Page:The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930).pdf/30

 most devout students of the Revelation. The Koran has thus been very carefully preserved.

The arrangement is not easy to understand. Revelations of various dates and on different subjects are to be found together in one sûrah; verses of Madînah revelation are found in Meccan sûrahs; some of the Madînah sûrahs, though of late revelation, are placed first and the very early Meccan sûrahs at the end. But the arrangement is not haphazard, as some have hastily supposed. Closer study will reveal a sequence and significance&mdash;as, for instance, with regard to the placing of the very early Meccan sûrahs at the end. The inspiration of the Prophet progressed from inmost things to outward things, whereas most people find their way through outward things to things within.

There is another peculiarity which is disconcerting in translation though it proceeds from one of the beauties of the original, and is unavoidable without abolishing the verse-division of great importance for reference. In the Arabic the verses are divided according to the rhythm of the language. When a certain sound which marks the rhythm recurs there is a strong pause and the verse ends naturally, although the sentence may go on to the next verse or to several subsequent verses. That is of the spirit of the Arabic language; but attempts to reproduce such rhythm in English have the opposite effect to that produced by the Arabic. Here only the division is preserved, the verses being divided as In the Koran, and numbered.