The First Revelation of the Qur’an: An Analysis of Bell’s the Qur’an Translated with a Critical Rearrangement of the Surahs

Abstract

Since Richard Bell had seriously involved in the studies of the Quran, he had expressed his view on the issues of the Quran back to it’s revelation era. Bell repeatedly denied Muhammad’s prophet hood. Instead, he came up with some profound theories amongst others are the so called Prophetic Experience, Rearrangement of Quran and Written Document. This article examines Bell’s translation and commentary on the first revelation of the Quran which indicate how Bell applies his theory to the first revelation accordingly. This paper serves as a critical evaluation on the translation produced by Bell namely The Quran Translated With a Critical Rearrangement of the Surahs. Other Bell’s scholarly works on the subject are also scrutinized to support his argument and to analyze it’s consistency. Among them are A Commentary on the Quran, Introduction to Quran and The Origin of Islam in It’s Christian Environment. This article begins with special emphasis on Bell’s translation and commentary on the first five verses of Surah al-‘Alaq as it is historically considered as the first Quranic verses revealed to the Prophet SAW. Furthermore, it discusses the theories that had been propounded by Bell in his study on the Quran particularly in relation to the five verses. This article is carried out with substantial inference from authentic references to draw a deductive conclusion on the focused subject matter.