General Overview of Organized Crime Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

General Overview of Organized Crime - Term Paper Example Knowing its structure and operation could spell the difference between life and death both for those who are meant to put them down and to those who may be their unfortunate targets or victims. Proactively defending against them, or courageously advocating and fighting against them require a broad understanding of their inner workings. Websters-online-dictionary defines organized crime as "underworld organization". It further defines underworld as "criminal class". These definitions presupposed a definite group of people within but underneath the class structure of society who are formed into organizations engaged in unlawful activities. A more detailed and definite definition of organized crime, however, has become problematic because of their variety and diversity (Lampe). Lampe collected over 100 definitions one among is that by Albanese which attempted to summarize three decades of literature into the following definition: "Organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit activities; its continuing existence is maintained through the use of force, threats, monopoly control, and/or the corruption of public officials." (Lampe, Albanese, 2000: 411). An overview of organized crime and its structure as a worldwide phenomenon can be gleaned from a paper on the Russian organized crime around the world presented by Margaret E. Beare. She cited the three-legged tripod depiction of organized crime by the Canadian police as "being like a three-legged tripod" consisting of "the bureaucracy including politicians and security officials, underground business persons, and the professional criminals". And the merging of these three into one entity makes them a formidable enemy of the law.  Ã‚   The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, however, reports the more flexible and diversified structure of organized crime groups.  

Immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Immigration - Essay Example To name a few, high wages, enhanced social mobility and raised social status are the important ones. The readiness of the employers to hire undocumented workers is a guarantee to the prospective illegal immigrant for the life he/she aspires. Throughout the history of America, people of differing ideologies have generally agreed on immigration controls. Public opinion polls have continually shown an overwhelming opposition to illegal immigration as well as for the concept of amnesty. The most persuasive rationale to be in opposition to this latest bill again does not respect the rule of law. There have been controversies regarding the political loyalties, work habits and moral values of the immigrants. Amnesty for illegal aliens is the cornerstone of both John McCain and Barack Obama’s immigration policy. Amnesty is merely a reward for law-breaking and by whatever name, causes ever escalating future illegal immigration. â€Å"No system depending on a strict regard for the rule of law can treat law-breaking so casually† (Erler, 2004). Those who favor amnesty for illegal aliens, specifically those crossing the southern border do not seem to realize that a crime has been committed and not, as they might have you believe, one without a victim. A cluster of criminal activities exist in order to make illegal immigration possible. Since the deportation of illegal immigrants is not a criminal activity, it is more of an administrative function than a judicial one. Therefore, an efficient executive branch is central to the right handling of the issue of illegal immigration. The executive branch is charged with enforcing the law pertaining to illegal immigration. Nevertheless, none of the Presidential candidates has pledged to make the executive proactive against illegal immigration. It is often noted by many an observer that the number of illegal immigrants is outpacing the number of legal ones and it is a rapidly growing

Political Development Essay Example for Free

Political Development Essay Morocco is located in North Africa at the border of Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea . Onto the south it neighbors Western Sahara and due east with Algeria. Its terrain consists of mountain, desert and coastal plain with only about 21% of total land which is productive . The people in the region basically comprise of the Berber, Arab, African, Spanish and French. Morocco is considered to be one of the most westernized Islamic nations. Its population is close to thirty million with a population growth rate of 2% per annum . Arabic is general spoken language. The Southern parts of Morocco uses French while in the Northern parts, Spanish and French are commonly used languages. English language is a new language which is being introduced in the country. Majority of the population are Muslim affiliates and number of Jewish, while in northern parts especially those who speak Spanish and French, a greater portion belong to catholic religion. Morocco’s economy is that of liberal in nature which follows the dictates of demand and supply. Privatization policy is not a new phenomenon as some of the sectors were handed down to the hand of private sectors. However, its economy is characterized by relatively slow economic growth and inflation rate. Basically, employment largely anchors at agricultural sector which is never reliable due inadequate rains . Unemployment is escalating generally, affecting majority of the youths especially in urban areas . Social evils such as trafficking of young women and girls for prostitution and domestic service and sexual abuse are the characteristic phenomena in Morocco besides high level of illiteracy, and unemployment . Non-Governmental Organizations refers to lawfully constituted organizations that operate independently from the government. There are some Non –Governmental Organizations which acts as donor and or development partners depending on the charter of their mandates. Virtually all of the Non-Governmental Organizations acts on humanitarian grounds focusing on alleviating human suffering by improving the human welfare for quality living. Some Non-Governmental organizations operates on a large scale where they may cover a very large geographical region, while still others operate at national level or in limited areas within a country . International Non-Governmental Organizations cover several geographical regions as their scope of operation while local Non –Governmental Organizations usually operate within the country or in some parts of the country International and Local NGOs in Morocco: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is one of the International Non-Governmental Organizations that has intensified its work in the country of Morocco through an economic program. Since Morocco has a liberal economy, it is governed by the law of supply and demands. In the context of globalization, farmers in the country would have faced cut-throat competition after agricultural tariffs were lowered as result of trade agreement between USA and Morocco. To save the farmers from such agony, USAID works with the farmers to have their crop yields improved and creates alternative jobs in form of industries to avert overdependence on farming as the only way of employment. It assists by linking export business to competitively get into the US market in ways such as by cutting down the numbers of days officially needed to register the business from sixty to eleven. This was actualized when USAID got into the microfinance field in Morocco. It had two prime objectives. One was to start a microfinance institution that would be self sustainable and grow to support the farmers and businessmen’s need. The second one was to foster policy that could favor this establishment of microfinance sector. All of its efforts toward making true these objectives were very successful due to its technical skills it possessed and its full commitment for these projects’ sustainability to serving large number of the poor . This has been witnessed particularly for the last seven year of its operation. Besides improvement of economic growth of Moroccans, it also featured in improving education level by increasing access to quality education and relevant basic education to all. This was because there has been high illiteracy level in the country. To achieve this USAID used ‘school-to-work’ approach by ensuring linkage between training and employments at various levels. Basic education has much attention on achieving high retention rates to ninth grade and possible equipping the learners at this level to adaptable skills for the next level. It lays more emphasis on courses such as information technology and tourism in technical colleges as the country has prominent tourist attraction sites and this is geared to promote tourism industry in the country. Global Rights is an International Non-Governmental Organization that partners for justice through advocacy of human right by collaborating with local activists. They speak to make heard injustices done at global level. It deals with legal and human rights education comprehensively from semiliterate to illiterate women from all walks of life in Morocco. This initiative aims to empower women to know their collective and individual rights so as to be assertive to these right and give them power in decision making in all matters affecting them, be it in household, community, national or at global level. So far the program has reached thousands of women across the country. By so doing the initiative aims at curbing alarming number of young women and girls at risk of human trafficking for prostitution and domestic service in the region. Besides human trafficking in different parts of Morocco, there has been an increase in cases of sexual abuse among young women and girls. Therefore, this necessitated direct service and intensive advocacy . Increased access to information has been deemed to be one of the successful approaches particularly starting with community liaisons, lawyers, teacher, researchers and the at-risk population and entire community would help curb such vices. Food and Agricultural Organization has not been new in Morocco. This country having been relying heavily on the agricultural sector for employment, much is needed to be done to revive the sluggish economic growth of the country . Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is the United Nation’s agency that is involved in collecting, analyzing and interpreting and sharing the information with relevant stakeholders related to agriculture and nutrition. It is barely four months when an outbreak that posed threat to sheep and goats was announced in Morocco. In the month of September peste des petites (PRR) threatened to kill about a million sheep and goats where a hundred and thirty three outbreaks were reported within twenty nine provinces of Morocco. Being a viral causative agent and a very contagious to all ruminants, about 17 and 5 million sheep and goats respectively were at stake . This could be translated to loss of family livelihoods as so many of them depended on this. In response to this, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) took drastic measures after receiving request from the government to beef up the interventions. This made FAO’S Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) to convene a two-day meeting in Tunisia to chart the way forward over the situation. During the two-day summit, it was collectively agreed to help the Morocco government to prepare an emergency plan and see its implementation together with appropriate coordination with veterinary services of Maghreb among others from neighborhood countries. Right now FAO is in the advanced stage of setting up an urgent regional cooperation project. Control measures that were taken necessitated quarantine of suspected or affected farms and institutions and make urgent review of animal disease emergency contingency plans as well as raise awareness on the outbreak of the disease by all stakeholders concerning its risks and clinical signs. This is the latest development that FAO has been able to undertake in Morocco. Besides, livestock production, in the sector of agriculture, F. A. O has been in the forefront to see the country is in the process of achieving the millennium goal number one; that of eradication of extreme poverty and hunger through adoption of new innovations such as high yield, and fast growing crops that are drought tolerance. This will enable the country to attain level of food and nutrition security required. Use of biotechnology which has been witnessed in Nigeria where cassava clones are being propagated as disease free plants for the higher yields, are now incorporated in Morocco. World Food Program is the world’s largest humanitarian body. World Food Program is on a global campaign to ensure undernourished school going children are educated through its school feeding program. During worst time when there is total crop failure in Morocco, it has severally responded by providing relief food to the regions that needs emergency intervention. Community Based Organizations are local non-governmental organizations which are found in Morocco just like in other third world developing countries. Community based organizations collaborate with International Non-Governmental Organization and are the ground players. International Non-Governmental Organization for sustainable development make use of local organizations so that without setting other new parallel programs they can build on the existing system and facilitate on capacity building of the community. Faith Based Organization is a local non-governmental organization that has particular religious group affiliation. For instance, in northern parts of Morocco there is significant number of Christians who have come together to form faith based organizations to cater for the needs of their less fortunate member in time of need. Conclusion Non-governmental organizations primarily have humanitarian affair at their centre of focus. They feature on development transformation of community in which they are operating on. According to the transformational development indicators, the lives of many communities in different parts of the country have really improved. The level of illiteracy has decreased as a result of increased enrollment and retentions in schools . School- to- work approach has created job linkages among youths as a way of fighting unemployment in the country. Through, improving agriculture and easy accessibility to credit facilities, farmers are able to get good returns while others are able to diversify their income. This has seen improvement of living standard of the community. References: Agnaou Fatima, (2004); Gender, Literacy, and Empowerment in Morocco. ISBN 0415947650, 9780415947657, Routledge Davis K. Diana, (2006); Neoliberalism, Environmentalism, and Agricultural Restructuring in Morocco. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 172 Facts about Morocco, (2008). Retrieved on 16th November 2008 from: http://cc. msnscache. com/cache. aspx? q=morocco+factsd=74397575479858mkt=en-USsetlang=en-USw=1d93f448,870bb89e Fisher Julie, (1998); Nongovernments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World. ISBN 1565490754, 9781565490758, Published by Kumarian Press Kourous George Omolo Dominic, (2008); Outbreak of peste des petits ruminants in Morocco. Retrieved on 16th November 2008 from: http://www. fao. org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000918/index. html USAID/Morocco, (2004); Annual Report. Retrieved on 16th November 2008 from: http://pdf. dec. org/pdf_docs/PDACA063. pdf

