Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/58

 him called Islam. Let us beware, however, of supposing that the Veda occupies exactly the position of a Bible to the Hindus, or that it is to them precisely what the Avasta is to the Parsis or the Kuran to Muslims. Such a notion must lead to some confusion of thought in studying these very different religious systems. For the word Avasta probably signifies 'the settled text' delivered by Zoroaster (properly Zarathustra, and in Persian Zardusht), which was written down and accompanied with its commentary and paraphrases in Pahlavll; as in the Hebrew sacred writings, the Old Testament was furnished with its accompaniments of Chaldee translations and paraphrases called Targums.

Again, the word Kuran means emphatically ' the reading ' or ' that which ought to be read by every one V and is applied to a single volume, manifestly the work of one author, which, according to Muhammad, descended entire from heaven in the night called Al Kadr3, in the month called Eamazan, though alleged to have been revealed to him by the angel Gabriel at different times, and chapter by chapter. In fact, Muhammad affirmed that, being himself illiterate, he was specially directed and miraculously empowered by God to commit the revelation to writing for the spread of the true faith. (See Introd. xli-xliii.)

1 Pahlavl is a later Iranian dialect which followed on Zand and the old Persian of the inscriptions, and led to Pars! or Pazand and the Persian of Firdausi. The word Zand at first denoted commentary, and was afterwards applied to the language.

2 (jl^S qur'an, ' reading,' is the verbal noun of the Arabic root qara'a, ' to read.' In the 96th chapter of the Kuran the command is twice repeated, ' Read, in the name of thy Lord,' ' Read, by thy most beneficent Lord, who taught the use of the pen.'

3 That is, 'the night of qadr or power.' The 97th chapter of the Kuran begins thus, 'Verily we sent down the Kuran in the night of Al Kadr.' Sec Sale's translation.