An Glance at Social Criticism in the Quran

A brief look at the Holy Quran would clearly show that some of its verses have been revealed in criticizing the pagan (jāhilī) community contemporary to the time of Revelation, a criticism that is free from the deficiencies and defects of human criticism. Different kinds of criticisms – such as social, literary, historical, and psychological – are seen in the Holy Quran and this allows us to name the Quran as the first book of the Muslims. Although the appellations of many of the above-mentioned criticisms are newly devised, most of them are in truth rooted in the Quran. The present research is a brief glance at the most significant features of social criticism in the Quran and its difference with a human-type criticism as well as statement of various methods used by the Quran in examining the pagan and Islamic conducts of that era. In this respect, the writers examine the issue of bounty and generosity with the pagan Arabs and conclude that their attribute of generosity is not as strong as it has become known to be and the attribution of generosity to the pre-Islamic Arabs has been greatly exaggerated. The writer's reasons for this claim is the writings of some historians, Nahj al-Balāgha, the thoughts and behavior of the vagabonds and tramps (ṣ‘ālīk), and more important of all reference to the Holy Quran. That is to say, contrary to the pagan poetry that usually introduces the Arabs as very generous, the Quran's emphasis on the necessity of infāq (spend in charity) would reveal a kind of contradiction to the contemporary reader in a reverse balance manner.