Supply Chain Strategy Of Colgate Palmolive Commerce Essay

Supply Chain Strategy Of Colgate Palmolive Commerce Essay An organization strives to be the leader in its industry by following a well-designed strategy that incorporates the company mission, vision, values, goals and objectives so that it can attain its long-term competitive position in the market. One of the vital elements of any business organization is its supply chain strategy and it needs to be properly aligned with the business strategy (Bhardwaj Mitra, 2010). Any company that does not have a well-integrated Supply Chain Management (SCM) strategy is unable to successfully meet the demands of its target market. The SCM strategy ensures that the logistics of the company are planned out in advance so that there is adequate supply of raw materials, minimum level of inventory is maintained and the supply chain operations cost is reduced; all of these measures ensure that an organization is able to generate an appropriate amount of profit and maintain its strong position in the industry (Cho et al., 2011). Every strategy in the SCM comprises of the plan that the company will implement for achieving its goal of capturing the target market and enhancing the satisfaction level of consumers. According to Sehgal (2011), the success of a supply chain strategy mandates the adoption of SCM strategy that is properly aligned with the organizations business strategy and ensures that its resources and capabilities are utilized in highly effective manner. The business strategy of a company is defined as the key element that guides the organization in making decisions that are compatible with the requirements of its objectives so that it can make successful progression and improve its profitability effectively. It is believed that SCM strategy is highly dependent on the business strategy as it is the basis on which most of the companies want to compete in the market and gain competitive edge for long period (Elgazaar et al., 2012). For instance, if a company is offering customized products like Dell, then it will have to ensure that it has an efficient and coordinated SCM strategy which will assist it in fulfilling the demands of the customers perfectly and on time. If Dell faces shortage of key parts or prices of its raw materials rise significantly, then it will be unable to offer the products at reasonable prices. However, the success of Dell is largely dependent on the development of an effective SCM strategy that is compatible with its business objective of offering customized products to the consumers at cheap rates with the fastest delivery process (Green, Whitten Inman, 2011). As the raw material issues are being faced by the companies worldwide, it has become important for every organization to enter into contractual agreements with the suppliers so that it can minimize its risk of facing any raw material shortage in its business tenure (). With the help of variable cost agreement, both the buyer and seller will have a win-win situation; each party will get exposure to the advantages of changes in the price. The seller is protected from the increase in price that could have eroded the margins and the buyer can avail the low priced product if the price of commodity declines during the period of a contract (Business for Social Responsibility, 2008). Hence, an SCM strategy should be developed in accordance with the organizations vision, mission and goals so that it is compatible with its business strategy and provide support to the company for fulfilling its promise of delivering the products and services within agreed time period (Elmeziane, Chuanmin, Elmeziane, 2011). It is vital for every firm to realize that if the supply chain strategy lacks alignment with the business strategy then there are huge chances that its business operations get severely impacted; in some extreme cases, the companies have undergone bankruptcy as well. Introduction of Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive is among the leading Multinational Corporations that has been give top ranking in the consumer products category. It has its headquarters in New York and it is believed to have an asset of $94 billion that comprises of all its products that it is selling in more than two hundred countries. Colgate-Palmolive is involved in the business of manufacturing and selling of various consumer products that comprise of cleaning products, soaps, toothpastes and pet supplies; it has broadly classified its products into two categories i.e. Oral, Personal and Home Care and Pet Nutrition (Supply Chain Management, 2012). Since the company has its operations in various regions across the globe, it is of immense importance to have a well-integrated system that will help in efficient and quick exchange of valuable data and information. Initially, Colgate-Palmolive had a decentralized structure that was creating many issues in its business operations especially in Supply Chain Management (SCM). In November 1999, the management team of the company decided to revamp its IT infrastructure by implementing a unique and innovative system that ensured integration of every function throughout the organization across all its operational activities on international level (Bolstroff, Rosenbaum, 2011). The global SCM system of Colgate-Palmolive has been replaced with SAP R/3 solution so that it can capitalize on its resources along with enhancement of the global SCM management so that the retailers, customers and management were provided service of superior quality, inventory cost was controlled to a great extent and revenue stream started to increase at a good pace (Blanchard, 2010). Colgate-Palmolive vision and core values The vision statement of Colgate-Palmolive is To offer products on the basis of three core values i.e. global teamwork, caring attitude and improvement on continuous basis. The core values of the company are as follows: To offer growth opportunities to the companys employees both on professional and personal levels. To fulfill all Corporate Social Responsibilities as a key member of the community on global level. To enhance the value of shareholders. To develop processes and policies that will ensure that the company is able to strengthen its position in the market and respective industry. To explore all latest initiatives and opportunities that are existing in the market. Supply Chain Structure of Colgate-Palmolive In order to solve the main issue of Colgate-Palmolive, Colgates global supply chain system was developed; the three key supply chain strategies that formed the basis of this system. The first one was the introduction of the Vendor Inventory Control (VMI) product so that there was a decline in the inventory channel and timing of the cycle as well. The second strategy was the implementation of a resource planning system at cross-border level so that regional models were developed for the international patterns; it ensured that the company had adequate pool of assets so that there was a balance with the companys business strategy. The last and final strategy was implementation of a collaborative program that ensured there was a well-balanced downstream business system for effective management of the market demand of supply chain along with effective coordination of the systems activities. With the help of new system, everyone in the organization is well-aware of the supply chain statistics; the IT system has enhanced the companys SCM system which has helped in utilizing the supply chain information with accuracy so that the consumers always had easy access to the products and the shortage problems was reduced by 50% in the first three months of the SAP R/3 implementation. Global Resource Utilization in Colgate-Palmolive When new and innovative systems were installed in the company that comprised of SAP R/3 ERP software along with Oracle related DBMS (Database Management System) and Solaris Operating System developed by the Sun hardware platform, the company was able to take advantage of a well-integrated system. Colgate-Palmolive was able to integrate with its cross-regional resource use systems (CBS) demand and resource information about the international demand effectively. Since the input was rapid, there was an increase in the number of shipments, reduction in the number of improper or incomplete orders and a significant decline in the number of inventory. With the help of the latest SCM system, the suppliers had developed direct links with the companys production unit and they were responsible for effective management of resources at the distribution centers for supplementing Colgate-Palmolive business operations. This new system is based on the order flow of the customers and driven by the distribution centers of Colgate around the globe as the suppliers are now directly supplying the products. The business control procedures in CBS are supported by SCM system of SAP that is heavily dependent on the signals of daily demand along with the replenishment orders of inventory which are determined by the calculation. With the help of this system, the supply and demand level is maintained at a consistent level that helps the company in being more responsive to the fulfillment of special orders. It has been observed by the company that there is a significant reduction in the forecast inaccuracy, product inventory level is reduced, increase in the number of orders fulfillment, reduction in cycle time and the completed orders rate is further enhanced. The SCM strategy has three main elements for real-time integration model i.e. SAP support system for stock, orders and other indices of market, real information about the customer order demands and effective integration of ERP, SCM and CRM systems. The company is aiming that the SCM strategy is effectively implemented in all its firms across the globe; VMI, collaborative engine and CBS are applied to all shopping malls and brands so that effectiveness of SCM can be managed effectively. As the supply chain information is more visible, there are high chances that the company has access to timely, consistent and accurate data that will ensure that the planning decisions are made efficiently so that the company is able to achieve its goals successfully. In order to ensure that there is an effective decision-making process throughout the enterprise, Business Intelligence System will allow Colgate-Palmolive to have quick access to precise and consistent data. With the help of SCM system, the company will be able to enhance its market competitiveness along with strengthening its position in the global business development, gaining competitive edge in the price war and marketing its products in a strategic way. In order to enhance its business operations, Colgate has integrated its e-enterprise by developing cordial and closer relations with its partners and customers. Conclusion For every organization, it is important to have a well-integrated SCM system that will ensure that its supply chain strategy is complementing the business strategy. With the help of an effective SCM system, Colgate and its consumers and partners can have quicker and on-time orders, production planning and inventory management is effective done, order fulfillment rate increases at a higher level, forecasting is efficiently completed and performance of the company can be easily monitored. Hence, Colgate-Palmolive has completely revamped its SCM structure so that it can maintain its image as a global leader in the consumer products market by fulfilling all orders on time and controlling the costs that will help it to make investment in other alternatives for further expansion decisions. Therefore, an effective SCM system is one that is aligned with the business strategy which will ensure that the company is able to achieve its objectives effectively, productively and profitability.

