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Жамият ва инновациялар –
Общество и инновации –
Society and innovations
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Moral truths of the Quran in the works of A.S. Pushkin
Albina RAKHMANOVA
1
Navoi State Pedagogical Institute
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received April 2021
Received in revised form
20 April 2021
Accepted 15 May 2021
Available online
15 June 2021
The article examines the problems of studying the moral
truths of the Koran in the works of A. Pushkin, presents the
features of studying one of the main books of mankind, which is
the main code of life for Muslims in the world. Today, in our
opinion, humanity has become convinced from its own
experience that there should be no division of nations, cultures,
religions, that all of us, preserving and respecting the diversity of
cultures, are constituent elements of the entire culture of
humanity.
The Koran is one of the main books of mankind, which is the
main code of life for Muslims in the world. Any religion, like the
Koran, is, first of all, a call to peace. Universal calls for the
chanting of high morality are the basis of each sura and ayah of
the Holy Scriptures. Russian literature has always treated the
culture of the East with deep respect and trepidation. Pushkin,
one of the first who came into contact with the deep Arab poetry,
the beauty and uniqueness of the images of this literature, an
important understanding of the Koran, noted the need to study
this unknown layer of Eastern civilization.
2181-1415/© 2021 in Science LLC.
This is an open access article under the Attribution 4.0 International
(CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru)
Keywords:
Koran,
moral values,
code of basic rules of life,
passion for the East
in Pushkin,
rethinking of life,
transposition of truths.
A.S. Pushkinning asarlaridagi Qur’onning axloqiy haqiqatlari
ANNOTATSIYA
Kalit so‘zlar:
Qur’on,
axloqiy qadriyatlar,
hayotning asosiy qoidalari
kodeksi,
Pushkinda Sharqqa ishtiyoq,
hayotni qayta ko‘rib chiqish,
haqiqatlarni qayta tiklash.
Maqolada A. Pushkin asarlaridagi Qur’on axloqiy haqiqat-
larini o‘rganish muammolari ko‘rib chiqilgan, dunyo musulmon-
lari uchun hayotning asosiy kodi bo‘lgan insoniyatning asosiy
kitoblaridan birini o‘rganishning o‘ziga xos xususiyatlari
keltirilgan. Bugungi kunda, bizning fikrimizcha, insoniyat o‘z
tajribasidan kelib chiqib, millatlar, madaniyatlar, dinlar o‘rtasida
bo‘linish bo‘lmasligi kerakligiga, barchamiz madaniyatlarning
1
Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Russian Language and Literature, Navoi State
Pedagogical Institute, Navoi, Uzbekistan.
E-mail: alya211@list.ru.
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xilma-xilligini
asrab-avaylagan
holda
butun
insoniyat
madaniyatining tarkibiy elementlari ekanligiga amin bo‘ldik.
Qur’on insoniyatning asosiy kitoblaridan biri bo‘lib, dunyo
musulmonlari uchun hayotning asosiy kodidir. Qur’on singari
har qanday din, avvalo, tinchlikka da’vatdir. Muqaddas Bitikning
har bir sura va oyatining asosini yuksak axloqni tarannum
etishga da’vat etuvchi da’vatlar tashkil etadi. Rus adabiyoti har
doim Sharq madaniyatiga chuqur hurmat va qo‘rquv bilan
qaragan. Pushkin, birinchilardan bo‘lib, chuqur arab she’riyatiga,
ushbu adabiyot obrazlarining go‘zalligi va o‘ziga xosligiga,
Qur’onni muhim tushunishga aloqador bo‘lib, Sharq tsivilizat-
siyasining ushbu noma’lum qatlamini o‘rganish kerakligini
ta’kidladi.
Нравственные истины Корана в творчестве А.С. Пушкина
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
Коран,
нравственные ценности,
кодекс основных правил
жизни,
увлеченность Востоком у
Пушкина,
переосмысление жизни,
переложение истин.
В
статье
рассматриваются
проблемы
изучения
нравственных истин Корана в творчестве А. Пушкина,
представляются особенности изучения одной из главных
книг человечества, являющейся основным кодексом жизни
мусульман мира. Сегодня, на наш взгляд, человечество
убедилось на собственном опыте в том, что не должно быть
разделения наций, культур, религий, что все мы, сохраняя и
уважая многообразие культур, являемся составными
элементами всей культуры человечества.
