhahab, commentary by Muammad Muyī’l-Dīn Abd al-amīd [Beirut, al-Maktaba al- Ariyya, 1992], p. 21) citing the verse Q. 4:86 from Sūrat al-Nisā to testify that diptote nouns take the accusative marker fata in the genit ive case. 20 See, for example, Qur’an verses in Sūrat al-āqqa (Q. 69:4–8), Sūrat Ibrāhīm (Q. 14:9–17) and Sūrat al-ajj (Q. 22:42–5). See the Quss sermon in Jāi, al-Bayān wa’l-tabyīn, vol. I, pp. 308–9. Similar ubi sunt questions are also present in pre-Islamic poetry; see, for example, al-Aswad b. Ya fur al-Nahshalī’s Dāliyya in al-Mufaal b. Muammad b. Ya lā al-abbī, al-Mufa aliyyāt, ed. and tr. by Charles Lyall as he Mufa aliyyāt: An Anthology of Ancient Arabian Odes, 3 vols (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. I, pp. 445–6. 21 See, for example, speeches by these four orators: (1) Amr b. al- Ā (d. c. 42/663) – Abū’l-asan Alī b. al-usayn al-Mas ūdī, Murūj al-dhahab wa maādin al-jawhar, ed. Sa īd Muammad al-Laām, 5 vols (Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 2000), vol. III, p. 18; (2) Abū Bakr – Abū’l- Abbās Muammad b. Yazīd Mubarrad, al-Taāzī wa’l-marāthī, ed. Khalīl al-Manūr (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al- Ilmiyya, 1996), p. 130; (3) al-Mamūn (d. 218/833) – Ibn Abd Rabbih, al-Iqd al-farīd, vol. II, p. 22; and (4) Umar b. Abd al- Azīz (r. 98–101/717–20) – ibid., vol. III, p. 193. he phrase is also commonly used in non-oratorical speech. 22 Jāi, al-Bayān wa’l-tabyīn, vol. II, p. 6. 23 Isāq b. Ibrāhīm al-Kātib, al-Burhān fī wujūh al-bayān, ed. Amad Malūb and Khadīja al-adīthī (Baghdad, Maba at al- Ānī, 1967), p. 194. 24 Richard Lanham, Analyzing Prose (New York, Charles Scribner, 1983), pp. 122–39 and passim. 25 Wāil b. Aā, Khubat Wāil b. Aā, from a MS written in the hand of Muammad b. Yūsuf al-Lakhmī, dated 587/1191, in Abd al-Salām Hārūn, ed., Nawādir al-makhūāt, Vol. I (Beirut, Dār al-Jīl, 1991), p. 148; Amad Mitā, Kitāb Mitā al-akār fī’l-nathr al-mukhtār (Cairo, Maba at Jarīdat al-Islām), 1314/1896, p. 271; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. II, p. 502. 26 Abū Ismā īl Muammad b. Abd Allāh al-Azdī al-Barī, Kitāb Futū al-Shām, ed. W.N. Lees (Calcutta, Baptist Mission Press, 1851), pp. 448–9; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. I, p. 261. 