School Uniforms and Their Effect on Education Essay -- Argumentative P

School Uniforms and Their Effect on Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Going to public schools all my life, I heard the gossip of "fashion" and "whose wearing what,"pretty much everyday; at least in the four years of high school where it seemed that looks mattered the most. As people grow up, the way they present themselves becomes more and more important. Leaving a good mark in high school means a lot to some people, and some are ready to do whatever it takes to make that mark, whether it be putting someone down for their clothing or being an individual and not caring what others think of you or what your wearing. Having friends from middle school that branched out and went the alternative route; private schools, one of the first things that came back to me from them was how much easier it was to having a uniform to wear to school. Going to a school where uniforms are strictly enforced can help to create a better learning environment. Having uniforms would call for a lot less distraction in the classroom, there would be much more ti me for homework and there would not be as many problems concerning the wear of inappropriate clothing to take away from school time. A quote from the essay, â€Å"The Achievement of Desire,† by Richard Rodriguez fits particularly well in this essay. â€Å"Get all the education you can, with an education you can do anything.† This just doesn’t seem like the main idea to many kids anymore and I think that uniforms would help to bring that thought back into a lot of our heads. I know that the idea of wearing a uniform repulses many people, but when broken down, school uniforms really do seem like the way to go.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If it was a requirement to wear a uniform to school, there would be many more kids paying attention in classes. Looking around the classroom at what other kids are wearing is a great way to make time fly by. If everyone was wearing the same things, then the distraction of different clothing would be eliminated. Many people worry that uniforms would take away the opportunity for kids to be who they are or who they want to be, but I feel as though wearing uniforms would simply force kids to show their individualism in ways outside of fashion and appearance. When looking at an Opinion Board on the internet I came across the idea that visually uniforms result in a more equal and adult treatment of students, eliminating any idea that one student i... ...yles and be up on fashion, does it really seem worth it to risk getting simply an "ok" education? Where are those priorities of school work and studying for a test when you are out shopping at the mall? In the end it really does make the most sense to simply suck up the idea of wearing the same thing as every other girl or boy at your school and leave with a better education, and a better sense of seeing people for what and who they really are; not what they are or aren’t wearing. Imagining the idea of a school that one does not have to worry about what kids will say about their outfits, about whether or not what they are wearing is appropriate for school grounds or getting to the mall after school to buy that new sweater they saw in the A&F catalogue (which means blowing off that tutoring secession they had to help raise their math grade), seems so far from reality and all that I knew in high school, yet at the same time seems like the ideal way to spend those four import ant years of high school, those four years in which all of your hard work pays off and gets you accepted into the number one college of your choice. That sounds like the perfect four years of high school to me.

Arising of Magic Realism Through Allusions to the Bible and Tragedians

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, is a novel often associated with magic realism. Throughout the novel, the idea of magic realism is promoted through intertext examples of The Bible. Magic realism is defined as an artistic style in which magical elements or irrational scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or "normal" setting. The many intertextual examples throughout the work are alluded from outside sources such as the Bible and the tragedians of the Greeks and Romans. These allusions not only strengthen the novel, but further correlate them with the idea of magic realism. Magic realism, as defined by Wendy Faris, contains five key elements which must be present for this component to ring true in a piece of literature. The first key element is the novel contains â€Å"†¦something we cannot explain according to the laws of the universe as we know them† (Faris 167). Throughout the novel, several examples which make this constituent true are present. For example, when Jose Arcadia Buendia’s murder occurs and his blood runs through the streets to Ursula’s home, Marquez writes, â€Å"A trickle of blood came out under the door, crossed the living room, went out into the street, continued on in a straight line across the uneven terraces, went down steps and climbed up curbs†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Marquez 144). In reality, as readers, it is known that blood cannot travel long distances or climb objects. Remedios the Beauty’s accession to Heaven is another form in which a particular scene cannot be explained by particular laws a s we know them. Marquez writes â€Å"Amaranta felt a mysterious trembling in the lace on her petticoats and she tried to grasp the sheet so that she would not fall down at the instant in which Remedi... ...n theme found throughout many fiction novels. According to Faris’ five key elements, this novel is indeed a tale of enchanting pragmatism. The novel’s intertextual examples developed by character similarities and actual events from the Bible and Greek mythology and tragedies are woven in the novel in such a way that the reader is oblivious to the fact that they truly exist. As the future scurries upon us, the theme of magic realism will continue to flourish many novels to come. Works Cited Access Bible, The. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Fitzgerald, Robert. Translator Homer. The Iliad. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 2007. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998. Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy Faris. Magical Realism: Theory, History,Community. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Arabic Literature

Arabic literature Main article:  Arabic literature Main article:  Literature of Morocco Ibn Tufail  (Abubacer) and  Ibn al-Nafis  were pioneers of the  philosophical novel. Ibn Tufail wrote the first fictional Arabic  novel  Hayy ibn Yaqdhan  (Philosophus Autodidactus) as a response to  al-Ghazali's  The Incoherence of the Philosophers, and then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a novel  Theologus Autodidactus  as a response to Ibn Tufail's  Philosophus Autodidactus.Both of these narratives had  protagonists(Hayy in  Philosophus Autodidactus  and Kamil in  Theologus Autodidactus) who were  autodidactic  feral children  living in seclusion on adesert island, both being the earliest examples of a desert island story. However, while Hayy lives alone with animals on the desert island for the rest of the story in  Philosophus Autodidactus, the story of Kamil extends beyond the desert island setting in  Theologus Autodidactus, developing into the earlies t known  coming of age  plot and eventually becoming the first example of a  science fictionnovel. 17][18] Theologus Autodidactus, written by the  Arabian  polymath  Ibn al-Nafis  (1213–1288), is the first example of a science fiction novel. It deals with various science fiction elements such as  spontaneous generation,  futurology, the  end of the world and doomsday,resurrection, and the  afterlife. Rather than giving supernatural or mythological explanations for these events, Ibn al-Nafis attempted to explain these plot elements using the  scientific knowledge  of  biology,  astronomy,  cosmology  and  geology  known in his time.His main purpose behind this science fiction work was to explain  Islamic  religious teachings in terms of  science  and  philosophy  through the use of fiction. [19] A  Latin  translation of Ibn Tufail's work,  Philosophus Autodidactus, first appeared in 1671, prepared by  Edward Pococke   the Younger, followed by an English translation by  Simon Ockley  in 1708, as well as  German  and  Dutch  translations. These translations later inspired  Daniel Defoe  to write  Robinson Crusoe, regarded as the  first novel in English. 20][21][22][23]  Philosophus Autodidactus  also inspired  Robert Boyle  to write his own philosophical novel set on an island,  The Aspiring Naturalist. [24]  The story also anticipatedRousseau's  Emile: or, On Education  in some ways, and is also similar to  Mowgli's story in  Rudyard Kipling's  The Jungle Book  as well as  Tarzan's story, in that a baby is abandoned but taken care of and fed by a mother  wolf. [citation needed] Among other innovations in Arabic literature was  Ibn Khaldun's perspective on chronicling past events—by fully rejecting supernatural explanations, Khaldun essentially invented the scientific or sociological approach to history. citation needed] Islam [100 A. D. to 1 500] 1. God's revelations were first received around 610 by the prophet Muhammad, whose followers later collected them into the Koran, which became the basis for a new religion and community known today as Islam. 2. Though most of the pre-Islamic literature of Arabia was written in verse, prose became a popular vehicle for the dissemination of religious learning. 3. As its title â€Å"the Recitation† suggests, the Koran was made to be heard and recited; because it is literally the word of God, Muslims do not accept the Koran in translation from Arabic. . Although Persian literature borrowed from Arabic literary styles, it also created and enhanced new poetic styles, including the  ruba'i  (quatrain),  ghazal  (erotic lyric), and  masnavi  (narrative poem). 