Коран – это одна из главных книг человечества. Любая
религия, так же, как и Коран это, прежде всего, призыв к
миру. Общечеловеческие призывы к воспеванию высокой
нравственности – основа каждой суры и аята Священного
писания. Русская литература всегда с глубоким уважением
и трепетом относилась к культуре Востока. Пушкин, один из
первых, кто соприкоснулся с глубокой арабской поэзией,
красотой и необычностью образов этой литературы,
важным миропониманием Корана, отметил необходимость
изучения этого неизведанного для себя пласта восточной
цивилизации.
INTRODUCTION
Currently, humanity has entered a new era of development, where information
technology, new knowledge, and interactive communications have become key factors in
life. Their materialization, application in human life determines the development of the
country, both socially and spiritually. In this respect, the spiritual and moral truths of the
great Books of mankind – the Bible, the Torah, the Koran – are the most important factor
in the growth of the inner potential of members of society.
XXI century is a time of global changes. In the last twenty years of the new
millennium, due to such problems of humanity as the nuclear threat, natural and human
disasters, the impact of new viruses that have brought the world to the corona virus
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pandemic, the understanding of the importance and fragility of our planet has sharpened,
and this has united many people into a single community. The topic of this article examines
the issues of understanding the singularity and uniqueness of each nation, the importance
and necessity of the boundaries of interaction between East and West, East and Russia, in
particular.
Today, mankind is convinced from its own experience that there should be no
division of nations, cultures, religions, that all of us, preserving and respecting the diversity
of cultures, are constituent elements of the entire culture of mankind, and in this regard,
consideration of the problems of the Koranic influence on Pushkin’s work is important in
terms of understanding the problems of intercultural communication. On the one hand, the
relevance of the article is due to the importance of studying the foundations on which the
intercultural dialogue is based, which is reflected in the literature; on the other hand, the
need to comprehend the peculiarities of the artistic embodiment of the Koranic motives in
the work of the great Russian poet A. Pushkin, which, we hope, can help in identifying a
number of dominants of the artistic understanding of the East in Russian culture and
literature. The need to comprehend the features of the artistic embodiment of this
discourse in Russian literature can help in identifying a number of dominants of the artistic
understanding of the East in Russian culture and literature.
RESEARCH METHODS
Overview and theoretical comprehension and analysis, systematization and
classification, interpretation and conceptual analysis.
RESULT
The Koran is one of the main books of mankind, which is the main code of life for
Muslims in the world. Any religion, like the Koran, is a call to peace. Peace of mind is a call
to God, and God is harmony and unity. That is why the ratio of the word peace and harmony
in the Qur’an is so important. In this sacred work there is no fanaticism and extremism,
there is a constant appeal to reason. Universal calls for the chanting of high morality are
the basis of each sura and ayah of the Holy Scriptures.
Russian literature has always treated the culture of the East with deep respect and
trepidation. Pushkin, one of the first who, having come into contact with deep Arab poetry,
the beauty and uniqueness of the images of this literature, an important understanding of
the Koran, noted the need to study this unknown layer of Eastern civilization. The harmony
and depth, the absence of obvious imitation, the rejection of stylization and external
reproduction of the East, the subtle depths of oriental piety and the ornate style, were
presented by Pushkin in all its specificity and historical concreteness. It should be noted
that Pushkin’s feeling of the East takes into account the different stylistic and national
tonality of this culture.
Today, the concept and acceptance of other forms of perception of the world means
to feel your attitude to the eternal universal principles. And this is one of the most difficult
ways of realizing oneself as involved in the ideas of the revival of mankind. The East, with
its philosophy of a special attitude and extended space, has always attracted the attention
of researchers. His main Book, being the quintessence of eternal spiritual values,
phenomenally combining Islamic spirituality and universal human ideals, becomes the
main measure of the spirituality of the East.
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Discussion. The Koran, being the greatest monument of Islamic spiritual culture,
reflected the sacred tenets and symbols of Muslim civilization. This amazingly strong and
poetic document, carried the basic formulas of the life of Muslims, was the main code of
rules, customs, beliefs, and contained the prescribed rules of the political and spiritual life
of the people’s leaders. As the focus of the main meanings, the Qur’an was a source of
inspiration for the poetic environment of that time.