27 Nar b. Muzāim al-Minqarī, Waqat ifīn, ed. Abd al-Salām Muammad Hārūn (Cairo, Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1981), p. 10. he sermon is also cited by Abū anīfa Amad b. Dāūd al-Dīnawarī, al-Akhbār al-iwāl, ed. Iām Muammad (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al- Ilmiyya, 2001), pp. 219–20; and Ibn 334 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) 28 29 30 31 32 33 Abī’l-adīd, Shar Nahj al-balāgha, vol. III, pp. 103–4. he Qur’an reference is a modi ied quote from Sūrat al-Muminūn (Q. 23:115), Do you think we have created you without purpose, and that you will not return to us (a-fa-asibtum annamā khalaqnākum abathan wa-annakum ilaynā lā turjaūn), and Sūrat al-Qiyāma (Q. 75:36), Does the human being think that he will be let without direction, with loosened [reins] (a-yasabu’l-insānu an yutraka sudan). Minqarī, Waqat ifīn, p. 10; Dīnawarī, al-Akhbār al-iwāl, pp. 219–20; and Ibn Abī’l-adīd, Shar Nahj al-balāgha, vol. III, pp. 103–4. Ibn Abī’l-adīd, Shar Nahj al-balāgha, vol. I, pp. 346–7; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. II, p. 295. abarī, Tārīkh, vol. VI, p. 216; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. II, pp. 459–60. abarī, Tārīkh, vol. IV, p. 436; also in Raī, Nahj al-balāgha, sermon 165, pp. 341–2, and sermon 21, p. 79; Izz al-Dīn Abū’l-asan Alī b. Muammad Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī’l-tārīkh, ed. Abd Allāh al-Qāī, 11 vols (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al- Ilmiyya, 1994), vol. III, p. 85; Ismā īl b. Umar Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa’l-nihāya, 15 vols in 8 (Beirut, Maktabat al-Ma ārif, n.d.), vol. VII, p. 227; Shihāb al-Dīn Abū’l- Abbās al-Qalqashandī, ub al-ashā fī ināat al-inshā, ed. Abd al-Qādir Zakkār, 14 vols (Damascus, Wizārat al-haqāfa, 1981), vol. I, p. 258. Jāi, al-Bayān wa’l-tabyīn, vol. II, pp. 299–300; Ibn Abd Rabbih, al-Iqd al-farīd, vol. IV, p. 124; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. II, p. 181. Qur’an citations in the oration – Sūrat al-Qaa, Q. 28:1–6: ā Sīn Mīm; those are the signs of the clear book. We narrate for you a section of the report of Moses and Pharoah, presenting the truth for people who believe. Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into groups. One group of them he humiliated; he would slaughter their sons and spare their women; he was one of the disbelievers. But it was our will to bestow our favour upon those who were humiliated in the land, and to make them leaders, and to make them heirs; and to establish them in the land, and to let Pharaoh and Hāmān and their armies experience through them the very thing against which they sought to protect themselves (ā’ Sīn Mīm; tilka āyātu’l-kitābi’l-mubīn; natlū alayka min nabāi Mūsā wa irawna bi’l-aqqi li-qawmin yuminūn; inna irawna alā fī’l-ar i wa jaala ahlahā shiyaan yasta ifu āifatan minhum yadhabbiu abnāahum wa yastayī nisāahum innahu kāna min al-kāirīn; wa nurīdu an namunna alā’l-ladina’ stu ifū fī’l-ar i wa najalahum aimmatan wa najalahum al-wārithīn; wa numakkina lahum fī’l-ar i wa nuriya irawna wa Hāmāna wa junūdahumā minhum mā kānū yadharūn). Mas ūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. III, p. 11. Qur’an citations in this oration – Sūrat al-Nisā, Q. 4:59: If you quarrel about anything then refer it to God and his messenger (fa-in tanāzatum fī shayin mina’l-amri fa-ruddūhu ilā’llāhi wa ilā’l-rasūli); Sūrat al-Nisā, Q. 4:83: If they had referred it to the messenger and the people in command among them, those who derive [its meanings] would have known them (wa-law raddūhu ilā’l-rasūli wa ilā ūlī’l-amri minhum laalimahū’lladhina yastanbiūnahū minhum); Sūrat al-Anfāl, Q. 8:48: [Satan made all their doings seem good to them, and said,] ‘No one can overcome you this day, for I shall protect you!’ – but when the two armies came within sight of each other, he turned on his heels and said, ‘I am not responsible for you. I see 335 Tahera Qutbuddin 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 something that you do not see’ (lā ghāliba lakumu’l-yawma mina’l-nāsi wa-innī jārun lakum fa-lammā tarāati’l-iatāni nakaa alā aqibayhi wa qāla innī barīun minkum innī arā mā lā tarawna); and Sūrat al-Anām, Q. 6:158: Believing will be of no avail to any soul who did not believe before, or who, while believing, did no good works (lā yanfau nafsan īmānuhā lam takun āmanat min qablu aw kasabat fī īmanihā khayran). Jāi, al-Bayān wa’l-tabyīn, vol. II, pp. 126–9. he other Qur’an verses he cites are in Sūrat al-Kahf (Q. 18:45), Sūrat al-Najm (Q. 53:31), Sūrat Hūd (Q. 11:15– 16), Sūrat al-Shuarā (Q. 26:128–9) and Sūrat al-Anbiyā (Q. 21:104). his same sermon is attributed to Alī b. Abī ālib in Quā ī, A Treasury of Virtues, 3.1.1, pp. 