Nay, it is a Warning,
Take heed of it who will,
In leaves, honoured,
Exalted, kept pure
By the hands of scribes worthy and pious,

it is only dogmatic interpretation which finds there a reference to the heavenly archetype of the Qur'an. It is much more natural to take it as a reference to the Bible so carefully preserved by Christians or by Jews. The statement (lxxxv. vv. 21, 22):

Very it is a glorious Qur'an
in a preserved Tablet.

may, and if it is early, I think should be, similarly interpreted, especially as by a mere change of vowel it can be made to read "preserved in a tablet". When we find references in equally early passages to as-suhuf al-ula, the first or former pages, and to suhuf Ibrahim wa Musa, "the pages of Abraham and Moses", or to the "pages of Moses" alone, it is clear that what is in Muhammad's mind is primarily the Revelation as in the hands of men. That is what is so carefully preserved. He has been making inquiries about that revelation, and has learned so much about it. That his sources of information were very restricted and imperfect is shown by the references to "the pages of Abraham".

We shall see later at what stage the idea of the Book given him from Heaven took definite shape in his mind. His original conception of his messages was probably a much more modest one. My own impression is that he began to produce

these geryane or oracles without any very exalted idea of his own prophetic office, and that his prophetic consciousness gradually developed as his mission proceeded, the process being aided by his preoccupation with former prophets. Probably his purpose was to reproduce in Arabic form the gist of what had been revealed to other peoples. There are passages in the Qur'an which are not spoken in the name of God at all. Others, while addressed to the Prophet, are much of the nature of apostrophes to himself, or self-encouragements. It took him some time to acquire the habit of putting the Qur'an in the actual words of God. Even to the end there is a certain awkwardness about it, a statement being frequently put in the mouth of God by the simple device of a command, "Say," addressed to the Prophet. The settled habit ultimately is that God is represented as using the "WE" of majesty, but in earlier passages the first person singular is often used.

For a good deal that the Qur'an contains, Muhammad must have considered that no special revelation was necessary. The recognition of God as the Creator Who had claims upon the grateful service of men, was open to any right-thinking person. His early idea of Revelation was that it had reference to what was otherwise hidden from the knowledge of men. In that early passage so often referred to, Surah xcvi., he speaks of God first as the Creator and then as having "by the pen", i.e. by written revelation, "taught man what he did not know". It is the secrets of the Divine counsel, the Judge-