\The Quran is a book unlike any other book in the world,"" said Abul A'la Mawdudi, the late Islamic thinker from the Indian subcontinent. It does not have an introduction--body--end kind of a structure. It is not like a biblical narrative. It is arranged neither chronologically nor thematically. It is divided into ""surahs"" (chapters) and ""ayaat"" (verses), however the chapters have no singular central topic. Every chapter deals with multiple topics each disconnected with the other, with a few verses describing a theme and the next few verses abruptly changing to an altogether different theme. How can a book that claims to be ""Kitab Allah"" (Book of God) be so disjoint?
Thus, a stranger on his first encounter with the Quran is puzzled. He finds that in it are historical events, invitations to Islam, exhortations to promote virtue and shun vice, social injunctions, moral decrees, all blended together in a beautiful manner. Mawdudi avers that the different themes are expressed as they typically would never be expressed in a normal book dealing with that theme. Hence, law is discussed nothing like that would be discussed by jurists, and history is discussed very unlike traditional history books. The reader finds something that is highly foreign to his conceptions of a book.
The Quran was revealed over 23 years to Muhammad in bits and pieces with a few verses at a time. Revelation assumed characteristics of a commentary on the sociopolitical conditions confronting the nascent Muslim community at that time, as well as exhortations to moral and spiritual excellence. A book based on such revelations, thus, cannot be uniform like a formal book on religion.
If one wanted to know what are the major ideas that the Quran--and by extension, Islam--is built upon, he should start by studying the chapters at the end. Most Muslims begin the Quranic study in this manner. These chapters are short, direct, intimate, hymnic and very powerful. They are addressed to all mankind but are highly personal. Michael Sells, a professor of comparative religion at Haverford College says, ""these first revelations to Muhammad express vital existential themes in a language of great lyricism and beauty.""
The skeptic might doubt the claim that the Quran is a revelation but there can be no doubt about the uniqueness of the Quran. Mawdudi advises the beginner thus, ""The reader may be saved from all these difficulties, if he is warned beforehand of this essential point: The book he is going to study is the only book of its kind in the whole world; its literary style is quite different from that of all other books. Then, and then alone, can he understand it.""