66–7. Ibn Abd Rabbih, al-Iqd al-farīd, vol. IV, p. 108; Mas ūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. III, p. 152; afwat, Jamharat khuab al-arab, vol. II, pp. 295–6. For Alī’s sermon, see Raī, Nahj al-balāgha, sermon 218, pp. 456–61. Two other sermons of a similar format are ascribed to Alī, one on Q. 24:37 (Sūrat al-Nūr): hey are men who are not distracted by trade or commerce from worshipping God (rijālun lā tulhīhim tijāratun wa-lā bayun an dhikri’llāh) (ibid., sermon 219, pp. 462–4); and another on Q. 82:6 (Sūrat al-Iniār): O human, what has distracted you from your noble Lord? (yā ayyuhā’l-insānu mā ghar raka bi-rabbika’l-karīm) (ibid., sermon 220, pp. 464–7). For al-asan al-Barī’s sermon, see Jāi, al-Bayān wa’l-tabyīn, vol. III, p. 69. See, for example, Abū Nar Hibat Allāh b. Mūsā al-Muayyad fī’l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, al-Majālis al-muayyadiyya, 8 vols; vols 1–3 ed. ātim amīd al-Dīn (Oxford, World of Islam Studies, [1975–2005]), passim; vols 4–8, MSS, Tayyibi Da wat libraries, Mumbai and Surat. See, for example, Hugh Latimer, ‘he Sixth Sermon Preached before King Edward, April Twelth, 1549: Quaecunque scripta sunt, ad nostram doctrinam scripta sunt. Rom. xv. 4. All hings hat are Written, hey are Written to be Our Doctrine’. Available at http://anglican history.org/reformation/latimer/ sermons/edward6.html. For details of Christian expository preaching, see Otis C. Edwards Jr, A History of Preaching (Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press, 2004). For texts and an introduction to Fatimid khubas in the fourth/tenth, ith/ eleventh and sixth/twelth centuries in North Africa and Egypt, see Paul Walker, ed. and tr., Orations of the Fatimid Caliphs: Festival Sermons of the Ismaili Imams (London, I.B.Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2009). For details of khubas in the sixth/twelth through the ninth/ iteenth centuries in al-Andalus, see Linda Jones, he Power of Oratory in the Medieval Muslim World (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987). See Jāi, al-Bayān wa’l-tabyīn, vol. I, p. 118. Alā al-Dīn Alī b. Ibrāhīm al-Dimashqī Ibn al- Aār, Kitāb Adab al-khaīb, ed. Muammad b. al-usayn al-Sulaymānī (Beirut, Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1996), pp. 127–9. He characterises the ‘pillars of the sermon’ (arkān al-khuba) as praise of God, blessings on the Prophet, exhortations to piety and obedience, citations from the Qur’an and prayers for the believers. 