5. More widely known than any other work in Arabic, the  Thousand and One Nights  is generally excluded from the canon of classical Arabic literature due to its extravagant and improbable fabrications in pro se, a form that was expected to be more serious and substantial than verse. Thousand and One Nights Myths and Legends of the World |  2001 |  Copyright Thousand and One NightsThousand and One Nights,  also called  The Arabian Nights' Entertainment  or simply  The Arabian Nights,  is a sprawling, centuries-old collection of tales. In the English-speaking world, it is the best-known work of Arabic stories. The framework of the collection is that a king named Shahriyar, distrustful of women, had the habit of taking a new wife every night and killing her the next day. A resourceful young woman named Shahrazad had a plan to end the deadly tradition. After marrying the king, she told him a story on their wedding night with the promise to finish it the next day. He let her live, and she repeated the trick.So captivating were her stories that Shahriyar spared her life again and again in order to hear the rest of the narrative. The origins of  Thousand and One Nights  are u nknown. The oldest bit of Arabic text dates from the 800s; the first lengthy text was written in the 1400s. None of the early Arabic-language texts contains exactly the same stories. Scholars have identified Persian, Baghdadian, and Egyptian elements in the work, which seems to have developed over the years as an ever-changing collection of fairy tales, romances, fables, poems, legends about heroes, and humorous stories.The stories that are best known in the English-speaking world—those of Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and his Magic Lamp, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves—do not appear in all editions of  Thousand and One Nights. Thousand and One Nights The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. |  2012 |  Copyright Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights, series of anonymous stories in Arabic, considered as an entity to be among the classics of world literature. The cohesive plot device concerns the efforts of Scheherezade, or Sheherazade, to keep her husband, King Shah ryar (or Schriyar), from killing her by entertaining him with a tale a night for 1,001 nights.The best known of these stories are those of Ali Baba, Sinbad the Sailor, and Aladdin. Although many of the stories are set in India, their origins are unknown and have been the subject of intensive scholarly investigation. The corpus began to be collected about the year 1000. At first the title was merely indicative of a large number of stories; later editors dutifully provided editions with the requisite 1,001 tales. The present form of  Thousand and One Nights  is thought to be native to Persia or one of the Arabic-speaking countries, but includes stories from a number of different countries and no doubt reflects diverse source material.The first European edition was a free translation by Abbe Antoine Galland into French (1704–17). Most subsequent French, German, and English versions lean heavily upon Galland. Among the English translations include the expurgated edition of E. W. Lane (1840), with excellent and copious notes; the unexpurgated edition by Sir Richard Burton in 16 volumes (1885–88); that of John Payne in 9 volumes (1882–84); Powys Mathers's translation from the French text of J. C. Mardrus (rev. ed. , 4 vol. , 1937); and that of Husain Haddawy (2 vol. , 1990, 1995).Note: This file is also available as a  Word document. Acknowledgements: Al-Muntazir Madrasah, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. IMPORTANCE OF THE HOLY QUR’AAN The first lesson to be learned by all students is about the importance of the Holy Qur’aan. The Qur’aan is the Book of Allah  subhaanahu wa ta‘aalaa. Every word in the Qur’aan has come from Allah. That is why we say that it is a Holy Book. The words in the Qur’aan were sent by Allah to Prophet Muhammad  sallal-laahu ‘alayhi wa-aalihi wa sallam. The Prophet (s) received the words of Allah through angel Jibra’eel.This Qur’aan is a Holy Book t hat was not written by anyone but sent by Allah to Prophet Muhammad (s) through Jibra’eel. 1. It is the most truthful speech: Prophet Muhammad (s) regularly read the words of Allah to Muslims around him. These Muslims were very pleased and excited to receive the words of Allah. Prophet Muhammad (s) said:  The most truthful speech, the most eloquent advice, and the greatest stories are in the Book of Allah. The Muslims listened carefully to what the Prophet read, memorized the sentences and passages of the Qur’aan, recited them regularly and followed the teachings of the Qur’aan.In order to preserve the words of Allah the Prophet appointed special people known as â€Å"Scribes of the Qur’aan† to write down the words of Allah. 2. It is in original language: Prophet Muhammad (s) was an Arab and the majority of people in Mecca and Medina spoke Arabic. Therefore the Qur’aan was sent in Arabic. Arabic is written from right to left. It is better to learn to read the Qur’aan in its original language. Therefore, we will put efforts to learn Qur’aan written in Arabic instead of simply reading its translation in other languages. . The Holy Qur’aan contains Allah’s message to all people. It tells people how to act correctly. It guides us to a correct way of life in this world. The Book of Allah also talks about life after death. It tells us that Allah has prepared Paradise for good people and Hell for bad people. The Qur’aan encourages the worship of only one God Who creates and provides for them. The Book forbids people from evil and condemns those who do wrong. It contains stories of the past Prophets and the examples of bad and good people.People are advised in the Qur’aan to be good to others and respect them. It teaches people to live in peace and harmony. 4. Qur’aan brings happiness in this world and the Hereafter. Following the Qur’aan brings happiness in this world and the world after death. The Prophet (s) said:If you desire the life of the fortunate, the death of a martyr, the salvation on the Day of Regret and the shade on the Day of Extreme Heat, then you should study the Qur’aan because it is the word of the Merciful, a sanctuary from Shaytaan and a causes the tilting of the Balance.In another Hadith we read that the Prophet (s) has said:  The recitor of the Qur’an will be spared from the calamities of the Hereafter. 5. It is the only Divine book that has remained unchanged. Allah sent the Qur’aan to His Prophet. A book sent by Allah to people is known as a Divine Book or a Heavenly Book. Other Divine Books were also sent to previous prophets. These are: Suhoof to Prophet Ibraheem  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœalayhis salaam; Zaboor to Prophet Dawood  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœalayhis salaam;  Tawraah to Prophet Moosaa  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœalayhis salaam; and  Injeel to Prophet ‘Eisaa  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœalayhis salaam.The difference between the Qur’aan an d past revealed books is that the Qur’aan is the only Divine Book that has remained unaltered. The Qur’aan we have with us contains exactly the same message that was sent to Prophet Muhammad by Allah through Jibra’eel. 6. Our supplications get answered  if we were to pray after reading the Holy Qur’aan. The Prophet (s) said:  One who starts the Qur’an and finishes it, Allah will grant him one answered supplication. It also helps in strengthening our faith. Imam Ali (a) said:  Ã‚  Reciting the Qur’an plants the eed of faith. 7. The Qur’aan is the best companion. It can be of great help when a child or adult is feeling lonely. Imam Ali Zaynul ‘Aabideen (a) said:  If all who live between the East and West perish, I will have no fear as long as I have the Qur’an with me. 8. Students get wise  when they start reading the Qur’aan in their childhood. Prophet Muhammad (s) said:  Whoever reads the Qur’an before becoming Baaligh, has indeed been given wisdom as a child. The Holy Book is the best intellectual treasure a student can have.Prophet Muhammad (s) said:  The Qur’an is a wealth with which there is no poverty, and without which there is no wealth. On the other hand not caring to read and study the Qur’aan is a great loss. Prophet Muhammad (s) said:  Surely the person in whose heart lacks the trace of the Qur’an is like a ruined house. 9. Muslims read the Qur’aan to understand the true teachings of Islam. Prophet Muhammad (s) left the Holy Book and the Ahlul Bayt (a) as the most important legacy for Muslims after him. He said:  I leave tow weighty things among you: The Book of Allah and my family – the Ahlul Bayt.Indeed these two will never separate until they reach me near the pool of Kawthar. 10. All Muslims recite some Soorahs in their prayers. However, it is good to memorize more Soorahs and read them in Salaat. Imam Muhammad Al-Baaq ir (a) said:  Whoever recites the Qur’aan while standing in his prayer, Allah will bestow on him a hundred blessings for every letter; and whoever recites it while sitting in his prayer, Allah will reward him fifty blessings for every letter; and whoever recites it outside of his prayer, Allah will grant him ten blessings for every letter. 1. The Qur’aan is a cure to mental and spiritual diseases: Imam Hasan al-‘Askaree (a) said:  The Messenger of Allah (s) said: I advice you to the Qur’aan since it is the beneficial cure, the blessed medicine, the protection (‘Isma) for he who holds fast to it, and the salvation for he who follows it. Neither does it cause crookedness so that it departs (from the truth) nor does it deviate so that it causes trouble. Its marvels do not come to end and the vastness of refutations does not wear it. RESPECT AND RIGHTS OF THE HOLY QUR’AANNow that we know that the Holy Qur’aan is not an ordinary book, bu t a Divine Book sent by Allah for the guidance of all people, we must show respect to it. Here are some of the points we need to remember. 1. A part of the Qur’aan carries the same respect as the entire Qur’aan. Allah says:  When the Qur’aan is recited, listen to  it (7:204). We know that when recitation takes place it is always of a part of the Qur’aan. Even then Allah uses the word Qur’aan for the part that is being recited. Therefore, if you have a Siparah, a binder or a booklet that contains Soorahs and passages from the Qur’aan, you treat it like a Qur’aan. . The Qur’aan should always be carried with proper care. When your Madrasah bag contains the Qur’aan, or a part of it, take extra care of the bag. Keep the bag slowly on the desk or floor instead of letting it fall on its own. Use both hands to remove the Qur’aan from your bag, kiss the cover of the Qur’aan, place it slowly on a desk (or on a wo oden carrier specially built for holding the Qur’aan) and open the pages gently. 3. When the Qur’aan is being recited, listen to it and be attentive (7:204). If you are busy with something else then at least do not disturb the recitation by talking, for example, or making noise.There is reward for listening to the Qur’aan. Imam Ali Zaynul ‘Aabideen (a) said:  Whoever listens to a letter of the book of Allah, the Glorious and Almighty, without even reading it, Allah will write down for him one good deed, forgive a sin, and raise him a degree. It was the practice of unbelievers in Mecca to make a lot of noise so that others could not listen to the Qur’aan (41:26). Do not be like them and instead lend your ears to the Qur’aan and give it respect. We often wish that God would talk to us. One way to achieve this is by reading the Qur’aan. Prophet Muhammad (s): said:  Lo!Whoever has longing for Allah should listen to the word of Allah! A lso, if you wish to talk to God then do Tilaawa. Prophet Muhammad (s) said:  Whenever one of you would like to talk to his Lord, he should read the Qur’an. 4. The Qur’aan should be recited regularly. It is disrespect to keep the Holy Qur’aan unread. Prophet Muhammad (s) said:  Brighten your homes with reciting Qur’aan; do not turn them into graves. Surely the house in which a lot of recitation takes place enjoys many blessings and the members benefit from it. Such a household shines for the inhabitants of Heaven as stars shine to the inhabitants of the earth.On the Day of Judgment the Prophet will complain to Allah about some Muslims who had abandoned the Qur’aan (25:30). Another Hadith of the Prophet (s) says:  Indeed hearts rust in the same way irons rust. He was asked: â€Å"What will polish the hearts? † The Prophet answered:  Reading the Qur’an. The more Qur’aan we read the better it is. We should discipline oursel ves to read a good portion of Qur’aan daily. Imam Ali (a) said:  He who recites 100 verses daily from the Book in the order it is in, Allah writes for him the reward equal to all the good actions of every one on this earth.Shaytaan would like us not to read, understand and study the Qur’aan. Let us fight him with all our strength and faith. Imam Ja‘far As-Saadiq (a) said:  Ã‚  There is nothing more unpleasant to Shaytaan than to see a man reading the Qur’an to gain insight. 