Describing the world of the divine, the world of secrets and inhuman states, sacred
information about the power of the divine Word attracted Russian poets to the sacred
book. Especially A.S. Pushkin was inspired by the Spirit of the Koran.
The book captivated the poet with its special simplicity and combination of great
truths about life, about the universe, about angels and demons, about eternal, but true laws
of Truth, and the poet, inside whom Genius lived, could not miss these heartfelt lines.
Pushkin and his spirit are facing the beginning of a new transformation; he is deeply
experiencing personal drama (exile and excommunication from St. Petersburg) and, on the
other hand, is looking for his real self. The complex of experiences covers the poet with a
wide canopy; he wants to understand himself, to understand the most important thing that
distinguishes the poet from the average person in life. He worries about how his weighty
word will resonate in the hearts of people. Atheistic hobbies fade into the background; the
most difficult searches for the most important thing in understanding life become the main
issues of his life. During this period, the poet turns to the main books of mankind and he
falls into the hands of the Koran in the Russian translation of M.I. Verevkin (1790) [1].
This translation was made from the French translation of the Quran by Du Rie, 1770.
The Russian translator of the Koran approached the translation of the holy book of
Muslims in an original way, he gave his work a peculiar stylistic form similar to the biblical
Church Slavonic style. “This biblical style was preserved in his imitations by Pushkin,”
Tomashevsky will say later [2,29].
In 1824, in Mikhailovsky, Pushkin created a cycle of unique poems, which became in
his work an act of a great rethinking of the ideas and truths of the Holy Quran. These were
"Imitations of the Koran", where Pushkin immediately defined the genre of his amazing
poems. The free transcriptions undertaken by the poet preserved the most important
essence of the sacred book, its Spirit and Letter, the innermost meanings.
This great book, based on revelations, amazes the poet with its special style and
depth of content. Pushkin penetrates into the inner structure of the verse of the Koran,
feels the power and pressure of the truth of the verses, is imbued with the sacred power of
the revelations of Allah. Awe, metaphoric, meaningfulness, depth and closeness of images
that require meaningful and conscious reading; distinguish each line of Pushkin’s text:
I swear by odd and couple
I swear by the sword and the right battle
I swear by the morning star
I swear by the evening prayer:
No, I have not left you.
Whom in the shadow of tranquility
I introduced him, loving him,
And hid from vigilant persecution?
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I didn’t drink thirst on the day
Desert waters for you?
I didn’t give your tongue
Mighty power over minds?
Take heart, despise deception,
Follow the path of truth cheerfully
Love the orphans and my Koran
Preach the trembling creature [2, I, 321].
Undoubtedly, the researchers considering these parts of Pushkin’s text have a
question about the real correlation of “Imitations of the Koran” with the most sacred Book.
The problem of the correlation of “Imitations” with the original has been repeatedly
subjected to careful study, since the process of correlation is, first of all, a question of the
reality and truthfulness of the experiences of the poet himself. Researchers believe that
Pushkin was close enough to translating the Koran, he used 81 verses from 33 different
suras of the Koran [2, 31]. Of course, this is evidence of the poet’s interest not in an idle
sense, it is an active search for the Genius of the meaning and truth of life. It should be
noted that Pushkin does not look for exotic things in the Koran, as, say, Goethe did in his
“West-Eastern Divan”. There is a strict comprehension of one’s life and a search for
meaning with an orientation towards another, no less great, explanation of life. Pushkin
understands that by discovering the truth about other forms of being and a different
universe, he comprehends a different formula of life, clearly opposite to the northern
mentality and people. As a great poet, he is not only surprised by other forms of life, he is
attracted, inspired, shocked and amazed by the desert forms of life of the Arabs. This is
where such heartfelt and important poems, original and unusual images, oaths,
arrangements come from: “I swear by the odd and couple, I swear by the morning prayer,
I swear by the evening prayer, etc”. [3, I, 321].
Pushkin penetrates deeply into the syllable and style of ornate oriental poetry, he is
stunned by the truth revealed by the new national culture at a certain period of its
historical development. Poetically, Pushkin strongly conveys the power of Allah,
interestingly and vividly represents the pacification of human pride:
Anciently with you, O omnipotent,
The mighty one imagined to compete,
Exuberant mad pride;
But you, Lord, humbled him.
You ryok: I give life to the world,
I will punish the earth with death,
My hand is lifted for everything.
