Signs & Miracles · The Language Argument in Full
"It's Just Poetry"
Handle with care. Do not say the Qur'an has no rhyme at all; verse endings often assonate. The claim is that it has no fixed metre and no fixed rhyme scheme.
In short
- 1.Classical Arabic poetry is defined by fixed metres (bihar) and a consistent rhyme.
- 2.The Qur'an has neither: no metre, and rhyme that shifts as the meaning requires.
- 3.It is also not saj' — the rhymed prose of the soothsayers — which is metrically constrained in its own way.
- 4.The charge was made and then dropped, and the Qur'an answers it directly at Q 69:41-42.
The claim being examined
The first accusation made against the Qur'an was that it was poetry or rhymed soothsaying. The people making it knew both genres intimately.
The Islamic position
The Qur'an is neither poetry nor rhymed prose in the technical Arabic sense — it fits no existing genre, which is part of the difficulty.
Analysis
Which genre a text belongs to is the most testable part of this dispute, which is why al-Khattabi and later writers spend time on it. Arabic poetry is defined by the sixteen metres set out by al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, and anyone who knows Arabic can test a text against them; the Qur'an does not fit them. Nor is it saj' (rhymed, rhythmic prose), even though it shares the rhyming clause endings, because saj' bends the sense to keep the pattern while Qur'anic verse endings shift with the subject. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah's reported deliberation captures the problem the Quraysh had: they needed a box to put it in so it could be dismissed, and every available box was visibly the wrong shape.
Side by side
| Arabic poetry (shi'r) | al-Khalil's metres | Fixed metre from a set list, plus a consistent rhyme letter throughout the poem. |
|---|---|---|
| Soothsayers' saj' | rhymed prose | Short rhyming clauses with sound driving the sense; no fixed metre but a held pattern. |
| Ordinary prose | nathr | No metre, no systematic clause-final assonance. |
| Qur'an | — | No metre from any of the sixteen; clause endings assonate but the pattern changes with the subject matter. |
From the Qur'an
وَمَا هُوَ بِقَوْلِ شَاعِرٍۢ ۚ قَلِيلًۭا مَّا تُؤْمِنُونَ وَلَا بِقَوْلِ كَاهِنٍۢ ۚ قَلِيلًۭا مَّا تَذَكَّرُونَ
wamā huwa biqawli shāʿirin qalīlan mā tu'minūna walā biqawli kāhinin qalīlan mā tadhakkarūna
It is not the word of a poet — little do you believe. Nor the word of a soothsayer — little do you remember.
وَمَا عَلَّمْنَـٰهُ ٱلشِّعْرَ وَمَا يَنۢبَغِى لَهُۥٓ ۚ
wamā ʿallamnāhu l-shiʿ'ra wamā yanbaghī lahu
We did not teach him poetry, nor is it fitting for him.
Sources
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