5. Children should get familiarized with the Qur’aan early in their lives. Imam as-Saadiq (AS) said:  He who recites Qur’aan while he is young, Qur’aan mixes with his flesh and his blood, and Allah places him amongst the blessed and the chosen righteous. On the Day of Judgment, Qur’aan shall become his defender and  [pray for him a handsome reward. 6. It is the right and respect of the Qur’aan that it should be followed. Imam Ja‘far Saadi q (a) said:  Ã‚  Lo! One, who learns the Qur’aan, teaches it and practices according to it, I will guide and lead him to Paradise. 7. It is also the right and respect of the Qur’aan that those who have the knowledge of the Qur’aan should teach it to others. This is among the noblest acts. Prophet Muhammad (s) said:  The best of you is he who learns the Qur’an and teaches it. 8. Take the interpretations of the Qur’aan from the Holy Prophet (s) and the Imams from his family, i. e. the Ahlul Bayt (a).Imam Hasan al-‘Askaree quoting Prophet Muhammad said:  Recite it (i. e. the Qur’aan) as Allah gives you ten rewards for each letter that you recite from it. Then the Imam (a) said:  Do you know who really holds fast to it and reaches to such honor and reward? He is the person who takes Qur’aan and its interpretation from us Ahlul-Bayt (a) or from the deputies that we send to our followers, and takes its (interpretation) neither from the opinions of those who argue (on the speech of Allah) nor form the analogy  of  those who compare (different parts of the speech of Allah). . Once you have completed reading your lesson or referring to the Qur’aan then close it gently instead of leaving it open. 2. Do not put another book or any weight above the Qur’aan. The Holy Book should always be kept on the top in a pile of books. 3. It is Haraam (forbidden) to make Najaasaat (impure things like blood and urine) touch the Qur’aan. In the event where the Qur’aan becomes Najis, for instance if it falls in Najis water, it is Waajib (obligatory) to purify it (make it Taahir). 4. Old and worn out copies of the Qur’aan should be disposed in safe places.This includes sending them for recycling, burying them in the earth or casting in rivers. *  Ã‚  *  Ã‚  *  Ã‚  * * MANNERS OF RECITING THE HOLY QUR’AAN By now we know that the Qur’aan is a special book and deserves re spect. Now let us look at some of the manners of reciting the Qur’aan. It is the right of the Tilaawa (recitation of the Qur’aan) that we follow the rules when reciting the Qur’aan. 1. Perform Wudhoo before you prepare to read the Qur’aan. Allah says:  None can touch it (the Qur’aan) save the purified ones  (56:79). Once Imam Ja‘far As-Saadiq (a) asked his son Ismaa‘eel to read the Qur’aan. The latter said that he was not in Wudhoo.The Imam said in that case he could recite it but should not touch the writings of the Qur’aan. Therefore, it is advisable to  use a stick or pen to point to the words  or sentences of the Qur’aan you are reading if you are not in Wudhoo. 2. Read Du‘aa before Tilaawa. Reading of the Du‘aa helps to keep our focus and reminds us of what we need to take from the Holy Book. Ma‘soomeen (a) have recommended a number of Du‘aas. The Du‘aa taught by Imam Jaâ⠂¬Ëœfar As-Saadiq (a) appears in this booklet with Qur’aan lessons. 3. Always say  A‘oodhubillaahi minash shaytaanir rajeem  ( ) when you begin reading the Qur’aan. It means: I seek refuge in Allah from the cursed Shaytaan. This is what Allah instructs us to do in Aayah 16:98. 4. Next say  Bismillaahir rahmaanir raheem  ( )  The meaning of this phrase is: In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Whenever Imam Moosaa Al-Kaazim (a) wished to make a point to Haroon Rasheed using Aayaat from the Qur’aan, the Imam would begin with  A‘oodhubillaah . . . followed by  Bismillaah . . . 5. Sit facing Qiblaah when reciting the Qur’aan. Please note that this is the best direction to face.However where it may be difficult or impossible to face Qiblaah when reading the Qur’aan (for example if your desk is facing another direction) then it is all right not to face the Qiblaah. 6. Recite the Qur’aan with Tarteel  as instructed by Allah in Aayah 73:4. This means that we should recite the Qur’aan in a good voice with rhythm instead of plain reading. 7. Recite the Qur’aan slowly  Allah said to the Prophet  do not move your tongue with it (Qur’aan) to make haste therein  (75:16). The aayaat of the Qur’aan should be recited in slow tones with each word being pronounced clearly.The Prophet (s) advised Muslims not be concerned about finishing a Soorah when reciting the Qur’aan. 8. Be Humble when reciting the Qur’aan. The Prophet (s) says that the best recitor is he who is humble when reciting the Qur’aan and realizes his own insignificance. Some people exhibit their insignificance and the awe of talking to Allah through weeping. This is a good sign. Prophet Muhammad (s) said:Eyes that weep when reciting the Qur’an will be shining with delight on the Day of Resurrection. 9. Try to understand the recitation. Holy Qur’aan is a book of Guidance (2:2).It is necessary for us to understand the message Allah sent all people through Prophet Muhammad (s). 10. Read from the Qur’aan by looking at the writings instead of reciting from your memory. In a Hadith from one of our Imams it is said that mere looking at the writings of the Qur’aan carries reward. 11. Interact with the Qur’aan. Imam Ja‘far As-Saadiq (a) says that it is important to react to the aayaat of the Qur’aan when reciting it. When we come across aayaat on Paradise, Mercy and Grace of Allah, Good Outcome in the hereafter, we should hope for these in our hearts.On the other hand if we are reading aayaat that warn us about the punishment, fire, Hell, etc. we should pray to be saved from these. 12. Open your heart and mind to the Qur’aan and ponder over what you read. Allah often invites us to think and ponder over the contents of the Qur’aan. In 47:24 Allah says:  Do they not then think deeply in the Qurâ⠂¬â„¢aan, or are their hearts locked up? 13. Perform Sajdah where required to do so  In the entire Qur’aan there are 15 places where performing of Sajdah is required. At 4 places it is Waajib (obligatory) to do Sajdah if we were to read or listen to these sections of the Qur’aan.For the rest of the places it is Mustahab (recommended) to do Sajdah. 14. Say  Sadqallaahul ‘Aliyyul ‘Azeem  ( ) every time you end a recitation of the Qur’aan. The meaning of this phrase is: Allah, the Sublime, the Great, is truthful in what He has said 15. Read one of the Du‘aas after Tilaawa. The Ma‘soomeen have taught a number of Du‘aas, from these two have been included with Qur’aan lessons. In these Du‘aas, amongst other things, we pray to the Almighty to enlighten us through the Qur’aan and make us follow the teachings of the Qur’aan. THE HOLY QURAN: Islam appeared in the form of a book: the Quran.Muslims, consider the Quran (sometimes spelled â€Å"Koran†) to be the Word of God as transmitted by the Angel Gabriel, in the Arabic language, through the Prophet Muhammad. The Muslim view, moreover, is that the Quran supersedes earlier revelations; it is regarded as their summation and completion. It is the final revelation, as Muhammad is regarded as the final prophet – ‘the Seal of the Prophets. † In a very real sense the Quran is the mentor of millions of Muslims, Arab and non-Arab alike; it shapes their everyday life, anchors them to a unique system of law, and inspires them by its guiding principles.Written in noble language, this Holy Text has done more than move multitudes to tears and ecstasy; it has also, for almost fourteen hundred years, illuminated the lives of Muslims with its eloquent message of uncompromising monotheism, human dignity, righteous living, individual responsibility, and social justice. For countless millions, consequently, it has been the singl e most important force in guiding their religious, social, and cultural lives. Indeed, the Quran is the cornerstone on which the edifice of Islamic civilization has been built.The text of the Quran was delivered orally by the Prophet Muhammad to his followers as it was revealed to him. The first verses were revealed to him in or about 610, and the last revelation dates from the last year of his life, 632. His followers at first committed the Quran to memory and then, as instructed by him, to writing. Although the entire contents of the Quran, the placement of its verses, and the arrangement of its chapters date back to the Prophet, as long as he lived he continued to receive revelations.Consequently, the Holy Text could only be collected as a single corpus – â€Å"between the two covers† – after the death of Muhammad. This is exactly what happened. After the battle of al-Yamamah in 633, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, later to become the second caliph, suggested to Abu Bakr, the first caliph, that because of the grievous loss of life in that battle, there was a very real danger of losing the Quran, enshrined as it was in the memories of the faithful and in uncollated fragments.Abu Bakr recognized the danger and entrusted the task of gathering the revelations to Zayd ibn Thabit, who as the chief scribe of the Prophet was the person to whom Muhammad frequently dictated the revelations in his lifetime. With great difficulty, the task was carried out and the first complete manuscript compiled from â€Å"bits of parchment, thin white stones – ostracae – leafless palm branches, and the memories of men. Later, during the time of ‘Uthman, the third caliph, a final, authorized text was prepared and completed in 651, and this has remained the text in use ever since. The contents of the Quran differ in substance and arrangement from the Old and New Testaments. Instead of presenting a straight historical narrative, as do the Gospels a nd the historical books of the Old Testament, the Quran treats, in allusive style, spiritual and practical as well as historical matters.The Quran is divided into 114 surahs, or chapters, and the surahs are conventionally assigned to two broad categories: those revealed at Mecca and those revealed at Medina. The surahs revealed at Mecca – at the beginning of Muhammad's mission – tend to be short and to stress, in highly moving language, the eternal themes of the unity of God, the necessity of faith, the punishment of those who stray from the right path, and the Last Judgment, when all man's actions and beliefs will be judged.The surahs revealed at Medina are longer, often deal in detail with specific legal, social, or political situations, and sometimes can only be properly understood with a full knowledge of the circumstances in which they were revealed All the surahs are divided into ayahs or verses and, for purposes of pedagogy and recitation, the Quran as a whole i s divided into thirty parts, which in turn are divided into short divisions of nearly equal length, to facilitate study