336 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) Appendix of Qur’anic Verses Sūrat Yūnus (Q. 10:30) đк ęѲ ĪԠ ňд ęг ɢк ͌г Ͳг όк ԤđоȌ Жԟ бʉ ͌к Кг ˍԠ Ϻд đк Ȕ Ͳд ̇к Υг ʸг зЏȌ ͽг Цд p. 318 đк Ȕ дКȌ Ϻг Ȍ Жԟ ˔к Ήд ͽк ϡг ˍԟ Ϙг ęг ʴԣ ̞г Џк ĕ˔д Цд гԽԲȔк Жг ˨з ԟͲ Џĕɛ Џг зрđ ҡǰę г ȴд ̈г ͌к Αг Sūrat Āl Imrān (Q. 3:140) p. 319 ˨д Ͳд ̉к Жԣ ƌЯ ȴк ϶г Ǩг Ȕк ͙г Џк ĕʉ ԟ Жг кȥ ͙г ϩг ƌЯ ȴк ϶г ˔к ͝д ̯к ̯г ͹к Αг ǰзрđ Ɲ з Ȍ ԟͽ Џĕ˜г ˴к Τг Ȍ Ήг дЏęз đгȥ дКǨд Ȍ ԟΑԤԽԲĕʸг Ͳк зΥęг Sūrat al-af (Q. 61:9) and Sūrat al-Tawba (Q. 9:33) Ǽд ȴг Ήз ́к ˴д зЏʴԣ ̞г Џк ĕ з˜ΑĪз ęг  эůгȥ Ήд Џк Ȑ зΤ˨д Џг Ȕ όд ňг ˍг όг ňк Ԥđp. 320 ҡǰȔд г Ϻȴз к̰ ͹д Џк ĕǼг ȴз Ϻг Ȕк Џг ęг ˨з ԣͲ Ϻд  з˜Αԣȥ Џĕɛ Ͳг ϡг Sūrat ā Hā (Q. 20:4–6) ɛ Ͳг ϡг ˜д э ȇ ͹г λк ȴԟ Џĕҡɛ Ͳг ̈́д Џк ĕŶз Ȕэ г ͹э г ̯Џĕ г p. 320 ԟ ʴг Ͳг μ Ȍ Жг ęг Ŷз Ȕэ г ͹э г ̯ЏĕɎ к ƞȴк ̈́г Џк ĕ ԟ зϩȌ Жг ˨д Џг ҡ эůȔг ̈г όĕз ҡ эůȴг ԟ̉ Џĕɢг ̞к Υг Ȍ Жг ęг Ȍ ͹г Ήд ͽг ˴к Τг Ȍ Жг ęг зƩňк ԤԽԲĕɎ зϩ Sūrat Yūnus (Q. 10:71) đк ȔѲ ̻д ϶к ĕ˔ԟ дΦˬЮ ͹ԟ Ϣд ˔к ͝д ˴к Ͳг ϡг ˔к Ϻд ȴд Жк Ԥđ˜к ͝д Αг гԽԲ˔ԟ дΦp. 321 з дΥгԽԲęг Ɏԟ Џг зрđ ҡǰę г ȴд ́ͽ p. 321 ɛ ԟЏȔг ̈г Αг Ȕг Цд ęг ŵȌ г ̈г ͝з Џк ĕ гǡȵԟ Кг ŢȦз ԟЏĕ˨д ԟͲ ЏĕɎȇг ˴ԣ зЏęг ǰԟ зрđ ҡ˜˴ ԟ г ̞з зЏȌ ̺Џĕ Sūrat al-Arāf (Q. 7:196) Sūrat Hūd (Q. 11:61) Ǽд ȴд ˴к Ϣг ˨б э ȇ Џг зрđ˜к Жԣ ˔к ͝д Џг Ȍ Жг ˨г ԟͲ Џĕđк ęȥд ̇д ϡк ĕǨз Ȕк ͙г эΑp. 323 Ȍ Ή˴г зϩ˔к Ϻд ȴг ͹г ̈́к ̈г όĕк ęг зƩňк ԤԽԲĕ˜г Жԣ ˔к Ϻд ԤȌ г̰КԤđȔг Цд  ɡ˴ к ϩ Я ̝з ЖԠ ɡΑз Я ȴ ϶г Ɏ ԣΤňг ǰԟ зрđ˨з ˴к Џг зрđđк ȔѲ Τд Ȕ дΥ˔ԟ дΦǼд ęȴд ͌з ͅк ̈г όȐг ҡ 337 Tahera Qutbuddin Sūrat al-alāq (Q. 65:5) p. 325 ˨д Џг ˔к ́з ̈́к Αд ęг ˨з зΥȌ ˳г ˴ԣ ό г ˨д ͽк ϡг ȴк ͌ԣ ͝г Αд ˨г ԟͲ Џĕ зʴ ԟ̈ Αг ˜ Жг  ҡЮđȴ κк Ԥđ Sūrat al-Māida (Q. 5:100) з ̇г Џк ԤԽԲđɎЏęԥđȌΑ˨г ͲЏđđȔ ͙д ԟΥđę p. 325 ǰȔк ̞д Ͳз ͌к дΥ˔к ͝д ԟͲ ̈́г Џг ŵȌ Sūrat al-Zalzala (Q. 99:7–8) đЮ ȴ ˴к μ г ǿб ňԟ īг  гǡȌ ͙г ̉к Жз ˍк ͹г ̈́к Αг ˜ ͹г ϩг p. 325 ҡǼд ȴг Αг Юđȴй гύǿб ňԟ īг  гǡȌ ͙г ̉к Жз ˍк ͹г ȇ ̈́к Αг ˜ Жг ęг ҡǼд ȴг Αг Sūrat al-Ankabūt (Q. 29:64) đк Ȕ дКȌ Ϻг Ȕк Џг ǰд đȔг ˴г ̞г Џк ĕɎг Ήз Џг гǿȴг μз оԽԲĕňг đԟȥ Џĕǰԟ зрđęг p. 326 ҡǰȔ г ͹д Ͳг ̈́к Αг Sūrat al-āfāt (Q. 37:171–3) Sūrat al-Tawba (Q. 9:84) Sūrat al-Anfāl (Q. 8:26) Sūrat al-Qaa (Q. 28:58) p. 326 ҡ˜˴ г Ͳз όг ȴк ͹д Џк ĕȌ Кг Īз Ȍ ̇г ̈́з зЏȌ ͽг ̈д ͹г Ͳз Ϻг ɢк ͙г ̇г όк г ȥ ͙г Џг ęг  ˔д Ήд Џг Ȍ Кг ȥг ͽ κд ǰԟ зрđęг