I also, he roar, give life,
And I also punish with death:
With you, God, I am equal.
But the boast of vice has ceased
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From the word of your anger:
I will raise the sun from the east;
Lift it up from sunset! [3, IV, 323]
Pushkin was always worried about questions of spiritual renunciation, deep
questions of conscience, wisdom, selflessness. He understood that speaking about them in
“Imitation of the Koran, he did not discover anything new in their mentality; he knew that
these were common human problems and the high folk wisdom of the human. The
generosity of the soul, wherever and by whom it is presented, will always remain a
manifestation of love for one’s neighbor, and this is always a highly valued virtue...
Trading conscience in the face of pale poverty,
Do not rash your gifts with a calculating hand:
Full bounty is pleasing to heaven.
On the day of the terrible judgment, like a fat field,
Oh, happy sower!
She will reward the story of your labors.
But if, having regretted the labors of earthly gains,
Handing over to the beggar a meager alms,
You squeeze your envious hand, -
Know: all your gifts are like a dusty handful,
That plentiful rain washes off the stone,
Disappear – the Lord’s rejected tribute. [2, VIII, 325].
Noble simplicity, fullness of meaning, feeling of figurative metaphor, and
understanding of the spirit and essence of the Book, respect and awareness of the
greatness of meaning is felt in every line of Pushkin’s poetic creation.
Pushkin creates a kind of poetic document intended for everyone, regardless of faith
and nationality. In this regard, one cannot but agree with Dostoevsky, who argued that
Pushkin “one of all the world’s poets has the ability to reincarnate a completely alien
nationality” [4]. In front of us is "Imitation of the Koran" in which there is no feeling of
someone else’s dissent, there is no downward glance, but there is respect and awareness
of the greatness of what is being read. N.V. Gogol, speaking about the poet’s response to
other cultures, wrote:
“And how faithful is his response, how sensitive is his ear! You hear the smell, the
color of the earth, the time of the people. In Spain he is a Spaniard, with a Greek he is a
Greek, in the Caucasus he is a free mountaineer in the full sense of the word” [5, 109].
CONCLUSION
Thus, Pushkin always looked with interest at the East, his desire to adopt, respond,
reincarnate is not only a tribute to character, mood, charisma, it is a question of the
fundamental possibility of objectively establishing the evolution or stability of
intercultural communication of different artistic spaces; to study and reveal the genre and
style originality of the embodiment of the Koranic motives at different stages of the
development of the intercultural civilization of the East and Russia. Analyzing the works
of the above authors, considering the unique gift of the poet’s reincarnation, we came to
the following conclusions:
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“Imitations of the Koran” by Pushkin is an independent work of fiction that
reinterprets the text and truth of the Holy Book in a new way;
this work of Pushkin is a deep understanding and recreation of the inner essence
of those events and characters, which he becomes a witness;
through the great truths of the Koran, Pushkin rethinks his being, answers the
questions of his life, with a sparse restraint in the spirit of the Koran, represents the
richness and content of this unique example of true humanism and love for people;
his poetic samples, helped many to understand the historical and cultural
originality of the East, to feel the severe exaltation of the poetry of the Koran, to plunge
into the depths of secret, sacred meanings, to feel the thrill of understanding the great;
it was these transcriptions that laid the foundation for the conscious perception of
the great book in Russian literature, which for a millennium is the genetic code of the great
truth of the last message of God to mankind;
the problem of the evolution of the concept of Pushkin’s Koranic motives in the
history of Russian literature of the 19th century is the beginning of creative
comprehension of complex issues of intercultural interaction between Russia and the East.
REFERENCES:
1.
The book of Al-Qur’an of the Arab Mahomet, who in the sixth century gave himself
out as the last and greatest of the prophets of God sent down to him from heaven (author
per. M.I Verevkin, St. Petersburg, 1790).
2.
Tomashevsky B. Pushkin. (in 2 books) – M.; L., 1961. Book 2. – P. 29. http://feb-
web.ru/feb/classics/critics/tomashevsky_b/tp/tp2-001-.htm.
3.
Pushkin A.S. Essays in three volumes. – Vol. 1. – M., 1985. – P. 321.
4.
Dostoevsky F. Sobr. soch. v 10 t. M.: Khud. lit., 1958. – P. 456.
5.
Merezhkovsky D. Pushkin. M., 1999. – P. 109.