and memorization. The surahs hemselves are of varying length, ranging from the longest, Surah 2, with 282 verses, to the shortest, Surahs 103, 108, and 110, each of which has only three. With some exceptions the surahs are arranged in the Quran in descending order of length, with the longest at the beginning and the shortest at the end. The major exception to this arrangement is the opening surah, â€Å"al-Fatihah,† which contains seven verses and which serves as an introduction to the entire revelation: In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds;The Merciful, the Compassionate; Master of the Day of Judgment; Thee only do we worship, and Thee alone we ask for help. Guide us in the straight path, The path of those whom Thou hast favored; not the path of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray. Non-M uslims are often struck by the range of styles found in the Quran. Passages of impassioned beauty are no less common than vigorous narratives. The sublime â€Å"Verse of the Throne† is perhaps one of the most famous: God – There is no god but He,   The Living. the Everlasting;Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; To Him belongs all that is In the heavens and the earth; Who is there that can intercede with Him Save by His leave? He knows what lies before them And what is after them, Nor do they encompass anything of His knowledge Except such as He wills; His Throne extends over the heavens and earth; The preserving of them wearies Him not; He is the Most High, the All-Glorious. Muslims regard the Quran as untranslatable; the language in which it was revealed – Arabic – is inseparable from its message and Muslims everywhere, o matter what their native tongue, must learn Arabic to read the Sacred Book and to perform their worship. The Quran of course is a vailable in many languages, but these versions are regarded as interpretations rather than translations – partly because the Arabic language, extraordinarily concise and allusive, is impossible to translate in a mechanical, word-for-word way. The inimitability of the Quran has crystallized in the Muslim view of i'jaz or â€Å"impossibility,† which holds that the style of the Quran, being divine, cannot be imitated: any attempt to do so is doomed to failure.It must also be remembered that the Quran was originally transmitted orally to the faithful and that the Holy Text is not meant to be read only in silence. From the earliest days it has always been recited aloud or, more accurately, chanted. As a result, several traditional means of chanting, or intoning, the Quran were found side by side. These methods carefully preserved the elaborate science of reciting the Quran – with all its intonations and its cadence and punctuation.As the exact pronunciation was impor tant – and learning it took years – special schools were founded to be sure that no error would creep in as the traditional chanting methods were handed down. It is largely owing to the existence of these traditional methods of recitation that the text of the Quran was preserved without error. As the script in which the Quran was first written down indicated only the consonantal skeleton of the words, oral recitation was an essential element in the transmission of the text.Because the circumstances of each revelation were thought necessary to correct interpretation, the community, early in the history of Islam, concluded that it was imperative to gather as many traditions as possible about the life and actions of the Prophet so that the Quran might be more fully understood. These traditions not only provided the historical context for many of the surahs – thus contributing to their more exact explication – but also contained a wide variety of subsidiary i nformation on the practice, life, and legal rulings of the Prophet and his companions.This material became the basis for what is called the sunnah, or â€Å"practice† of the Prophet – the deeds, utterances, and taqrir (unspoken approval) of Muhammad. Together with the Quran, the sunnah, as embodied in the canonical collections of traditions, the hadith, became the basis for the shari'ah, the sacred law of Islam. Unlike Western legal systems, the shari'ah makes no distinction between religious and civil matters; it is the codification of God's Law, and it concerns itself with every aspect of social, political, economic, and religious life.Islamic law is thus different from any other legal system; it differs from canon law in that it is not administered by a church hierarchy; in Islam there is nothing that corresponds to a â€Å"church† in the Christian sense. Instead, there is the ummah – the community of the believers – whose cohesion is guaranteed by the sacred law. Every action of the pious Muslim, therefore, is determined by the Quran, by precedents set by the Prophet, and by the practice of the early community of Islam as enshrined in the shari'ah.No description, however, can fully capture the overwhelming importance of the Quran to Muslims. Objectively, it is the central fact of the Islamic faith, the Word of God, the final and complete revelation, the foundation and framework of Islamic law, and the source of Islamic thought, language, and action. It is the essence of Islam. Yet it is, in the deeply personal terms of a Muslim, something more as well. In innumerable, almost indescribable ways, it is also the central fact of Muslim life.To a degree almost incomprehensible in the West it shapes and colors broadly, specifically, and totally the thoughts, emotions, and values of the devout Muslim's life from birth to death. ARABIC LITERATURE: The Quran, the primary document of the Islamic faith, is the first Arabic book. Its style, at once vigorous, allusive, and concise, deeply influenced later compositions in Arabic, as it continues to color the mode of expression of native speakers of Arabic, Christian as well as Muslim, both in writing and in conversation. The Quran also largely determined the course of Arabic literature.The earliest Arabic prose came into being not from literary motives, but to serve religious and practical needs, above all the need to fully understand the Islamic revelation and the circumstances of the first Muslim community in the Hijaz. The sayings and actions of the Prophet and his Companions were collected and preserved, at first by memory and then by writing, to be finally collected and arranged by such men as al-Bukhari and Muslim in the ninth century. This material, the hadith, not only provided the basic texts from which Islamic law was elaborated, but also formed the raw material for historians of the early Muslim community.Since each hadith, or â€Å"saying,† is a first-person narrative, usually by an eyewitness of the event described, they have an immediacy and freshness that has come down unimpaired through the centuries. The personalities of the narrators – Abu Bakr, Umar, Aishah, and a host of others are just as vivid as the events described, for the style of each hadith is very personal. The hadith also determined the characteristic form of such works as Ibn Ishaq's Life of the Messenger of God, originally written in the middle of the eighth century.In this book, hadith dealing with the life of the Prophet are arranged in chronological order, and the comments of the author are kept to a minimum. Events are seen through the eyes of the people who witnessed them; three or four versions of the same event are often given, and in each case the â€Å"chain of transmission† of the hadith is given, so that the reader may judge its authenticity. During Umayyad times, a number of historians wrote monographs on specific historical, legal, and religious questions, and in each case these authors seem to have adhered to the hadith method of composition.Although few of the works of these writers have survived in their entirety, enough has been preserved by later incorporation in such vast works as the Annals of al-Tabari to give us an idea not only of their method of composition, but also of their wide-ranging interests. The practice of prefacing a chain of authorities to each hadith led to the compilation of vast biographical dictionaries, like the Book of Classes of the early ninth century author Ibn Said, which includes a biography of the Prophet and a great deal of information on notable personalities in Mecca and Medina during his lifetime.Works such as this allowed readers to identify and judge the veracity of transmitters of hadith; later, the content of biographical dictionaries was broadened to include poets, writers, eminent reciters of the Quran, scientists, and the like. These biographical dictionaries are often lively reading, and are a mine of information about social and political circumstances in the Islamic world. The spread of Islam naturally found chroniclers, such as al-Waqidi, who wrote in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, and al-Baladhuri, who composed his well known Book of the Conquests in the ninth century.These books, like the hadith, were written for practical motives. Al-Waqidi was interested in establishing the exact chronology of the spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and adjoining areas, while al-Baladhuri was interested in legal and tax problems connected with the settlement of new lands. Their books nevertheless are classics of their kind and, aside from containing much interesting information, they have passages of great descriptive power.By the ninth century, the method of compiling history from hadith and carefully citing the authorities for each tradition – a process which had resulted in books of unwieldy length – was abandon ed by some authors, like al-Dinawari and al-Ya'qubi, who omitted the chains of transmitters and combined hadith to produce a narrative. The result was greater readability and smaller compass, at the sacrifice of richness and complexity. The works of al-Dinawari and al-Ya'qubi, unlike those of their predecessors, aimed to entertain as well as instruct; they are â€Å"literary† productions.This form of light history reached its apogee in the tenth century in al-Mas'udi's brilliant and entertaining Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, a comprehensive encyclopedia of history, geography, and literature. The literary productions of these men would not, however, have been possible without the careful collections of historical hadith made by their predecessors. Just as the writing of history began from practical rather than literary motives, so the collection and preservation of Arabic poetry was undertaken by scholars with, at first, little interest in its artistic merit.The linguists and exegetes of Kufa and Basra began collecting this poetry in the eighth century because of the light it threw on unusual expressions and grammatical structures in the Quran and the hadith. Editions and commentaries were prepared of the poems of ‘Antarah, Imru al-Qays, and many others, and thus the works of the early poets were preserved for later generations. The Quran a part, poetry has always been considered the highest expression of literary art among the Arabs. Long before the coming of Islam, Bedouin poets had perfected the forms of panegyric, satire, and elegy.Their poetry obeys strict conventions, both in form and content, which indicates that it must have had a long period of development before it was finally committed to writing by scholars. The