ҡǰę г ňд Ȕ ̺ͽ д ͹г Џк ĕ˔д Ήд Џг ˔к Ήд ԟКзрđ ҡǰȔ г ̇д зЏȌ ͅг Џк ĕ ˔к ͙д Υг гԽԲęг Юđȥ Τг ԤđŶȌ г Жԟ ˔ Ήд ͽк Жԣ ȥб λг Ԥđɛэ Ͳг ϡг ˍԣ ̺г дΥгԽԲęг p. 327 đк Ȕ дΥȌ Жг ęг ˨з зЏȔ όд ňг ęг ˨з ԟͲ ЏȐ зΤđк ęȴд ͌г Ϻг ˔к Ήд ԟКзрđǼз ȴз ̇к ϶г ɛэ Ͳг ϡг  з ϩ˔к Цд ęг ҡǰȔ г ͙д όȌг Ʃ з ňк ԤԽԲĕɎ зϩǰȔ г ͌д ̈́г ̻к ̈г ̯к ЖԠ ˍЯ ˴ Ͳз ϶г ˔к ̈д КԤđīк зрđđк ęѲ ȴд Ϻд īк ĕęг p. 328 ˔дϺȥг ԟΑԤđęг ˔к Ϻд đęг оȌ ϩг ƝȌ г ϩȌ ̟г Υг  д ԟͽ Џĕ˔д ͝д ͌г ̀ԟ ̟г ̈г Αг ǰԤđǰȔд з ̇г ˴ԣ ̀ԟ Џĕ˜г Жԣ ˔к ͝д ϶г ʼnг ňг ęг Ǽз ȴз ̺к ͽг зΤ ˔к ͝д ԟͲ ̈́г Џг ŶȌ ҡǰę г ȴд ͝д к̰ Υг й ԽԲрđ˔Цȥз ̈́к Τг ˜к Жз ˜к ͝г ̯к дΥ˔Џ˔к Ή ͽд ϺȌ̯ Жг ʸг Ͳк ̈з ϩг pp. 329–30 ҡ˜˴ΦňđȔ Џđ˜̞КȌ йͽ Ϻд ęЮՏՄ˴Ͳ϶ д 338 Qur’an Citation in Early Arabic Oration (Khut.ba) Sūrat al-Taghābun (Q. 64:16) p. 330 ˔к ̈д ̈́к ̀г ̈г όĕȌ к Жг ˨г ԟͲ Џĕđк Ȕ ͙д ԟΥĕ Sūrat al-Takāthur (Q. 102:1–2) ҡȴг зΤȌ ͙г ͹г Џк ĕ˔д дΥňк ʼnд ɛэ ԟ̈ λҡ ȴд дΦȌ ͝ԟ ԟ̈ Џĕ˔д Ϻд Ȍ Ήг Џк Ԥđ p. 330 г Sūrat al-Zumar (Q. 39:37) ˍԞ ̻з ЖԠ ˜ Жз ˨д Џг Ȍ ͹г ϩг ˨д ԟͲ Џĕȥз Ήк Αг ˜ Жг ęг p.n. 333, 13 Sūrat al-Rad (Q. 13:33) Sūrat al-Zumar (Q. 39:23, 36) Sūrat al-Ghāir (Q. 40:33) Īб Ȍ Цг ˜к Жз ˨д Џг Ȍ ͹г ϩг ˨д ԟͲ Џĕˍ Ͳз ̻к Αд ˜к Жг ę p.n. 333, 13 Sūrat al-Muminūn (Q. 23:115) Ȍ ͽг ˴к Џг зрđ˔к ͝д ԟКԤđęг ЮȌ ̉ ̇г ϡг ˔к Ϻд Ȍ ͽг ͙к Ͳг μȌ г ͹г ԟКԤđ˔к ̈д ̇к ̯з ̞гг ϩԤđp.n. 333, 27 ҡǰȔ г ̈́д κг ȴк дΥгԽԲ Sūrat al-Qiyāma (Q. 75:36) p. 333, ůЮȥ ό д гnjȴг ̈к Αд ǰԤđǰд Ȍ ̯К г Խзр Բк đɡд ̯г ̞к Αг Ԥđ n. 27 Sūrat al-Nisā (Q. 4:59) з όд ȴԟ Џĕęг ˨з ԟͲ Џĕɛ Џг зрđǼд ęĪԠ ȴд ϩг Ȅб Ɏк гύɎ зϩ˔к ̈д ϡк ʼnг Ȍ ͽг Υг ǰзȌр ϩг p. 335 ǡȔ Sūrat al-Nisā (Q. 4:83) з όд ȴԟ Џĕɛ Џг зрđǼд ęĪԠ ňг Ȕк Џг ęг p. 335, ˔к Ήд ͽк Жзз ȴ Жк ԤԽԲĕɎ зЏęк ԥđɛэ Џг зрđęг ǡȔ n. 33 з з ԟ г ˔к Ήд ͽк Жз ˨д Кг Ȕ ̀д ̇з ͽк ̈г ̯к Αг ˜Α Ȧ Џ ĕ ˨ ͹ Ͳ ̈́ Џ д г г г 339 Tahera Qutbuddin Sūrat al-Anfāl (Q. 8:48) Sūrat al-Anām (Q. 6:158) Sūrat al-Nūr (Q. 24:37) Sūrat al-Iniār (Q. 82:6) pp. 335–6, ňЯ Ȍ κɎԣ г Кзрđęг зƝȌ ԟͽ Џĕ˜г Жз Ǩг Ȕк ˴г Џк ĕ˔д ͝д Џг ɡг зЏȌ Ϣг гԽԲn. 33 ˨з ˴к ̇г ͙з ϡг ɛэ Ͳг ϡг ʔ г ͝г Кг ǰȌз ̈г ˳г ͌з Џк ĕŶз Ȅг оđȴг Υг Ȍ ͹ԟ Ͳг ϩг ˔к ͝д ԟЏ ǰг ęк ȴг Υг гԽԲȌ Жг  эůňг ԤđɎԟѲ Кзрđ˔к ͝д ͽк Жԣ ЯȄŢзѲ ȴ Τг ɎԣКзрđ гǡȌг϶ęг ˜ Жз ɢк ͽг Жг đȄг ˜к ͝д Υг ˔к Џг Ȍ Ήг ͽд ͹э г ΑзрđЮȌ ̯ ͌к Кг ʞд ͌г ͽ Αг ԽԲp.n. 336, 33 Юđȴ ˴к μȌ г Ήг ͽз ͹э г ΑзрđɎѲ зϩɢк ̇г ̯г Ϻг ęк Ԥđˍд ̇к ϶г ˨з ԟͲ Џĕзȴ Ϻк īз ˜ ϡг ʞЯ ˴к Τг гԽԲęг Яǿňг Ȍ ̝г зΥ˔к Ήз ˴ Ήз Ͳк дΥԟԽԲЯǡȌ κзг ň p.n. 336, 36 э г ԽԲĕȌ зр Ήг ԠΑԤȌ эΑ p. 336, ҡ˔з Αзȴ ͝г Џк ĕʸг ԣΤȴг зΤ гnjȴԟ Ϣг Ȍ Жг ˜д ̯К n. 36 340