principal form used by the desert poets was the qasidah or ode, a poem of variable length rhyming in the last syllable of each line. The qasidah begins with a description of the abandoned encampment of the poet's beloved an d goes on to an account of his anguish at her absence and his consuming love for her. The poet then describes an arduous journey across the desert nd ends the qasidah with an appeal to the generosity of his host. Although the subject matter is almost invariable, the language is very complex and of great precision. In the Hijaz during the first century of Islam, contemporary with the first hadith scholars, a group of poets broke with the past and introduced new forms and subjects. Men like ‘Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah wrote realistic and urbane verse, and a school of poetry which expressed the themes of Platonic love grew up around the poet Jamil ibn Muiammar, better known as Jamil al-‘Udhri.The lives and works of these poets of the Umayyad period are preserved in the entertaining tenth-century anthology by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, the Book of Songs. The Umayyad court in Damascus patronized poets and musicians. It was also the scene of the development of the type of Arabic lite rature called adab. Adab is usually translated as â€Å"belles-lettres,† which is slightly misleading. This literature, at least in its inception, was created to serve the practical end of educating the growing class of government ministers in the Arabic language, manners and deportment, history, and statecraft.Works in Sanskrit, Pahlavi, Greek, and Syriac began to find their way into Arabic at this time. ‘Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib, an Umayyad official, and the creator of this genre, defined its aims as follows: â€Å"Cultivate the Arabic language so that you may speak correctly; develop a handsome script which will add luster to your writings; learn the poetry of the Arabs by heart; familiarize yourself with unusual ideas and expressions; read the history of the Arabs and the Persians, and remember their great deeds. ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa', a contemporary of ‘Abd al-Ham id ibn Yahya, translated the history of the ancient kings of Persia into Arab ic, as well as Kalilah wa-Dimnah, an Indian book of advice for princes cast in the form of animal fables. His works are the earliest surviving examples of Arabic art prose and are still used as models in schools throughout the Middle East. By the ninth century, Arabic literature had entered its classical age. The various genres had been defined – adab, history, Quranic exegesis, geography, biography, poetry, satire, and many more.Al-Jahiz was perhaps the greatest stylist of the age, and one of the most original personalities. He wrote more than two hundred books, on every conceivable subject; he was critical, rational, and always amusing. His Book of Animals is the earliest Arabic treatise on zoology and contains very modern-sounding discussions of such things as animal mimetism and biological adaptation. He wrote one of the earliest and best treatises on rhetoric and a large number of amusing essays.By the time of his death at the age of ninety-six he had shown that Arabic p rose was capable of handling any subject with ease. The most gifted of al-Jahiz's contemporaries was probably Ibn Qutaybah, also a writer of encyclopedic learning and an excellent stylist. His Book of Knowledge, a history of the world beginning with the creation, is the earliest work of its kind and later had many imitators. The tenth century witnessed the creation of a new form in Arabic literature, the maqamat. This was the title of a work by al-Hamadhani, called Badi' al-Zaman, â€Å"The Wonder of the Age. His Maqamat (â€Å"Sessions†) is a series of episodes written in rhymed prose concerning the life of Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari, a sort of confidence trickster, who takes on a different personality in each story and always succeeds in bilking his victims. These stories are witty and packed with action, and were immediately popular. Al-Hamadhani was imitated by al-Hariri a hundred years later. Al-Hariri was a linguistic virtuoso, and his Maqamat is filled with obscure word s, alliteration, puns, and wild metaphors.He too was extremely popular, and many learned commentaries were written on his Maqamat. This purely Arab form can most closely be compared with the Spanish picaresque novels, which it may have influenced. Rhymed prose, which had come to be used even in government documents, was employed by Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma'arri in his Message of Forgiveness, one of the best known of Arabic prose works. Al-Ma'arri lived in the eleventh century, leading an ascetic life in his native Syrian village. Blind from the age of four, he possessed a prodigious memory and great intellectual curiosity and skepticism.The Message of Forgiveness is cast in the form of a journey to paradise; the narrator there interrogates the scholars and poets of the past regarding their lives and works, receiving surprising and often ironic responses. The book is an extended critique of literature and philology, and represents a high point of classical Arabic culture. One of the o ther great figures of late classical literature was the poet al-Mutanabbi, whose skill in handling the complex meters of Arabic poetry was probably unsurpassed.His verbal brilliance has always been admired by Arab critics, although it is difficult for those whose native tongue is not Arabic to appreciate it fully. The period between the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in 1258 and the nineteenth century is generally held to be a period of literary as well as political decline for the Arabs. It is true that during these five hundred years Arabic writers were more preoccupied with the preservation of their literary heritage than with the development of new forms and ideas.This is the age of encyclopedias, commentaries, and lexicons. Faced with the massive destruction of books by the invasions of Genghis Khan and Hulagu and later of Tamerlane, scholars compiled digests and abridgments of works that had survived in order to ensure their continued existence. There were also some original w orks, however. Ibn Battutah, the greatest traveler of the Middle Ages, lived in the fourteenth century, and his Travel provide a fascinating picture of the Muslim world, from the islands of the Indian Ocean to Timbuktu.Ibn Khaldun, like Ibn Battutah a native of North Africa, lived in the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. His Prolegomena is a work of brilliance and originality; the author analyzes human society in terms of general sociological laws and gives a lucid account of the factors that contribute to the rise and decline of civilizations. Ibn Khaldun's style is innovative, simple, and very personal, and perfectly suited to the expression of his often difficult ideas.This post classical period also saw the composition of popular romances, such as the Romance of ‘Antar, based on the life of the famous pre-Islamic poet; the Romance of the Bani Hilal, a cycle of stories and poems based on the migration of an Arabian tribe to North Africa in the eleventh century ; and many more. These romances could be heard recited in coffee shops from Aleppoto Marrakesh until very recently. The most famous popular work of all, The Thousand and One Nights, assumed its present form during the fifteenth century.A revival of Arabic literature began in the nineteenth century, and coincided with the first efforts of Arabic speaking nations to assert their independence of Ottoman rule. Napoleon, during his brief occupation of Egypt in the late eighteenth century, introduced a printing press with fonts of Arabic type, and Muhammad ‘Ali, ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, initiated a series of projects to modernize Egypt. He encouraged the use of Arabic in schools and government institutions, and established a printing press.Selected Egyptian students were sent to study in France, and on their return assigned to undertake translations of Western technical manuals on agriculture, engineering, mathematics, and military tactics. These works, together with many o f the classics of Arabic literature, were printed at the government press at Bulaq and had a profound impact on intellectuals in the Arab East. Another factor in the literary revival was the swift growth of journalism in Lebanon and Egypt. Starting in the late 1850s, newspapers were soon available through the Middle East.By 1900 well over a hundred and fifty newspapers and journals were being published. These journals had a great influence on the development and modernization of the written Arabic language; their stress on substance rather than style did much to simplify Arabic prose and bring it within the comprehension of everyone. One of the first leaders of the Arabic literary renaissance was the Lebanese writer and scholar Butrus al-Bustani, whose dictionary and encyclopedia awakened great interest in the problems of expressing modern Western ideas in the Arabic language.His nephew Sulayman translated Homer's Iliad into Arabic, thus making one of the first expressions of Wester n literature accessible to the Arabic-reading public. Other writers, such as the Egyptian Mustafa al-Manfaluti, adapted French romantic novels to the tastes of the Arab public, as well as writing elegant essays on a variety of themes. The historical novel, in the hands of Jurji Zaydan, proved immensely popular, perhaps because of the intense interest Arabs have always had in their past, and because of the novelty of a new form.But the first Arabic novel that can rank with European productions is Muhammad Husayn Haykal's Zaynab, set in Egypt and dealing with local problems. Perhaps the greatest figure in modern Arabic literature is Taha Husayn. Blind from an early age, Taha Husayn wrote movingly of his life and beloved Egypt in his autobiography, al-Ayyam, â€Å"The Days. † Taha Husayn was a graduate of both al-Azhar and the Sorbonne, and his voluminous writings on Arabic literature contributed a new critique of this vast subject.The novel was not the only new form introduced to the Arabic-reading public. The drama, first in the form of translations of Western work, then of original compositions, was pioneered by Ahmad Shawqi and came to maturity in the hands of Tawfiq al-Hakim. Tawfiq al-Hakim's long career and devotion to the theater did much to make this one of the liveliest arts of the Middle East. The history of modern Arabic poetry, with its many schools and contending styles, is almost impossible to summarize. Traditional forms and subjects were challenged by ‘Abbas Mahmud al-‘Aqqad,Mahmud Shukri, and Ibrahim al-Mazini, who strove to introduce nineteenth-century European themes and techniques into Arabic, not always with success. Lebanese poets were in the forefront of modernist verse, and one of them, Gibran Kahlil Gibran, proved very popular in the West. Poets are now experimenting with both old and new techniques, although discussions of form have given way to concern for content. The exodus of Palestinians from their native land ha s become a favorite theme, often movingly handled.In Saudi Arabia, it was not until well into the twentieth century that literary movements in neighboring lands made themselves felt. Poetry, of course, has been cultivated in Arabia since the pre-Islamic period, and it has lately been influenced by new forms and subjects. Hasan al-Qurashi, Tahir Zamakhshari, Hasan Faqi, and Mahrum (the pen name of Amir ‘Abd Allah al-Faysal) have won renown for their poetry throughout the Arab world. Hasan Faqi's poetry is introspective and philosophical, while the verse of the three others is lyrical and romantic.Ghazi al-Gosaibi is distinguished by a fresh, fecund imagination that expresses itself in both Arabic and English verse. Two novels by the late Hamid al-Damanhuri have been well received. They are Thaman al-Tadhiyah, â€Å"The Price of Sacrifice,† and Wa-Marrat al-Ayyam, â€Å"And the Days Went By. † With the rapid increase in education and communications, presses are now beginning to publish more and more works by writers, and it can certainly be expected that the great social changes that are taking place will eventually be reflected in equally far-reaching developments in the Arabic literature. Introduction â€Å"Read in the Name of your Lord†. [1] These were the first few words of the Qur'an revealed to the   Prophet Muhammad over 1400 years ago. Muhammad, who was known to have been in retreat and   meditation in a cave outside Mecca [2], had received the first few words of a book that would have a   tremendous impact on the world of Arabic literature. [3] Not being known to have composed any piece   of poetry and not having any special rhetorical gifts, [4] Muhammed had just received the beginning of a   book that would deal with matters of belief, legislation, international law, olitics, ritual, spirituality, and   economics [5] in an ‘entirely new literary form'. Armstrong states, â€Å"It is as though Muhammad had c reated an entirely new literary form†¦Without this experience of the   Koran, it is extremely unlikely that Islam would have taken root. † [6] This unique literary form was the cause of the dramatic intellectual revival of desert Arabs [7], and after   thirteen years of the first revelation, it became the only reference for a new state in Medina. [8] This new   form of speech, the Qur'an, became the sole source of the new civilisation's political, philosophical,   and spiritual outlook.It is well known amongst Muslim and Non-Muslim scholars that the Qur’anic discourse cannot be   described as any of the known forms of Arabic speech; namely Poetry and Prose. [9] Taha Husayn, [10] a prominent Egyptian Litterateur, during the course of a public lecture summarised   how the Qur’an achieves this unique form: â€Å"But you know that the Qur’an is not prose and that it is not verse either. It is rather Qur’an, and it cannot   be called by any other name but this. It is not verse, and that is clear; for it does not bind itself to the   bonds of verse.And it is not prose, for it is bound by bonds peculiar to itself, not found elsewhere;   some of the binds are related to the endings of its verses and some to that musical sound which is all   its own. It is therefore neither verse nor prose, but it is â€Å"a Book whose verses have been perfected the   expounded, from One Who is Wise, All-Aware. † We cannot therefore say its prose, and its text itself is   not verse. It has been one of a kind, and nothing like it has ever preceded or followed it. † [11] Any expression of the Arabic language falls into the literary forms of Prose and Poetry.There are other   ‘sub’ forms that fall into the above categories. Kahin, which is a form of rhymed prose, is one of these   ‘sub’ forms; but all literary forms can be described as prose and poetry. Poetry Arabic Poetry is a form of metrical speech with a rhyme. [12] The rhyme in Arabic poetry is achieved by   every line of the poem ending upon a specific letter. [13] The metrical aspect of Arabic poetry is due to   its rhythmical divisions, these divisions are called ‘al-Bihar’, literally meaning ‘The Seas’ in Arabic. This term has been used to describe the rhythmical divisions as a result of the way the poem moves   according to its rhythm.In Arabic poetry there are sixteen rhythmical patterns, which all of Arabic poetry adheres too or is   loosely based upon; 1. at-Tawil 2. al-Bassit 3. al-Wafir 4. al-Kamil 5. ar-Rajs 6. al-Khafif 7. al-Hazaj 8. al-Muttakarib 9. al-Munsarih 10. al-Muktatab 11. al-Muktadarak 12. al-Madid 13. al-Mujtath 14. al-Ramel 15. al-Khabab 16. as-Saria' Each one of the al-Bihar have a unique rhythmical division. [14] The al-Bihar were first codified in the   8th century by al-Khalil bin Ahmad and have changed little since. The al-Bihar are based o n the length   of syllables.A short syllable is a consonant followed by a short vowel. A long syllable is a vowelled   letter followed by either an unvowelled consonant or a long vowel. A nunation sign at the end of a word   also makes the final syllable long. In Arabic poetry each line is divided into two halves. Below are basic scansions of the metres commonly found in Arabic poetry, showing long (—) and   short (^) syllables. They represent pairs of half-lines and should be read from left to right. The patterns   are not rigidly followed: two short syllables may be substituted for a long one. Tawil — — | ^ — — | ^ — — | ^ — — | ^ — — | ^ — — | ^ — — | ^ — — | Kamil ^ ^ — ^ — | ^ ^ — ^ — | ^ ^ — ^ — | ^ ^ — ^ — | ^ ^ — ^ — | ^ ^ — ^ — | Wafir ^ — ^ ^ — | ^ à ¢â‚¬â€ ^ ^ — | ^ — — | ^ — ^ ^ — | ^ — ^ ^ — | ^ — — | Rajaz — — ^ — | — — ^ — | — — ^ — | — — ^ — | — — ^ — | — — ^ — | Hazaj ^ — — — | ^ — — — | ^ — — — | ^ — — — | Basit — — ^ — | — ^ — | — — ^ — | — ^ — | — — ^ — | — ^ — | — — ^ — | — ^ — | Khafif — ^ — — | — — ^ — | — ^ — — | — ^ — — | — — ^ — | — ^ — — | Sari' — — ^ — | — — ^ — | — ^ — | — — ^ — | — — ^ â₠¬â€ | — ^ — | [For more details on the al-Bihar please see  www. theinimitablequran. om/TheRhythmicalPatterns. html ] An example of an Arabic poem, is the ancient Arabian poem called ‘Abu-l-‘Ata of Sind’: Of thee did I dream, while spears between us were quivering And sooth, of our blood full drop had drunken the tawny shafts! I know not, by heaven I swear, and true is the word I say This pang, is it love sickness, or wrought by a spell from thee. If it be a spell, then grant me grace of my love-longing If other the sickness be, then none is the guilt of thine. [15] This poem, in the original Arabic, falls into the rhythmical pattern of Tawil, one of the al-Bihar shown   above. 16] A literary analysis on any Arabic Poem will conclude that it adheres too or is based upon   the rhythmical patterns. This is supported by Louis Cheikho who collected pre-Islamic and Islamic   poetry and concluded that all of the poems conformed and were based upon the al-Bihar. [17] Prose Arabic Prose can be called non-metrical speech, meaning it does not have a rhythmical pattern like   poetry mentioned above. Arabic prose can be further divided into two categories; Saj’ which is rhymed   prose and Mursal which is straight prose or what some may call ‘normal speech’. [18] An apt description of Saj’ is, in the words of Von Deffer: A literary form with some emphasis on rhythm and rhyme, but distinct from poetry. Saj’ is not really as   sophisticated as poetry, but has been employed by Arab poets, and is the best known of the pre- Islamic Arab prosodies. It is distinct from poetry in its lack of metre, i. e. it has not consistent rhythmical   pattern, and it shares with poetry the element of rhyme, though in many cases some what irregularly   employed. † [19] Mursal can be defined as a literary form that goes on and is not divided, but is continued straight   throughout without any divisions, either of rhyme or of anything else. 20] Mursal is meant as a way of   expression close to the everyday spoken language, examples can be seen in speeches and prayers   intended to encourage or motivate the masses. The Qur’ans Literary Form The Qur’anic discourse cannot be described as any of the known literary forms. The most predominant   opinion is that it doesn’t adhere to any of the rules known to poetry and prose. Another opinion is that   the Qur’an combines metrical and non-metrical composition to create its own literary form. Some   scholars disagree with the above opinions and claim that the Qur’an is a form of rhymed prose, saj’.This opinion has arisen mainly due to the similarities of pre-Islamic prose and early Meccan chapters   of the Qur’an. However, the scholars who carry this opinion do not contend that the Qur’an is unique by   its use of literary and stylistic elements that render it inimitable. This unique use of literary elements   has not been found in any Arabic Prose, past or present. Below is an explanation, with reference to the main opinions above, on how the Qur’an achieves its   unique inimitable form. Non-compliance to the Rules of Prose or PoetryThe Qur’anic literary form differs as it does not fit in to any of the literary categories explained above,   [21] it is not like the prose of Saj’ or Mursal and it doesn't fit into any of the al-Bihar. This can be seen by   the following example: Wad Duha wal laili idha saja Ma waddaka Rabbuka wa maa qala Wa lal akhiraatu khairul laka minal oola Wa la sawfa ya teeka Rabbuka fa tarda†¦ By the morning hours and by the night most still Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor hates you And indeed the hereafter is better for you than the present And verily your Lord will give you so that you shall be well pleased†¦ [22]The examination of the whole chapter with reference to the above lit erary forms indicates that it is not   Saj’ or Mursal as this verse has an internal rhythm, whereas Saj’ does not have a consistent rhythm   and Mursal has no rhythm or rhyme. Also it cannot be described as poetry; the totality of this chapter, or   any other chapter for that matter, does not adhere to any of the al-Bihar. Unique Fusion of Metrical and non-Metrical Speech Some parts of the Qur’an follow the rules of poetry, that is, some verses can be described as one of   the al-Bihar. 23] When the totality of a Qur’anic Chapter, that contains some these verses is analysed,   it is not possible to distinguish its literary form. â€Å"The Qur'an is not verse, but it is rhythmic. The rhythm of some verses resemble the regularity of saj’ †¦But it was recognized by Quraysh critics to belong to neither one nor the other category. † [24] The Qur’an achieves this unique literary form by intermingling metrical and non-Metrical speech in   such a way that the difference can not be perceived. [25] This intermingling of metrical and non- metrical composition is present throughout the whole of the Qur’an.The following examples illustrate   this, â€Å"But the righteous will be in Gardens with Springs – ‘Enter in Peace and Safety! ’ – and We shall   remove any bitterness from their hearts: [they will be like] brothers, sitting on couches, face to face. No   weariness will ever touch them there, nor will they ever be expelled. [Prophet] tell My servants that I am   the Forgiving, the Merciful, but My torment is the truly painful one. Tell them too about Abraham’s   guests: when they came to him and said â€Å"Peace,† he said, ‘We are afraid of you’† [26]When reading the original Arabic of the above verse the reader moves from metric composition to   prose with out experiencing the slightest change of style or mode. [27] The same mingling of metrical   and non-metrical composition